from Alan Trueblood’s introduction to his translation of Selected Poems of Antonio Machado

“In my view, translators cannot be divided, as they often are, into two bands: the academic and the creative. This book is, among other things, an attempt to close a supposed gap.”

“Translation, as disciplined re-creation, cannot but sharpen one’s perceptions of the many-faceted creative activity that has preceded it. […]I have sought to give Machado’s voice an English embodiment without surrendering too much of its Spanish timbre. My aim, like that of most literary translators, has been to enlarge the experience of poetry open to English-speaking readers by unblocking one more current of expression originating outside their traditional domain.”