Neruda, p.55
Neruda, page 55
Loveman, Brian. Chile: The Legacy of Hispanic Capitalism, 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Loyola, Hernán. El joven Neruda. Barcelona: Lumen, 2014.
———. Neruda: La biografía literaria. Santiago: Seix Barral, 2006.
———. Ser y morir en Pablo Neruda 1918–1945. Santiago: Editorial Santiago, 1967.
Macías, Sergio. El Madrid de Pablo Neruda. Madrid: Tabla Rasa, 2004.
Montes, Hugo. Para leer a Neruda. Buenos Aires: Editorial Francisco de Aguirre, 1974.
Moran, Dominic. Pablo Neruda. London: Reaktion Books, 2009.
Morla Lynch, Carlos. En España con Federico García Lorca: Páginas de un diario íntimo, 1928–1936. Seville, Spain: Renacimiento, 2008.
Muñoz, Diego. Memorias: Recuerdos de la bohemia Nerudiana. Santiago: Mosquito Comunicaciones, 1999.
Olivares Briones, Edmundo. Pablo Neruda: Los caminos de América. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2004.
———. Pablo Neruda: Los caminos del mundo. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2001.
———. Pablo Neruda: Los caminos de Oriente. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2000.
Oses, Darío, ed. Cartas de amor: Cartas a Matilde Urrutia (1950–1973), by Pablo Neruda. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2010.
Perriam, Christopher. The Late Poetry of Pablo Neruda. Oxford: Dolphin Book Co. Ltd., 1989.
Poirot, Luis. Pablo Neruda: Absence and Presence, trans. Alastair Reid. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990.
Quezada, Jaime, ed. Neruda–García Lorca. Santiago: Fundación Pablo Neruda, 1998.
Quezada Vergara, Abraham, ed. Cartas a Gabriela: Correspondencia escogida de Pablo Neruda y Delia del Carril a Gabriela Mistral (1934–1955). Santiago: RIL Editores, 2009.
———. Correspondencia entre Pablo Neruda y Jorge Edwards: Cartas que romperemos de inmediato y recordaremos siempre. Santiago: Alfaguara Chile, 2007.
———. Epistolario viajero: 1927–1973, by Pablo Neruda. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2004.
———. Pablo Neruda–Claudio Véliz, correspondencia en el camino al Premio Nóbel, 1963–1970. Santiago: Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos, 2011.
———. Pablo Neruda y Salvador Allende: Una amistad, una historia. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2014.
Reid, Alastair. “Neruda and Borges,” New Yorker, June 24, 1996.
Reyes, Bernardo. El enigma de Malva Marina: La hija de Pablo Neruda. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2007.
———. Neruda: Retrato de familia, 1904–1920, 3rd ed. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2003.
———. Viaje a la poesía de Neruda: Residencias, calles y ciudades olvidadas. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2004.
Reyes, Felipe. Nascimento: El editor de los chilenos, 2nd ed. Santiago: Minimocomun Ediciones, 2014.
Rodríguez Monegal, Emir. Neruda: El viajero inmóvil. Barcelona: Editorial Laia, 1985.
Sáez, Fernando. La Hormiga: Biografía de Delia del Carril, mujer de Pablo Neruda. Santiago: Catalonia, 2004.
———. Todo debe ser demasiado: Biografía de Delia del Carril, la Hormiga. Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 1997.
Santí, Enrico Mario. Pablo Neruda: The Poetics of Prophecy. Ithaca, NY; London: Cornell University Press, 1982.
Schidlowsky, David. Las furias y las penas: Pablo Neruda y su tiempo, 2 vols. Providencia, Santiago: RIL Editores, 2008.
Schopf, Federico. Del vanguardismo a la antipoesía: Ensayos sobre la poesía en Chile. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2000.
———. Neruda comentado. Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 2003.
Sicard, Alain. El pensamiento poético de Pablo Neruda, trans. Pilar Ruiz. Madrid: Gredos, 1981.
Silva Castro, Raúl. Pablo Neruda. Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1964.
Stainton, Leslie. Lorca: A Dream of Life. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999.
Suárez, Eulogio. Neruda total. Bogotá: Cooperativa Editorial Magisterio, 1988.
