Poetry is His occupation: A Study of
Neruda’s Memoirs
Pablo Neruda is a great and committed poet
who has made poetry a respectable craft
and poets a respectable tribe in times of war and dystopia. He remained
an incorrigible optimist despite the Spanish civil war, second world war
followed by the cold war era, the
dictatorships which characterized many countries in Latin American continent. He has become one of the most celebrated poets of the
twentieth century who has found his vocation in turning out poetry on nature,
love, solitude, beauty, war and death. Neruda’s Memoirs is a combination of varied experiences across the cultures ,
with different poets of the world and his views on politics and political
conditions of his time. The richness of his life, ideas and his incessant and high-quality work reveals his love for passionate
expression. In his work Neruda’s poetic soul finds expression time and again
whatever subject he touches-nature,
country, politics and humanity. For his poetic achievement he received the
Nobel Prize in literature , “the sixth Spanish-language writer, and the third
Latin American, to receive this distinction.” (363)
He writes that
“what the memoir writer remembers is not the same thing the poet remembers” (3)
There are gaps due to forgetfulness and the
memories of the past “have crumbled to dust , like irreparably shattered
glass.” ( 3) His life is not an isolated
phenomenon and he notes, “perhaps I just
didn’t live just in myself , perhaps I lived the lives of others” ( 3)
He has come out of Chile to ‘roam , to go
singing through world.’ In his Memoirs which consists of twelve
chapters, he allocates first four
chapters to depict his experiences in various countries, maily oriental
countries which form the stuff of his
poetry in initial period, the next three
chapters reveal his engagement with
Spain, Mexico , the chapters eight to
ten reveal his concern with the fate of his country, travels in Socialist
countries and his homecoming . the last two chapters lay bare his preoccupation with his
motherland and poetry. The lengthiest chapter titled ‘Poetry Is An Occupation’ stretching
to seventy five pages lay bare his
engagement with poetry. A reading of Memoirs
certainly helps one to grasp the warp and woof of Neruda’s poetry. My paper
relates what has gone into the poetry or his preoccupation with poetry.
The
emergence of young poet:
While in the Far East, Neruda writes that
his poems in Residence en la terra have
not reflected anything but “the loneliness of an outsider transplanted to
a violent, alien world” (84) This initial loneliness has yielded to his deep solidarity
with the workers of the world in his later life. Regarding his own poetry
Neruda comments that it absorbed passion, love, struggle , mystery, song ,
truimphs and defeats. He writes, “all the choices, tears or kisses, loneliness or the fraternity of man,
survive in my poetry and are essential part of it, because I have lived for my
poetry and my poetry has nourished everything I have striven for.” (171)
He refers to Spanish language gifted by the
Spanish conquistadors. “Words fell like pebbles out of the boots of the
barbarians , out of their beards, their helmets, their horse shoes, luminous
words that were left glittering here… we came up losers..we came up winners.”
(54)
In the chapter ‘Lost in the City’ he writes of
his ecstasy at the publication of his first work, ‘Crepsculario’, his attempt
to shed the influence of Sabat Ereasty , a Uruguayan poet , calls his Venite poems as “his love affair with
Santiago,” ( 51 )and the stuff of his
poetry has always been “the distant sound of the ea , the c ries of the wild
birds, and love burning , without consuming itself, like an immortal bush”(52)
Neruda as a young man visits
Buenos Aires ( Argentina), Lisbon ( Portugal), Montparnasse ( France),
Shanghai ( China), Medan ( Sumatra ), Singapore, and Penang( Indochina). He also visits India waging the struggle for independence . He finds
traditional life and the idealist poets
and says “This is the time we have been
destined to live in. This is the golden era of era of poetry. “( 79) He relates an experience of
his bus journey from Penang to Saigon, the breakdown of th bus in the mid-forest,
the fear of death in an alien land and the sudden reappearance of passengers
with musical troupe to entertain the poet Neruda. He writes as follows: “ The poet can not be afraid of the people.
Life seemed to be handing me a warning
and teaching a lesson I would never forget; the lesson of hidden honor,
of fraternity we know nothing about , of beauty that blossoms in the dark.”
(81)
Neruda relates how his poetry reading session moved deeply the
workers at Vega central in Santiago,
his poem silenced slandering criticism by the Press against
Tina Modetti, his Italian comrade, and once saved him from a tough guy who turned out to be his fan in a bar. The response of market loaders at Vega
Central has changed Neruda forever. When his reading of ‘New Love song to
Stalingrad’ was announced , the mass of workers removed their hats and helmets,
‘a huge soundless wave, a black foam of quite reverence.’ Neruda ‘s poetic
ambition is vast and he writes, ‘ I would like to swallow the whole earth. I
would like to drink the whole sea’.(264)
On
poetry and other poets:
Neruda
sees modern poet as an avatar of the priest whose job is ‘to interpret the
light’(266). He rejects the fetish originality attributed to poetry and writes that at the moments of greatest creative intensity, the product can be partially someone else's, influenced by
readings and external pressures.” (267) He praises another poet Paul Elaurd’s personal
qualities, comradely spirit and clarity, likens Pierry Reverdy’s poetry to ‘a vein of quartz, subterranean” (279) and
shining and eternal, and appreciates the
commitment and universality of Somlyo and Quasimodo’s attachment to beauty and universality.
he writes glowingly of Vallejo, ‘serious and pure in heart’ and refers to unnecessary comparison made between his poetry and Vallejo’s. He calls
Gabriela Mistral’s heart as ‘magnificent’(285) and praises her as one who removed the barrier between prose and
poetry . He calls Huidibro’s poetry of ‘diaphanous’ (288) quality, and in spite of his earlier literary controversy with him proposed a
monument for him next to another great poet of Latin America Rubén Darío. Both
Lorca and Neruda spoke in commemoration of Ruben whose poetry ‘stands outside norms. Forms or
schools.’ (114)On Hernandez’s poetry , Neruda remarks that life has not given
him “the privilege of setting eyes on anyone with a vocation and an electrical knowledge of words” (118)
like his.
Neruda’s views on poetry get expressed while
he refers to other poets and their poetry. He praises Vallejo , Louis Aragon and
Rafel Alberti . While poets such as Pushkin, Byron and Petofi died in violence and war, Alberti’s survival makes Neruda comment on the nature of poetry
as follows : “it survives every attempt with a
clear face and a smile as bright as grains of rice.”(137)
Neruda writes of Vallejo’s poetry had “a
rough surface as rugged ot touch as a wild animal’s skin”(68)
In
his Memoirs, Neruda also refers to the voluntary exile of
Latin American novelists such as Marquez, Llosa, Cortazar , Fuentes on the basis of irrefutable reasons. He also
mentions his destructive critic called Joe Blow who published twenty five
journals to undermine Neruda ‘s character and
poetic achievement but committed
suicide in the end. He also mentions his perceptive critics such as Lev
Ospovat, Monegal and Amado Alonso. He
sees himself not as a realist or surrealist but loves books without schools and
classification. To him poetry is ‘rebellion’(294)
He thinks that poetry can be written on the
sublime as well as usual things and a poet who embraces divine isolation is ‘the safest bet for capitalism on its last
legs.’ (296) He also mentions the refusal of a
news paper to mention his name as writer of his famous poem’ Alturas de
Macchu Picchu’
He gets angry at the envy of his detractors at his comfortable life attained through the
proceeds of sale of his books and
comments, “reactionary hacks , who are behind the times and constantly
demanding honor for Goethe , deny today’s poets the right to love” and he would
like to leave his house in Isla Negra for the working class to take rest and
conduct meetings which will be his “poetry’s sweet revenge” (297)
Descriptive powers of Neruda
Neruda’s poetic style characterizes his Memoirs and comes out
vividly in describing nature , the poetry
of other contemporary poets. At Chile
Chico , he writes as follows: “the sky
was working on its twilight with sheer silks and metals: “a yellowness shimmered in the sky, like an
immense bird suspended by pure space. Everything went through abrupt mutations, changing into
a whale’s mouth, a fiery leopard, glowing abstract forms.” (309)
In the chapter
titled,’T he Roads of the World’ he
describes the city of Valparaiso as “secretive, sinuous and winding ” and
poverty spills over its hills like a waterfall” ( 58) he refers to the earth
quake foll0wed by flood , the mountainous wave, the immense green arm that
surges , tall and menacing like a tower of vengeance’ to sweep away the
remaining life. At times the city “ twitches like a wounded whale. It flounders in the air, is in agony,
dies, and comes back to life.” (60)
Neruda’s
internationalism
Neruda was intensely political and refers
to Vietnam . While appreciating the distant and colorful horizon he questions,
“who can forget the color of all the blood senselessly spilled in Vietnam every day?”(297) He remained in favour
of Cuban revolution but not blind to its faults. When he was accused by Cuban
writers for participating in the conference of P.E.N Club, he felt deeply hurt and refused to shake hands with his
unjust critics who ignored his attack against imperialism and slandered him.
In the
spirit of inter nationalism , he accepted
honour from Peru despite historical hostilities between both Chile and Peru.
He says, not only athletes , diplomats, and statesmen must take pains to
stanch the blood from the past, but poets also, and with all the more reason, for
their souls have fewer frontiers than the souls of other people.” (325) He
writes poetically that every vice is
accepted in the old order except
communism. His attachment to people comes out in words, “To have embodied hope
for many men, even for one minute, is
something unforgettable and profoundly touching for the poet.”(336)
He refers
to the liberators of Latin America --
Simon Bolivar, San Martin , Jose Carrere and Bernard O Higgins. He
remained objective and in China he
observed the hero worship of Mao and turned critical and says he didn’t
want to repeat the mistake as happened in the case of Stalin In Russia. But he praises Stalin’s role in defeating fascism and describes him as ‘a good-natured
man of principles , as sober as hermit , a titanic defender of Russian
Revolution ‘ (320)
He compares the wotk of writers with the work
of Arctic fishermen. The writer has to be patient like a fisherman with a hook
and weather criticism to catch new and bigger ideas constantly. He supports
artistic freedom and preserved his
“absolute faith in human destiny” (227) He expresses concern for peace and yearn
if only the catholic priests fought for peace like the Buddhists against
‘atomic death’(229) He also refers to the fall of Chinese writer Ting Ling and
silencing of Ai Ching who accompanied him in spite of their personal difficulties
while on tour in China.
His final moments :
Neruda had high praise for Allende in whose
favour he stepped aside as a candidate
for Chile’s presidency. He terms Allende’s nationalization of copper mines
against the interests of North American company as a ‘titanic achievement’ and an act which made
Chile’s “sovereignty definitive by reconquering copper for our country”. Neruda
dies on 23 rd September, 1973,
eleven days after the assassination
of Allende by the military junta of Pinochet that plunged Chile in misery.
Neruda’s houses in Valparaiso and Santiago were vandalized by the enemies of
democracy.
