Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
Pablo Neruda, the Chronicler of All Things
Author(s): Jaime Alazraki
Source: Books Abroad, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Winter, 1972), pp. 49-54
Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
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Commentaries
Pablo Neruda, the Chronicler
of all Things
By JAIME ALAZRAKI
those familiar with Pablo Neruda's work and his literary career the recent award
of the Nobel Prize for literature comes as no surprise. For nearly twenty years his
name has been among the candidates considered by the Swedish Academy for the
coveted prize. Any student of Latin American literature knows that if one were to
choose a poet who best echoed the hopes and struggles of a whole continent, this poet
would undoubtedly be Pablo Neruda. What is not so self-evident, however, is the
fact that Neruda's work has been a sort of seismograph through which one could
learn what was happening not only in the poetry of Latin America but also in con-
temporary poetry at large.
If with Ruben Dario and the modernist poets Latin America shapes a poetic lan-
guage of its own, with Neruda and the poets of his generation that poetic language
reaches adulthood. Neruda himself has said, referring to Dario: "Without him we
would not speak our own tongue, that is, without him we would still be talking a
hardened, pasteboard, tasteless language" (Viajes). It is not surprising, therefore, to
find in Neruda's first published book - Crepusculario (Twilight Book, 1923) - clear
imprints of Dario's dazzling brilliance "which so radically modified the Spanish
language."
With the publication of Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada
(Twenty Love Poems and One Song of Despair) one year later, Neruda gave ex-
pression to a new poetic mood. Love is no longer approached as in modernism by way
of mythological gods and godesses, nymphs and satyrs, Sirens and Tritons. In a much
more straightforward fashion, Neruda takes the reader to the scene where love is
being made and describes, uninhibitedly, a true feast of the senses, at times splashed
with suggestive birds, wild flowers, woods, cherries, and chestnuts reminiscent of
Tagore's poem which the young poet was then reading. With this brief collection
Neruda won an early popularity that he has enjoyed ever since and his name became
a myth among youngsters and lovers.
From this openly romantic tone, he moved to a totally different form. At ap-
proximately the same time the first Surrealist Manifesto appeared, Neruda wrote a
long poem - Tentativa del hombre infinite (Venture of Infinite Man) - published in
1925, which bears all the traits of surrealist theory. The paradox can be explained if
one remembers that Neruda was then reading the French romantic and symbolist
poets who were later to become the major sources of many surrealist innovations
and techniques. The little book was ignored (even today it has remained as one of
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50 BOOKS ABROAD
his least studied works), but for Neruda it paved the road to the poe
en la tierra (Residence on Earth), one of his finest achievements.
The two volumes of Residencia contain poems written betwee
Unlike most surrealist poets of that period Neruda did not attempt to
or illustrate any manifesto. He sought more effective means to expr
loneliness and an altogether bitter and absurd view of life; he fo
means in surrealism. He did not have any commitment to surrea
literary school. His only commitment was to his world of experience
he put it in blunt words the year he published Tentativa: "Yo t
dramatico de la vida, y romantico; no me corresponde lo que no llega
a mi sensibilidad." The result was a poetry in which form and experi
grate, bringing forth a poetic equilibrium one misses in much of the
realist poetry. Neruda was not then, and has never been, interested i
with form for its own sake. Form was to him, as it has always b
ages, the flesh through which experience is born in the lines of
approach to literature which, perhaps, preserved the poetry of Reside
drabness one often finds in surrealist poetry. It is also his response
bilities, no matter how gloomy they may be in the poems of Residen
ably moved one critic to state that they are "the greatest surrealist
in a western language." One may agree with such a verdict, but the f
while a great deal of surrealist poetry has aged and become merely o
curiosity, the poems of Residencia have kept an urgency which i
poetry at its best. Miguel Hernandez - a Spanish poet of Neruda's gen
after his reading of Residencia: "I must communicate the enthus
since I have read Residencia en la tierra. I feel like throwing handful
eyes, like getting my fingers caught in the doors, like climbing to th
est and tallest pine
A great deal of poetry included in Residencia was written w
isolated from his people and his language in countries such as Bur
and Ceylon as the consul of Chile from 1927 to 1932. In 1934 he w
same consular post in Barcelona, and the year after in Madrid.
years in Spain, and particularly after the Civil war broke ou
"poetic conversion" of Neruda took place. With Espana en el c
Heart, 1937) the seemingly hermetic texture of his poetry yielded
tional language with which the poet explained the motives of
poem titled "Explico algunas cosas" (Explaining a Few Things
in an agonizing Spain flooded by gunpowder and blood, burn
sacked and broken there was no place for exquisite poetry:
Preguntareis por que su poesia
no nos habla del sueno, de las hojas,
de los grandes volcanes de su pais natal?
Venid a ver la sangre por las calles,
venid a ver
la sangre por las calles,
venid a ver la sangre
por las calles!