Teitelboim, Volodia. Neruda: La biografía. Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 2004.
Urrutia, Matilde. Mi vida junto a Pablo Neruda. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1986.
———. My Life with Pablo Neruda, trans. Alexandria Giardino. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004.
Varas, José Miguel. Aquellos anchos días: Neruda, el oriental. Montevideo: Monte Sexto, 1991.
———. Neruda clandestino. Santiago: Alfaguara, 2003.
———. Nerudario. Santiago: Planeta Chilena, 1999.
Velasco, Francisco. Neruda: El gran amigo. Santiago: Galinost-Andante, 1987.
Vial, Sara. Neruda vuelve a Valparaíso. Valparaíso, Chile: Ediciones Universitaria de Valparaíso, 2004.
Wilson, Jason. A Companion to Pablo Neruda: Evaluating Neruda’s Poetry. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Tamesis, 2008.
Zerán, Faride. La guerrilla literaria: Pablo de Rokha, Vicente Huidobro, Pablo Neruda. Santiago: Ediciones Bat, 1992.
Notes
Due to multiple editions throughout the years of his books of poetry, page numbers are not listed with the citation of a poem, assuming the reader can easily find the poem armed with the book’s and poem’s titles, and any extra information that might be needed. If not listed in the citation, the English translation of a book’s title can be found in the list of Neruda’s works here.
Abbreviations
OC = Obras completas (Complete Works), edited by Hernán Loyola. The volume number and page number follow. Bibliographic details of this series are here in the list of Neruda’s works.
APNF = Material (generally correspondence) located in the archives of the Pablo Neruda Foundation, Santiago, Chile. Some of these letters are also found in Obras completas, volume 5.
CHV = Neruda’s memoir, Confieso que he vivido. Because of the numerous editions, page numbers here correspond to the text in Obras completas, volume 5.
INTRODUCTION
“The Word”: “La palabra,” Plenos poderes, in Neruda, Pablo. Fully Empowered, trans. Alastair Reid (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975).
the first time the art form had been featured: The Academy of American Poets looked at the New York Times archives and only identified front-page pieces about poets on their deaths, as related to author by executive director Jennifer Benka, August 24, 2017.
“American Poets”: Alter, Alexandra. “American Poets, Refusing to Go Gentle, Rage Against the Right,” New York Times, April 21, 2017.
CHAPTER ONE: TO TEMUCO
“The Birth”: “Nacimiento” (1964), Memorial de Isla Negra, in Neruda, Pablo. Isla Negra: A Notebook, trans. Alastair Reid (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1981).
Their property had a little more: Loyola, Hernán. Neruda: La biografía literaria (Santiago: Seix Barral, 2006), 18.
As José del Carmen grew: The background information on this period of José del Carmen’s life comes primarily from two living relatives, both of whom have been so helpful to me: The first is Bernardo Reyes, grandson of Neruda’s half brother, Rodolfo Reyes Candia, who was generous in our correspondences and who also wrote a book, Neruda: Retrato de familia, 1904–1920, 3rd ed. (Santiago: RIL Editores, 2003). I have also used material from the first two chapters of his Viaje a la poesía de Neruda: Residencias, calles y ciudades olvidadas (Santiago: RIL Editores, 2004). The second is Patricio Mason, great-great-grandson of Charles “Carlos” Mason, who generously shared with me crucial facts and insights into the history of his fascinating family, via correspondence. He also took upon himself the inspired noble mission of constructing a complete extended family tree for the Mason family from 1634 to 2016, viewable at http://www.ics.cl/Familia_Mason/index.html.
allowing him to find: Loyola, Neruda: La biografía literaria, 19.
fundamental role in Neruda’s life: Espinoza, Miguel. “Mason, ‘el constructor,’” Neruda in Temuco (blog), February 21, 2010, http://nerudaentemuco.blogspot.com.es/2010/02/neruda-en-temuco-mason-el-constructor.html.
In 1888: Mason, Patricio. “History of the Mason Family in Chile and Their Relatives by Marriage, 1634–2016,” http://www.ics.cl/Familia_Mason/persons/person137.html.
he quickly ascended to the top: Espinoza, “Mason, ‘el constructor.’”
on land he had managed to obtain: Ibid., and author correspondence with Patricio Mason, 2017.
