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Pablo Neruda
(1904-1973)
Biography
Chilean poet, diplomat, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1971. Adopted the name Pablo Neruda legally in 1946 after
using it over 20 years as a writer. whose real name is Neftalí
Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, - Neruda is the most widely read of
the Spanish American poets. From the 1940s his works reflected
the political struggle of the left and socio-historical developments
in South America, but he also wrote love poems.
He was born on 12 July, 1904, in the town of Parral in Chile.
His father was a railway employee and his mother, who died shortly
after his birth, a teacher At the early age of thirteen
he began to contribute some articles to the daily "La Mañana",
among them, Entusiasmo y Perseverancia - his first publication
- and his first poem. In 1920, he became a contributor to the
literary journal "Selva Austral" under the pen name
of Pablo Neruda, which he adopted in memory of the Czechoslovak
poet Jan Neruda (1834-1891). Between 1927 and 1935, the government
put him in charge of a number of honorary consulships, which
took him to Burma, Ceylon, Java, Singapore, Buenos Aires, Barcelona,
and Madrid. His poetic production during that difficult period
included, among other works, the collection of esoteric surrealistic
poems, Residencia en la tierra (1933), which marked his literary
breakthrough. The Spanish Civil War and the murder of García
Lorca, whom Neruda knew, affected him strongly and made him
join the Republican movement, first in Spain, and later in France,
where he started working on his collection of poems España
en el Corazón (1937). The same year he returned to his
native country, to which he had been recalled, and his poetry
during the following period was characterised by an orientation
towards political and social matters. España en el Corazón
had a great impact by virtue of its being printed in the middle
of the front during the civil war. In 1939, Neruda was appointed
consul for the Spanish emigration, residing in Paris, and, shortly
afterwards, Consul General in Mexico, where he rewrote his Canto
General de Chile, transforming it into an epic poem about the
whole South American continent, its nature, its people and its
historical destiny. This work, entitled Canto General, was published
the same year in Mexico, and also underground in Chile. It consists
of approximately 250 poems brought together into fifteen literary
cycles and constitutes the central part of Neruda's production.
Shortly after its publication, Canto General was translated
into some ten languages. Nearly all these poems were created
in a difficult situation, when Neruda was living abroad.
In 1943, Neruda returned to
Chile, and in 1945 he was elected senator of the Republic,
also joining the Communist Party of Chile. Due to his protests
against President González Videla's repressive policy
against striking miners in 1947, he had to live underground
in his own country for two years until he managed to leave
in 1949. After living in different European countries he returned
home in 1952. A great deal of what he published during that
period bears the stamp of his political activities; one example
is Las Uvas y el Viento (1954), which can be regarded as the
diary of Neruda's exile. In Odas elementales (1954- 1959)
his message is expanded into a more extensive description
of the world, where the objects of the hymns - things, events
and relations - are duly presented in alphabetic form.
Neruda's production is exceptionally
extensive. For example, his Obras Completas, constantly republished,
comprised 459 pages in 1951; in 1962 the number of pages was
1,925, and in 1968 it amounted to 3,237, in two volumes. Among
his works of the last few years can be mentioned Cien sonetos
de amor (1959), which includes poems dedicated to his wife
Matilde Urrutia, Memorial de Isla Negra, a poetic work of
an autobiographic character in five volumes, published on
the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, Arte de pajáros
(1966), La Barcarola (1967), the play Fulgor y muerte de Joaquín
Murieta (1967), Las manos del día (1968), Fin del mundo
(1969), Las piedras del cielo (1970), and La espada encendida.
Further works:
Geografía infructuosa/Barren Geography (poetry), 1972
El mar y las campanas/ The Sea and the Bells, tr. (poetry),
1973
Incitación al nixonicidio y alabanza de la revolución
chilena/A Call for the Destruction of Nixon and Praise for
the Chilean Revolution, tr. (poetry), 1974
El corazón amarillo/The Yellow Heart (poetry), 1974
Defectos escogidos/Selected Waste Paper (poetry), 1974
Elegía/Elegy (poetry), 1974
Confieso que he vivido. Memorias/Memoirs, tr. (prose), 1974
Para nacer he nacido/Passions and Impressions, tr. (prose),
1978
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.
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