Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) - Original name Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto
This
Chilean poet, and diplomat, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.
His original name was Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, but he used the pen name
Pablo Neruda for over 20 years before adopting it legally in 1946. Neruda is
the most widely read of the Spanish American poets. From the 1940s on, his
works reflected the political struggle of the left and the socio-historical
developments in
South America
. He also wrote
love poems. Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924) have
sold over a million copies since it first appeared.
"Sucede que me canso de ser hombre.
Sucede
que entro es las sasterías y en los cines
marchito,
impenetrable, como un cisne de fieltro
navegando
en un agua de origen y ceniza."
(from ‘Walking Around’)
(I happen to be tired of
being a man
I happen to enter tailor shops and movie houses
withered, impenetrable, like a felt swan
navigating in a water of sources and ashes.)
Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto was born in Parral, a small town in central
Chile
. His
father, don José del Carmen Reyes Morales, was a poor railway worker and his
mother, Rosa Basoalto de Reyes, was a schoolteacher, who died of tuberculosis
when Neruda was an infant. Don José Carmen moved with his sons in 1906 to
Temuco
, and married
Trinidad Candia Marvedre. Neruda started to write poetry when he was ten years
old. At the age of 12 he met the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral, who
encouraged his literary efforts. The American poet Walt Whitman, whose framed
portrait Neruda later kept on his table, become a major influence on his work.
"I, a poet who writes in Spanish, learned more from Walt Whitman than from
Cervantes," Neruda said in 1972 in a speech during a visit in the
United States
.
Neruda’s first serious literary achievement, an article, appeared in 1917 in
the magazine La Manana. It was followed by the poem, ‘Mis ojos’, which
appeared in 1918 in Corre-Vuela. In 1920 he published poems in the
magazine Selva Austral, using the pen name Pablo Neruda to avoid
conflict with his family, who disapproved his literary ambitions. From 1921 he
studied French at the Instituto Pedagógico in
Santiago
. In 1924 Neruda gained international
fame as an writer with VEINTE POEMAS DE AMOR Y UNA CANCÍON, which is his most
widely read work.
At the age of only 23 Neruda was appointed by the Chilean government as
consul to
Burma
(now
Myanmar
). He
held diplomatic posts in various East Asian and European Countries, befriending
among others the Spanish poet Federico
García Lorca. Neruda continued to write for several literary and other
magazines, among them La Nación, El Sol, and Revista de
Occidente. He also started to edit in 1935 a literary magazine, Caballo
Verde para la Poesía.
"We did meet forty
years ago. At that time we were both influenced by Whitman and I said, jokingly
in part, ‘I don’t think anything can be done in Spanish, do you?’ Neruda
agreed, but we decided it was too late for us to write our verse in English.
We’d have to make the best of a second-rate literature." (from Jorge
Luis Borges: Conversations, ed. by Richard Burgin, 1998)
After Neruda ended his affair with the possessive and violently jealous
Josie Bliss, he married in 1930 María Antonieta Hagenaar, a Dutch woman who
couldn’t speak Spanish; they separated in 1936. At that time Neruda lived in
Paris
, where he published
with Nancy Cunard the journal Los Poetas del Mundo Defiende al Pueblo
Español. Nancy Cunard was the sole inheritor of the famous Cunard shipping
company, who later followed Neruda to
Chile
with a bullfighter. Her
mother disinherited her when she escaped from high society with a black
musician. In the 1930s and 1940s Neruda lived with the Argentine painter Delia
del Carril, who encouraged Neruda to participate in politics. Neruda and Delia del
Carril married in 1943, but the marriage was not recognized in
Chile
; they
separated in 1955. Neruda married in 1966 the Chilean singer Matilde Urrutia.
She was the inspiration of much of Neruda’s later poetry, among others One
Hundred Love Sonnets (1960).
Neruda’s first volume of RECIDENCIA EN LA TIERRE (1933) was a visionary
work, written in the
Far East
but emerging
from the birth of European fascism. During his Marxist period, Neruda rejected
the Residencia (1933, 1935, 1947) cycle, but in 1960 he urged to include
poems from the work to an anthology of his verse. In 1935-36 he was in
Spain
but he
resigned from his post because he sided with the Spanish Republicans. After the
leftist candidate don Pedro Aguirre Cerda won the presidental election, Neruda
again was appointed consul, this time to
Paris
,
where he helped Spanish refugees by re-settling them in
Chile
.
In 1942 Neruda visited
Cuba
and read for the first time his poem, ‘Canto de amor para Stalingrado’, which
praised the Red Army fighting in
Stalingrad
.
His daughter, Malva Marina, died in the same year in
Europe
.