The hotel allowed Mason to: Espinoza, “Mason, ‘el constructor.’”
“an enormous cooking pot”: CHV, 401.
Far along in her pregnancy: Author correspondence with Patricio Mason, 2017.
The baby was handed off: Ibid.
He may have been harboring: Ibid.
At 7:30 on the evening: Ibid.
It belonged to Trinidad: Ibid.
he wasn’t nearly as involved: Patricio Mason discovered nearly eighty legal documents from Chile’s National Archives showing all manner of transactions between Charles Mason and his Candia in-laws and his sons-in-law, but absolutely none involving José del Carmen. The sole historical document kept at the National Archives involving José del Carmen shows him, in 1894, buying at auction a piece of property on behalf of José Rudecindo Ortega.
the barefoot, semiwild son: As described by Bernardo Reyes, Rodolfo’s own grandson, in Neruda: Retrato de familia.
He brought his son Neftalí: Loyola, Hernán. El joven Neruda (Barcelona: Lumen, 2014), 30.
Trinidad had a certain equanimity: Neruda, Pablo. “Infancia y poesía,” Salón de Honor of the University of Chile, January 1, 1954. Available in OC, 4:918.
CHAPTER TWO: WHERE THE RAIN WAS BORN
“The Frontier (1904)”: “La frontera (1904)” (1950), Canto general.
“guardian angel”: CHV, 405.
“gentle shadow”: CHV, 416.
“tools or books”: CHV, 401–408.
all lived on the same block: Author correspondence with Patricio Mason, 2017.
six children: Ibid., and Mason, “History of the Mason Family in Chile.” Charles Mason also had a son with a Peruvian woman before he met and married Micaela Candia. This son, the eldest of the Mason siblings, also settled in Temuco.
Rudecindo Ortega, who had fathered: Author correspondence with Patricio Mason, 2017.
Incomplete staircases led to floors: “Infancia y poesía,” OC, 4:917.
“Below the volcanoes”: CHV, 399.
“The essential Neruda was a human being”: Author interview with Alastair Reid, 2004.
“terrestrial core”: Neruda, Pablo. “El joven provinciano,” Las vidas del poeta. Memorias y recuerdos, O cruzeiro internacional (Rio de Janeiro), January 16, 1962. Quoted in Escobar, Alejandro Jiménez, ed. Pablo Neruda en O cruzeiro internacional (Santiago: Puerto de Palos, 2004), 28. Most of the rest of the details of the trips into the forests with his father are from CHV, 402–403.
“in the middle of green”: Neruda, “El joven provinciano,” in Escobar, Pablo Neruda en O cruzeiro internacional, 27–29.
as Neruda would later lyricize: “Las cicadas,” Las uvas y el viento.
“La Casa”: Canto general.
By the time he was ten years old: CHV, 402–404.
“I lived with the spiders”: From “Where Can Guillermina Be?” in Neruda, Pablo. Extravagaria, trans. Alastair Reid (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974).
Neftalí’s explorations piqued: From the poem “Las cicadas,” Las uvas y el viento; words from “Infancia y poesía,” OC, 4:917–918; and a talk given at the University of Chile around his fiftieth birthday. Much of the text would find its way into his memoirs.
“Along endless beaches”: CHV, 413.
“just a sack of bones”: CHV, 403.
They had a cook: Neruda mentions the presence of a cook in CHV, 409. As Patricio Mason explained, “Having a local lady come in to prepare meals was certainly a service a railroad conductor could afford” (author correspondence, January 2017).
it had a dignifying presence: Neruda, Pablo. “Viaje por las costas del mundo,” lecture, 1942. Available in OC, 4:505.
One evening when Neftalí: “La copa de sangre,” OC, 4:417.
“like a man in mourning”: “Infancia y poesía,” OC, 4:922.
The blood fell into a basin: “La copa de sangre,” OC, 4:417–418, and “Infancia y poesía,” OC, 4:922.
“The Heights of Macchu Picchu”: Canto XII, Canto general. My translation builds upon earlier versions by John Felstiner and Stephen Kessler.
“where the rain was born”: CHV, 400.
