"The Saeta"

Antonio Machado

Who will lend me a ladder

to climb the tree

and pull out the nails

from Jesus the Nazarene?

     Popular saeta in Spain

Oh, the saeta, the song
to the Christ of the Gypsies,
always with bleeding hands,
always nailed to the cross!
The chant of Andalusia,
where every spring
they ask for ladders
to climb that tree!
Song of my homeland,
where they toss flowers
to Jesus in agony,
the faith of my elders!
Oh, you are not my song!
I cannot and will not sing
to this Jesus nailed to wood,
but to the one who walked on the sea.

Antonio Machado, 1917
translated by Paul Burns and Salvador Ortiz-Carboneres

The saeta is a popular form of flamenco; the word means "arrow" in Spanish. Saetas are traditionally sung from balconies in praise of figures of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the saints, as they are carried through the streets of Andalusia during Holy Week.

Although Lorca is more frequently translated and better known among English speakers, Machado, who was Lorca's mentor, is equally revered in Spain.

• "La Saeta" in Spanish
• Joan Manuel Serrat's famous musical version of the poem
  
• Machado's poem on the death of Federico Garcia Lorca
• More about Antonio Machado from the Poetry Foundation
  
• A recent study of Machado's poetry

Drawing of Machado by Leandro Oroz (1925)