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ALAZRAKI 51
The truth is that Neruda's poetry was never exquisite. In fact h
the concept of "impure poetry" (as opposed to the French idea
which best defines his own poetic credo. Before and after the "
poetry was and remained open to human experience. Before, it air
solitude and anguish, but at the same time it revealed what wa
the heart of modern man. Afterward, his poetry moved from
inner ego to the emotions of the outer world. Neruda could n
detached from the conflicts and problems of his time. When he to
Loyalists, he did so shocked by the bloody violence of the war
convinced by political arguments. What happened to him happened
of well established poets and writers from many parts of the
produced a drastic turn in the themes of his poetry and the turn
vorite motif. He treated it again and again in order to present
poetic faith. In 1942, while he was in Mexico as the consul of Chile
of solidarity with the defense of Stalingrad. When the poetic valu
questioned, Neruda answered by writing a new poem - "Nuev
Stalingrado" as well as his own "committed" poetry : "Yo escribi so
el agua / describi el luto y su metal morado, / yo escribi sobre el
ahora escribo sobre Stalingrado." The long poem is a sort of "m
individualistic and introverted poetry, but at the same time it is an
poetic creed. Neruda chose the same meter (hendecasyllable) an
(abab) chosen by his master Ruben Dario in 1905 to explain a si
the poem "Yo soy aquel que ayer no mas decia . . . ." The two p
sent a watershed in the work of both poets.
After returning to Chile in October of 1937, Neruda active
political life of his country and in 1945 he was elected senator for
fagasta. Between 1940 and 1950, alternating with his diplomatic an
he completed his most ambitious work - Canto general. Somebody
"the Bible of the Americas" because it traces a poetic account of th
tory since its origins, through pre-Columbian times and the Sp
the most recent events. One feels tempted to call it an epic poe
very difficulty in categorizing the book indicates that Nerud
form without counterpart in Western poetry. It is comprised of f
depict a gigantic poetic mural of the Americas. The first edition,
Mexico in 1950, includes two plates of mini-murals specially designe
Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and Alfaro Siqueiros. The first sec
the continent's genesis : its vegetation, its birds and beasts, its riv
people. The second is devoted to Macchu Picchu as the grandest mo
Columbian America, as the most majestic witness of an unto
two, as in other sections, Neruda is not merely chronicling histor
is always present throughout the book not only because he describ
terpreting them according to a definite outlook on history, but al
the continent intertwines with his own epic. Thus he presents Ma
place where the continent on one hand, and the poet on the other
of their plight. In parts III, IV and V of "Alturas de Macchu P
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52 BOOKS ABROAD
Neruda tells the story of his constant intercourse with death. I
he recounts his climbing to Macchu Picchu - which truly occured in
where he discovers that the "alto arrecife de la aurora humana"
death. After exalting the city's magnificence by means of a string of
metaphors in poem IX, X is dedicated to indict those who built the
of the people: "Macchu Picchu, pusiste / piedra en la piedra, y e
Carbon sobre carbon, y en el f ondo la lagrima ? / Fuego en el oro,
el rojo / goteron de la sangre? / Devuelveme el esclavo que ente
the rest of the poem, the destiny of Macchu Picchu can be understo
of the entire continent. The last poem of this section is an appe
exhortation to be reborn from those same ashes of tatters, tears, an
primeval America was buried. Neruda has managed to coalesce
search ("y, como un ciego, regrese al jazmin de la gastada primav
the expectations of a whole continent: "Piedra en la piedra, el homb
Aire en el aire, el hombre, donde estuvo?/ Tiempo en el tiempo
estuvo?" He further manages to do the same with the book as a who
history of the continent described throughout the entire book, the l
general is devoted to the story of the poet's life. By bringing togeth
and the drama of the continent, Neruda has simultaneously give
the quality of a lyric and an epic poem. The lives of conquistadores,
and just plain people recover a refreshing actuality because they bec
poet's fate and, conversely, the life of the poet gains a new depth b
one recognizes the continent's struggles. Canto general is, thus, the
as much as it is Neruda's own song.
Since Neruda joined the Communist party in 1945, much of his p
heavily politicized. Neruda himself calls it "poesia politica" and in
a two-volume anthology {Poesia politica) of this type of poetry. He
this poetry he fulfills one of his "deberes de poeta" (duties of a
trouble is that today's politics changes so fast all over the world
is today glorified as a hero could tomorrow become an execrable tyr
have often been an embarrassment to Neruda's "poesia politica
viento (The Grapes and the Wind, 1954), for example, Stalin is portr
of peace sending doves to the most distant peoples on earth ("En su
years later, in Fin de mundo (1969), Stalin's lamblike mustache turn
threatening whiskers ("El culto, II"). Mao Tse-tung goes through
tation.