Neftalí was always the last: Author interview with Inés Valenzuela, widow of Neruda’s childhood friend Diego Muñoz, July 2003. She and Neruda instantly formed a strong friendship upon Diego’s introduction.
“He wanted to give me his cup”: Valle, Juvencio. “Testimonio,” Aurora, nos. 3–4 (July–December 1964): 248.
When he was confined to his bed: From an interview with Neruda’s sister, Laura, in a compilation of his letters to her: Cartas a Laura, ed. Hugo Montes (1978; Santiago: Andres Bello, 1991), 12–13.
“an imperceptible vibration”: Valle, “Testimonio,” 247–248.
They took “refuge”: Ibid., 249.
“Poetry”: Memorial de Isla Negra, in Neruda, Isla Negra.
“a kind of anguish and sadness”: CHV, 416.
The original Spanish: Jofré, Manuel. Pablo Neruda: De los mitos y el ser Americano (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Ediciones Ferilibro, 2004).
the beginnings of a cosmic vision: From the text of the poem “Poetry,” Memorial de Isla Negra, Neruda, Isla Negra.
CHAPTER THREE: AWKWARD ADOLESCENCE
“Where Can Guillermina Be?”: Neruda, Extravagaria. Translations of poem in this chapter by author; translation in appendix by Alistair Reid, as noted.
“Desperation”: Collected in a text entitled Los cuadernos de Neftalí Reyes, available in OC, 4:65.
it was precious: From an expanded edition of Neruda’s memoir Confieso que he vivido, ed. Darío Oses (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2017), 44.
When he grew bold enough: Ibid., 45.
his detour to touch it: Ibid., Neruda mentions the frequency. Gloria Urgelles writes that he stopped to pet its nose on his way to school on a daily basis in “Las casas de Pablo Neruda,” El Mercurio (Santiago), September 15, 1991. Available at http://www.emol.com/especiales/neruda/19910915.htm.
Orlando was young and unruly: Particular credit goes to Bernardo Reyes for his description of Orlando throughout Neruda: Retrato de familia.
“Orlando Mason protested”: “Infancia y poesía,” OC, 4:923–924.
between eight and sixteen years old: Danús Vásquez, Hernán, and Susana Vera Iturra. Carbón: Protagonista del pasado, presente y futuro (Santiago: RIL Editores, 2010), 95.
“With a glance, the penetrating eyes”: Lillo, Baldomero. Sub-Terra: Cuadros mineros (Santiago: Imprenta moderna, 1904), 21–22.
“A deplorable neglect continues”: Venegas, Alejandro. Sinceridad: Chile íntimo en 1910 (1910; repr., Santiago: CESOC Ed., 1998), 250–251.
“These two are the factors”: Neruda, Pablo. “Entusiasmo y perseverancia,” La Mañana, July 18, 1917. Available in OC, 4:49–50.
Neftalí was reflecting on: Victor Farías notes the sense of responsibility for what Neruda witnessed in the prologue to Neruda, Pablo. Cuadernos de Temuco: 1919–1920 (Buenos Aires: Seix Barral, 1996), 19.
In broad, abstract terms: Colón, Daniel. “Orlando Mason y las raíces del pensamiento social de Pablo Neruda,” Revista chilena de literatura 79 (September 2011): 23–45.
“a very beautiful woman, dark skinned”: Author interview with Inés Valenzuela, July 2003.
verses of Garcilaso de la Vega: Author correspondence with Tina Escaja, poet and director of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies at the University of Vermont, 2011.
“historical cadences” of Francisco de Quevedo’s: Ibid., Much of this information and analysis, including the “historical cadences” wording.
“the way the poem embodies”: Hass, Robert. A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry (New York: Ecco, 2017), 3.
an additional, purposeful effect: Ibid.
As author René de Costa: De Costa, René. The Poetry of Pablo Neruda (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979), 35.
“My Eyes”: Los cuadernos de Neftalí Reyes, OC, 4:55.
nearly thirty poems: Schidlowsky, David. Las furias y las penas: Pablo Neruda y su tiempo, vol. 1 (Providencia, Santiago: RIL Editores, 2008), 51.
CHAPTER FOUR: THE YOUNG POET
Teresa León Bettiens won the title: After her mother remarried, Teresa León Bettiens went by Teresa Vasquez. For clarity, her original last name is used throughout this book.