Neruda joined the Communist Party, and in 1945 he was elected to the Chilean
Senate. He attacked President González Videla in print and when the government
was taken by right-wing extremists, he fled to
Mexico
. He travelled to the
Soviet Union
, where he was warmly received, and in other
Eastern European countries. Neruda was especially impressed by the vastness of
Russia
, its
birch forests, and rivers. He met Ilya Ehrenburg, whose home was full of works
by Picasso, and the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, who lived in exile in
Moscow
. The
Soviet Union
was for Neruda a country, where libraries,
universities, and theatres were open for all. He referred to dogmatic views in
the Soviet art, but optimistically believed that the views had been condemned.
Neruda’s colleagues also read him Boris Pasternak’s poems but they did not
forget to mention that Pasternak was considered as a political reactionary.
In exile Neruda produced CANTO GENERAL (1950), a monumental work of 340
poems. "Come up with me,
American love. / Kiss these secret stones with me. / The torrential silver of
the
Urubamba
/ makes the pollen fly to its
golden cup. The hollow of the bindweed’s maze, the petrified plant, the
inflexible garland, soar above the silence of these mountain coffers." (From ‘The Heights of Macchu Picchu’.) In this
work Neruda examined Latin American history from a Marxist point of view, and
showed his deep knowledge about the history, geography and politics of the
continent. The central theme is the struggle for social justice. Canto
general includes Neruda’s famous poem ‘Alturas de Macchu Picchu’, which was
born after he visited the Incan ruins of Macchu Picchu in 1943. In it Neruda
aspires to become the voice of the dead people who once lived in the city.
"I want to know, salt
of the roads,
show me the spoon - architecture, let me
scratch at the stamens of stone with a
little stick,
ascend the rungs of the air up to the
void,
scrape the innards until I touch
mankind."
(from ‘The Heights of Macchu Picchu’)
While in exile, Neruda travelled in
Italy
, where he lived for a while.
After the victory of the anti-Videla forces and the order to arrest leftist was
rescinded, Neruda returned to
Chile
.
In 1953 Neruda was awarded the Stalin Prize. He remained faithful to "el
partido" when other intellectual had rejected
Moscow
’s leash; poetry was not for Neruda
simply an expression of emotions and personality, it was "a deep inner
calling in man; from it came liturgy, the psalms, and also the content of
religions." (from Memoirs, 1974).
However, Neruda’s faith was deeply shaken in 1956 by Khrushchev’s revelation at
the Twentieth Party Congress of the crimes committed during the Stalin regime.
His collection EXTRAVAGARIO (1958) reflects this change in his works. In it
Neruda turned to his youth. He presents the reader with his daily life and
examines critically his Marxist beliefs. During a visit to
Buenos Aires
in 1957 Neruda was arrested and he
spent a restless night in jail. Just before he was released, a policeman gave
him a poem, devoted to the famous author.
Establishing a permanent home on the Isla Negra, Neruda continued to travel
extensively, visiting
Cuba
in 1960 and the
United
States
in 1966. When Salvador Allende was
elected president, he appointed Neruda as
Chile
’s
ambassador to
France
(1970-72). Neruda died of leukemia in
Santiago
on 23 September in 1973. His death was probably accelerated by the murder of
Allende and tragedies caused by Pinochet coup. After Neruda’s death his home in
Valparaiso
and
Santioago were robbed. During his long literary career, Neruda produced more
than forty volumes of poetry, translations, and verse drama. Neruda is
recognized to be among the major poets of the 20th century. Positive criticism
have not managed to soften the edges of his vision.
"He was once referred
as the Picasso of poetry, alluding to his protean ability to be always in the
vanguard of change. And he himself has often alluded to his personal struggle
with his own tradition, to his constant need to search for a new system in each
book." (Rene de Costa in The
Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 1979)
For further reading: Pablo Neruda
by Raúl Silva Castro (1964); El viajero immóvil by Emir Rodríguez Monegal
(1966); The Word and the Stone by Frank Reiss (1972); Pablo Neruda
by Salvatore Bizzaro (1979); The Poetry of Pablo Neruda by René de Costa
(1979); Pablo Neruda by Marjorie Agosín (1986); The Late Poetry of
Neruda by Christopher Perriam (1989); Pablo Neruda by Luis Poirot
(1990); Neruda: an Intimate Biography by Volodia Teitelboim (1991); Poet-Chief:
The Native American Poetics of Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda by James Nolan
(1994); Pablo Neruda and the U.S. Culture Industry, ed. by Teresa Longo
(2001); Pablo Neruda: A Biography by Adam Feinstein (2004) - Suom.:
Runovalikoimat Runoja, Andien mainingit, Meren ja yön portit,
Valitut runot. Loki julkaisi 1999 Nerudan Kysymysten kirjan, pelkistä kysymyksistä
koostuvan runoteoksen. "Miksi sateenvarjojen kongressit aina
pidetän Lontoossa?"
