Last night, as I was sleeping,

I dreamt – marvelous error!-

that a spring was breaking

out in my heart.

I said: Along which secret aqueduct,

Oh water, are you coming to me,

water of a new life that I have never drunk?

 

Last night, as I was sleeping,

I dreamt – marvelous error! –

that I had a beehive

here inside my heart.

And the golden bees

were making white combs

and sweet honey

from my old failures.

 

Last night, as I was sleeping,

I dreamt – marvelous error! –

that a fiery sun was giving

light inside my heart.

It was fiery because I felt

warmth as from a hearth,

and sun because it gave light

and brought tears to my eyes.

 

Las night, as I was sleeping,

I dreamt – marvelous error! –

that it was God I had

here inside my heart.

Antonio Machado 1875 -1939

The land of our dreams – how many strange and wonderful and frightening experiences happen there as our souls travel over its ever-changing landscape each night. Sometime we dream of people or places we knew years ago; sometimes we play out different scenarios for long-forgotten events; and sometimes we feel such a longing inside for what we dare not name it feels as if our hearts will break.

Machado’s dream is so profound, the poet thinks it must be a mistake – a marvelous error! A new life, a second chance, a transformation of failure into joy are all possible now for a ‘fiery warmth’ and light offers him another vision – one in which the God whom he thought so far away, was, in fact, in his very heart.

There is in all of us, I think, an icy dam, a protection that time and isolation builds up in our hearts. If we are lucky, at some point, the dam is finally breached. In that moment sweet honey and pure water and an eternal light shines through and our very hearts are transformed into the Beloved.

The more I read the poetry of Antonio Machado, the more I am captivated by him.  Here is a link to a haunting audio/visual of this poem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNfSKMlNquE