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 prolific  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, mainly 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 , triumphs 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 sea , the cries 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 the 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  slander by the Press against Tina Modetti, his Italian comrade, and  once even  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 Eluard’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 Hudibras’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)

   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)

    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 as one who  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 Machu 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 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 work 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 23rd September, 1973,   eleven  days after the assassination of Allende  by the military junta headed by  Pinochet that plunged Chile in misery. Neruda’s houses in Valparaiso and Santiago were vandalized by the enemies of democracy.