On the first day of vacation: CHV, 408–409.
the heartbeat of the universe: CHV, 410.
“but that cry of all”: “Chucao tapaculo,” Canto general.
a masculine model: Loyola, Neruda: La biografía literaria, 64–65.
“Hate”: “Odio” (October 11, 1919), Los cuadernos de Neftalí Reyes, OC, 4:110.
“Puerto Saavedra had the smell”: Neruda, Pablo. “65,” Ercilla, July 16, 1969. Available in OC, 5:234–235.
“they’d both starve”: Author interview with Rosa León Muller, Teresa León Bettiens’s niece, 2014.
“black and sudden eyes”: “65,” OC, 5:234–235.
“condemned to read”: Ibid.
“Have you read this one yet?”: CHV, 416.
Neruda once noted: Cardona Peña, Alfredo. Pablo Neruda y otros ensayos (Mexico City: Ediciones de Andrea, 1955), 25.
“I have fixed myself up”: Teitelboim, Volodia. Neruda: La biografía (1996; Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 2004), 39.
“terrible vision”: CHV, 418.
He was a flamboyant man: Lago, Tomás. Ojos y oídos: Cerca de Neruda (Santiago: LOM Ediciones , 1999), 24.
“in Chemistry class”: At bottom of the poem, OC, 4:82.
“Damn slackers”: Reyes, Neruda: Retrato de familia, 89–91.
Neftalí was crestfallen: Ibid., 106–107.
“Sensación autobiográfica”: Los cuadernos de Neftalí Reyes, OC, 4:132–135.
It showcases how Neftalí: Loyola, Hernán. “Los modos de autorreferencia en la obra de Pablo Neruda,” Aurora, nos. 3–4 (July–December 1964). Available at http://www.neruda.uchile.cl/critica/hloyolamodos.html.
Loyola, Hernán. El joven Neruda. Barcelona: Lumen, 2014.
———. Neruda: La biografía literaria. Santiago: Seix Barral, 2006.
———. Ser y morir en Pablo Neruda 1918–1945. Santiago: Editorial Santiago, 1967.
Macías, Sergio. El Madrid de Pablo Neruda. Madrid: Tabla Rasa, 2004.
Montes, Hugo. Para leer a Neruda. Buenos Aires: Editorial Francisco de Aguirre, 1974.
Moran, Dominic. Pablo Neruda. London: Reaktion Books, 2009.
Morla Lynch, Carlos. En España con Federico García Lorca: Páginas de un diario íntimo, 1928–1936. Seville, Spain: Renacimiento, 2008.
Muñoz, Diego. Memorias: Recuerdos de la bohemia Nerudiana. Santiago: Mosquito Comunicaciones, 1999.
Olivares Briones, Edmundo. Pablo Neruda: Los caminos de América. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2004.
———. Pablo Neruda: Los caminos del mundo. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2001.
———. Pablo Neruda: Los caminos de Oriente. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2000.
Oses, Darío, ed. Cartas de amor: Cartas a Matilde Urrutia (1950–1973), by Pablo Neruda. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2010.
Perriam, Christopher. The Late Poetry of Pablo Neruda. Oxford: Dolphin Book Co. Ltd., 1989.
Poirot, Luis. Pablo Neruda: Absence and Presence, trans. Alastair Reid. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990.
Quezada, Jaime, ed. Neruda–García Lorca. Santiago: Fundación Pablo Neruda, 1998.
Quezada Vergara, Abraham, ed. Cartas a Gabriela: Correspondencia escogida de Pablo Neruda y Delia del Carril a Gabriela Mistral (1934–1955). Santiago: RIL Editores, 2009.
———. Correspondencia entre Pablo Neruda y Jorge Edwards: Cartas que romperemos de inmediato y recordaremos siempre. Santiago: Alfaguara Chile, 2007.
———. Epistolario viajero: 1927–1973, by Pablo Neruda. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2004.
———. Pablo Neruda–Claudio Véliz, correspondencia en el camino al Premio Nóbel, 1963–1970. Santiago: Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos, 2011.
———. Pablo Neruda y Salvador Allende: Una amistad, una historia. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2014.
