CAMINO de SANTIAGO de COMPOSTELA

Verses by Eugenio Garibay painted on a wall on the outskirts of Najera on the Camino Frances, the pilgrim way across Northern Spain ( translation by Ian Bradley)

SANTIAGO 105

Dust,mud, sun and rain

Is the Camino de Santiago.

Thousands of pilgrims

And more than a thousand years

********************

Pilgrim, who calls you?

What hidden force attracts you?

Not the field of the stars;

Nor the grand cathedrals.

*****************

It is not the courage of Navarra

Nor the wine of the Riochas

Nor the seafood of Galicia

Nor the plains of Castile.

**********************

Pilgrim who calls you?

What hidden force attracts you?

It is not the people of the Camino

Nor the rural customs.

***************

It is not the history and culture,

It is not the cock of La Calzoda

Nor the palace of Gaudi

Nor the Ponferrada Castle

*********************

I see them all as I pass

And it is a delight to see everything

But the voice that calls to me

I feel much more deeply

******************

The force which pushes me,

The force which attracts me,

I cannot explain it.

Only He who is above knows it.