In spite of his "deberes de poeta" Neruda continued to write
same year that he published Las uvas y el viento, his first volume o
(Elemental Odes) appeared. Here he inaugurated a new poetic for
celebrated (or, at times, execrated) things and beings of the elem
of socks, a tomato, the dictionary, a lizard, laziness, a bicycle, an or
saw, numbers, fire, the skull, etc. Neruda rediscovered in these obje
#After climbing Macchu Picchu Neruda stated that it was there that "the idea o
Canto had begun to grow. Before, I had the idea of a general Canto of Chile, as
seeing America as a whole from the heights of Macchu Picchu."
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ALAZRAKI 53
from daily life an essential beauty that use and routine seemed to
poetry is a form of rediscovering or rather reinventing reality, t
that understanding of poetry. Neruda turns here to forgotten
material substance he finds a hidden soul poets have always so
transparent language which may have been motivated by his effo
"utilitaria y util, como metal o harina,/ dispuesta a ser arado,/
vino, . . ." ("Oda a la poesia") - hence the frequent moralizing a
of the odes - , but which could only have been achieved by the co
poet Neruda was when he wrote them. The lyric clarity he reache
odes" is a point of arrival in his poetic development. Neruda pr
umes of these odes before he realized that the svelte and agile ode
and showing signs of exhaustion.
While Neruda was still writing "elemental odes," he publis
(Book of Vagaries, 1958), a new form of poetry in which the mili
to a poet perplexed and amused by the bizarre paradoxes of his ow
tone is sardonic:
Para que me case en Batavia ?
Fui caballero sin castillo,
improcedente pasajero,
persona sin ropa y sin oro,
idiota puro y errante
Por que vivi en Rangoon de Birmania
la capital excrementicia
de mis navegantes dolores?
Por que, por que tantos caminos,
tantas ciudades hostiles?
Que saque de tantos mercados ?
Cual es la flor que yo buscaba?
Por que me movi de mi silla
y me vesti de tempestuoso?
("Itinerarios")
Combining irony and jest, Neruda has a good laugh at people and e
would have awakened rage and triggered deprecation. There ar
the oddities of life and Neruda acknowledges this: "Nadie lo s
spite of his commitment to clarity in his early "elemental odes" (
a la claridad"), Neruda confesses to himself towards the end of Es
claridad es oscura" ("Testamento de otofio"). Approaching the a
has come to terms with a notion that poets seemed to have accept
merely the idea that the "essential obscurity of poetry is due to t
history of a soul and that it seeks to comply with the mystery o
obscurity is luminous . . . ," in Jean Royere's words. Without dese
poeta" Neruda vindicates that "essential obscurity" with whic
touch light. In the last poem of Plenos poderes (Full Powers, 19
book with this lapidary verse: "A plena luz camino por la som
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54 BOOKS ABROAD
But Neruda is an unpredictable poet. He can write a book of so
sonetos de amor, 1960), a book on the stones of Chile {Las piedras d
five-volume autobiography in verse {Memorial de Isla Negra, 1964)
reenacts the eternal history of love {La espada encendida, 1970), and, at
poems which dig deep into "the mysteries of the human soul," poem
trees, and rivers of Chile, poems on Cuba and Vietnam, poems on
poems on roses and silences. This exuberance is reminiscent of Walt
Neruda himself has provided a suitable explanation: "Poetry in Sou
different matter altogether. You see, there are in our countries rivers
names, trees which nobody knows, and birds which nobody has de
duty, then, as we understand it, is to express what is unheard of. Ever
painted in Europe, everything has been sung in Europe. But not in
sense, Whitman was a great teacher. Because what is Whitman? H
intensely concious, but he was open-eyed! He had tremendous eyes to s
he taught us to see things. He was our poet." Traces of Whitman's
work of Neruda are not hard to find. In the section "I Wish the Wood-
Wake Up" of Canto general he significantly invokes Walt Whitma
tu voz y el peso de tu pecho enterrado/ Walt Whitman, y las grav
rostro/ para cantar estas reconstrucciones." But what is even more sign
fact that Neruda has defined Whitman in the same terms he now defin
a poem from La barcarola (1967) he wrote: "Pablo Neruda, el cron
cosas" (Pablo Neruda, the chronicler of all things).
University of California, San Diego
Pablo Neruda in Books Abroad (19
1. Crepusculario (Santiago de Chile. Renacimiento. 1926), reviewed b
Jones in BA 3:1, p. 42.
2. Maurice Halperin, "Pablo Neruda in Mexico" in BA 15:2, pp. 16
3. With Carlos Pellicer and Jorge Carrera Andrade. 3 Spanish American
Mallan, Mary and C. V. Wicker, & Joseph Leonard Grucci, trs. (Alb
Books. 1942), reviewed by Byron Chew in BA 17:4, p. 386.
4. Residence on Earth. Selected Poems. Angel Flores, tr. (New York.
1946), reviewed by Roy Temple House in BA 22:1, p. 92.
5. Todo el amor. (Santiago de Chile. Nascimento. 1953), reviewed
Guerra in BA 30:2, p. 176.
6. Viajes. (Santiago de Chile. Nascimento. 1955), reviewed by Albe
in BA 31:2, pp. 148-49.
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