Reid, Alastair. “Neruda and Borges,” New Yorker, June 24, 1996.
Reyes, Bernardo. El enigma de Malva Marina: La hija de Pablo Neruda. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2007.
———. Neruda: Retrato de familia, 1904–1920, 3rd ed. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2003.
———. Viaje a la poesía de Neruda: Residencias, calles y ciudades olvidadas. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2004.
Reyes, Felipe. Nascimento: El editor de los chilenos, 2nd ed. Santiago: Minimocomun Ediciones, 2014.
Rodríguez Monegal, Emir. Neruda: El viajero inmóvil. Barcelona: Editorial Laia, 1985.
Sáez, Fernando. La Hormiga: Biografía de Delia del Carril, mujer de Pablo Neruda. Santiago: Catalonia, 2004.
———. Todo debe ser demasiado: Biografía de Delia del Carril, la Hormiga. Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 1997.
Santí, Enrico Mario. Pablo Neruda: The Poetics of Prophecy. Ithaca, NY; London: Cornell University Press, 1982.
Schidlowsky, David. Las furias y las penas: Pablo Neruda y su tiempo, 2 vols. Providencia, Santiago: RIL Editores, 2008.
Schopf, Federico. Del vanguardismo a la antipoesía: Ensayos sobre la poesía en Chile. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2000.
———. Neruda comentado. Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 2003.
Sicard, Alain. El pensamiento poético de Pablo Neruda, trans. Pilar Ruiz. Madrid: Gredos, 1981.
Silva Castro, Raúl. Pablo Neruda. Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1964.
Stainton, Leslie. Lorca: A Dream of Life. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999.
Suárez, Eulogio. Neruda total. Bogotá: Cooperativa Editorial Magisterio, 1988.
Teitelboim, Volodia. Neruda: La biografía. Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 2004.
Urrutia, Matilde. Mi vida junto a Pablo Neruda. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1986.
———. My Life with Pablo Neruda, trans. Alexandria Giardino. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004.
Varas, José Miguel. Aquellos anchos días: Neruda, el oriental. Montevideo: Monte Sexto, 1991.
———. Neruda clandestino. Santiago: Alfaguara, 2003.
———. Nerudario. Santiago: Planeta Chilena, 1999.
Velasco, Francisco. Neruda: El gran amigo. Santiago: Galinost-Andante, 1987.
Vial, Sara. Neruda vuelve a Valparaíso. Valparaíso, Chile: Ediciones Universitaria de Valparaíso, 2004.
Wilson, Jason. A Companion to Pablo Neruda: Evaluating Neruda’s Poetry. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Tamesis, 2008.
Zerán, Faride. La guerrilla literaria: Pablo de Rokha, Vicente Huidobro, Pablo Neruda. Santiago: Ediciones Bat, 1992.
Notes
Due to multiple editions throughout the years of his books of poetry, page numbers are not listed with the citation of a poem, assuming the reader can easily find the poem armed with the book’s and poem’s titles, and any extra information that might be needed. If not listed in the citation, the English translation of a book’s title can be found in the list of Neruda’s works here.
Abbreviations
OC = Obras completas (Complete Works), edited by Hernán Loyola. The volume number and page number follow. Bibliographic details of this series are here in the list of Neruda’s works.
APNF = Material (generally correspondence) located in the archives of the Pablo Neruda Foundation, Santiago, Chile. Some of these letters are also found in Obras completas, volume 5.
CHV = Neruda’s memoir, Confieso que he vivido. Because of the numerous editions, page numbers here correspond to the text in Obras completas, volume 5.
INTRODUCTION
“The Word”: “La palabra,” Plenos poderes, in Neruda, Pablo. Fully Empowered, trans. Alastair Reid (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975).
the first time the art form had been featured: The Academy of American Poets looked at the New York Times archives and only identified front-page pieces about poets on their deaths, as related to author by executive director Jennifer Benka, August 24, 2017.
“American Poets”: Alter, Alexandra. “American Poets, Refusing to Go Gentle, Rage Against the Right,” New York Times, April 21, 2017.
CHAPTER ONE: TO TEMUCO
“The Birth”: “Nacimiento” (1964), Memorial de Isla Negra, in Neruda, Pablo. Isla Negra: A Notebook, trans. Alastair Reid (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1981).