Selected works:
- CREPUSCULARIO, 1923
- VEINTE POEMAS DE AMOR Y UNA
CANCÍON DESESPERADA, 1924 - Twenty Love Songs and a Song of Despair - ed.: PÁGINAS ESCOGIDAS DE
ANATOLEFRANCE
,
1924 - RESIDENCIA EN LA TIERRA
(1925-31) - Residence on Earth - TENTIVA DEL HOMBRE INFINITO, 1926 - Attempt
of the Infinite Man - ANILLOS, 1926 - Rings
- EL HABITANTE Y SU ESPERANZA, 1926
- EL HONDERO ENTUSIASTA, 1933
- Enthusiastic Slingshooter - RECIDENCIA EN LA TIERRE,
1933-35 - Residence on Earth - ESPAÑA EN EL CORAZÓN, 1937
(Espagne au coeur, foreword by Luis Aragon) - LAS FURIAS Y LAS PENAS,
1939 - NERUDA ENTRE NOSOTROS, 1939
- ‘Un canto para Bolívar’,
1941 - ‘Canto de amor para Stalingrado’, 1942
- ‘Nuevo canto de amor a Stalingrado’, 1943
- CANTOS DE PABLO NERUDA,
1943 - SUS MEJORES VERSOS, 1943
- SELECCIÓN, 1943 (ed. by
Arturo Aldunante Phillips) - Selected Poems, 1944
- SALUDO AL NORTE Y A STALINGRADO, 1945
- CUATRO DISCURSOS, 1945
(with others) - TERCERA RESIDENCIA, 1947
- RESIDENCIA EN LA TIERRA,
1947 - DULCE PATRIA, 1949
- CANTO GENERAL, 1950 - Canto General / General
Song - LOS VERSOS DEL CAPITÁN,
1952 - The Captain’s Verses - TODO EL AMOR, 1953
- POESÍA POLÍTICA, 1953 (2
vols.) - Le chant général, 1954
(ill. by Fernand Léger) - Pablo Neruda, choix de
poèmes, 1954 (ed. and trans. by Jean Marcenac) - Tout l’amour, 1954 (ed. by
Pierre Segners) - LAS UVAS Y EL VIENTO, 1954
- ODAS ELEMENTALES I-III,
1954-57 - Elementary Odes - NUEVAS ODAS ELEMENTALES,
1956 - TERCER LIBRO DE LAS ÓDAS,
1957 - OBRAS COMPLETAS, 1957
- ESTRAVAGARIO, 1958 -
Extravagaria - NAVEGACIONES Y REGRESOS,
1959 - CIEN SONETOS
DEL
AMOR, 1960 -
One Hundred Love Sonnets - CANSIÓN DE GESTA, 1960 -
Song of Protest - LAS PIEDRAS DE
CHILE
, 1960 - Stones of
Chile
- CANTOS CEREMONIALES, 1960
- Selected Poems of Pablo
Neruda, 1961 - PLENOS PODERES, 1962 -
Fully Empowered - SUMARIO, 1963
- MEMORIAL DE LA ISLA NEGRA,
1964 (5 vols.) - Isla Negra, A Notebook - ARTE DE PÁJAROS, 1966 - Art
of Birds - LA CASA DE ARENA, 1966 -
The House in the Sand - FALGOR Y MUERTE DE JOAQUÍN
MURIETA, 1967 - The Splendour and Death of Joaquín Murieta - LAS MANOS DEL DÍA, 1968
- COMIENDO EN HUNGARÍA, 1969
- Sentimental Journey around the Hungarian Cuisine - FIN DEL MUNDO, 1969
- AÚN, 1969
- Early Poems, 1969
- A New Decade, 1969
- AÚN, 1969 - Still Another
Day - LA ESPADA ENCENDIDA, 1970
- LAS PIEDRAS DEL CIELO, 1970
- Stones of the Skies - GEOGRAFÍA INFRUCTUOSA, 1972
- OBRAS COMPLETAS, 1973 ( 3
vols.) - CONFIESO QUE HE VIVIDO, 1973 - Memoirs -
Tunnustan eläneeni - INCITACIÓN AL NIXONCIDIO Y
ALABANZA DE LA REVOLUCÍON CHILENA, 1973 - A Call for the Destruction of
Nixon and Praise for the Chilean Revolution - 2000, 1974 - translated as
2000 - EL MAR Y LAS CAMPANAS, 1974
- The Sea and the Bells - ELEGÍA, 1974
- Five Decades, 1974
- EL CORAZÓN
AMARILLO
, 1974
- EL LIBRO DE PREGUNTAS, 1974
- JARDÍN DE INVIERNO, 1974 -
Winter Garden - LA ROSA SEPARADA, 1974 - The Separate Rose
- DEFECTOS ESCOGIDOS, 1974
-
PARA
NACER HE NACIDO, 1977 - Passions and Impressions
- EL FIN DE VIAJE, 1982
- Late and Posthumous Poems
1968-1975, 1988 - Pablo Neruda: Selected
Poems, 1990 (trans. by Anthony Kerrigan) - The Poetry of Pablo Neruda,
2003 (ed. by Ilan Stavans) - The Essential Neruda, 2004
(ed. by Mark Eisner)
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/neruda.htm
