Manuel Machado — a remark

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“My earliest memory is of myself, aged a year and a half or two, in my grandparents' courtyard in Seville, playing with a lovely, utterly gentle Angora cat that retreats from my caresses onto a stool upholstered in black gutta-percha, barely within reach of my mischievous little hands.”

Original: La primera imagen mía que yo conservo en la memoria me representa de edad de año y medio o dos años en el patio de la casa de mis abuelos, en Sevilla, jugando con una preciosa—y mansísima—gata de Angora, que se refugia de mis caricias sobre una banqueta forrada de gutapercha negra, a la que apenas alcanzo con mis manecillas revoltosas. — The opening of his academy address, tracing his… · Unos versos, un alma y una época, RAE induction speech, 1938 (Spanish)

About Manuel Machado

Manuel Machado

29 August 1874–19 January 1947

Manuel Machado was born on August 29, 1874, in the heart of Seville, Spain, at number 20 on San Pedro Mártir Street, into a household that pulsed with the rhythms of Andalusian folklore and intellectual curiosity. His arrival came at two-thirty in the morning, under the warm embrace of a city where orange blossoms…

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“I do not know what unfortunate obsession drove me at that time to bare my soul before the public's consideration, or disregard, which was more likely.”

Original: No sé qué infausta monomanía me acuciaba en aquella época a desnudar mi alma ante la pública consideración o desconsideración, que era más probable. — Looking back ruefully on the exposure of private experience in his earlier writing · Academy address, Semi-poesía y posibilidad, 1938 (Spanish)

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