Their property had a little more: Loyola, Hernán. Neruda: La biografía literaria (Santiago: Seix Barral, 2006), 18.
As José del Carmen grew: The background information on this period of José del Carmen’s life comes primarily from two living relatives, both of whom have been so helpful to me: The first is Bernardo Reyes, grandson of Neruda’s half brother, Rodolfo Reyes Candia, who was generous in our correspondences and who also wrote a book, Neruda: Retrato de familia, 1904–1920, 3rd ed. (Santiago: RIL Editores, 2003). I have also used material from the first two chapters of his Viaje a la poesía de Neruda: Residencias, calles y ciudades olvidadas (Santiago: RIL Editores, 2004). The second is Patricio Mason, great-great-grandson of Charles “Carlos” Mason, who generously shared with me crucial facts and insights into the history of his fascinating family, via correspondence. He also took upon himself the inspired noble mission of constructing a complete extended family tree for the Mason family from 1634 to 2016, viewable at http://www.ics.cl/Familia_Mason/index.html.
allowing him to find: Loyola, Neruda: La biografía literaria, 19.
fundamental role in Neruda’s life: Espinoza, Miguel. “Mason, ‘el constructor,’” Neruda in Temuco (blog), February 21, 2010, http://nerudaentemuco.blogspot.com.es/2010/02/neruda-en-temuco-mason-el-constructor.html.
In 1888: Mason, Patricio. “History of the Mason Family in Chile and Their Relatives by Marriage, 1634–2016,” http://www.ics.cl/Familia_Mason/persons/person137.html.
he quickly ascended to the top: Espinoza, “Mason, ‘el constructor.’”
on land he had managed to obtain: Ibid., and author correspondence with Patricio Mason, 2017.
The hotel allowed Mason to: Espinoza, “Mason, ‘el constructor.’”
“an enormous cooking pot”: CHV, 401.
Far along in her pregnancy: Author correspondence with Patricio Mason, 2017.
The baby was handed off: Ibid.
He may have been harboring: Ibid.
At 7:30 on the evening: Ibid.
It belonged to Trinidad: Ibid.
he wasn’t nearly as involved: Patricio Mason discovered nearly eighty legal documents from Chile’s National Archives showing all manner of transactions between Charles Mason and his Candia in-laws and his sons-in-law, but absolutely none involving José del Carmen. The sole historical document kept at the National Archives involving José del Carmen shows him, in 1894, buying at auction a piece of property on behalf of José Rudecindo Ortega.
the barefoot, semiwild son: As described by Bernardo Reyes, Rodolfo’s own grandson, in Neruda: Retrato de familia.
He brought his son Neftalí: Loyola, Hernán. El joven Neruda (Barcelona: Lumen, 2014), 30.
Trinidad had a certain equanimity: Neruda, Pablo. “Infancia y poesía,” Salón de Honor of the University of Chile, January 1, 1954. Available in OC, 4:918.
CHAPTER TWO: WHERE THE RAIN WAS BORN
“The Frontier (1904)”: “La frontera (1904)” (1950), Canto general.
“guardian angel”: CHV, 405.
“gentle shadow”: CHV, 416.
“tools or books”: CHV, 401–408.
all lived on the same block: Author correspondence with Patricio Mason, 2017.
six children: Ibid., and Mason, “History of the Mason Family in Chile.” Charles Mason also had a son with a Peruvian woman before he met and married Micaela Candia. This son, the eldest of the Mason siblings, also settled in Temuco.
Rudecindo Ortega, who had fathered: Author correspondence with Patricio Mason, 2017.
Incomplete staircases led to floors: “Infancia y poesía,” OC, 4:917.
“Below the volcanoes”: CHV, 399.
“The essential Neruda was a human being”: Author interview with Alastair Reid, 2004.
“terrestrial core”: Neruda, Pablo. “El joven provinciano,” Las vidas del poeta. Memorias y recuerdos, O cruzeiro internacional (Rio de Janeiro), January 16, 1962. Quoted in Escobar, Alejandro Jiménez, ed. Pablo Neruda en O cruzeiro internacional (Santiago: Puerto de Palos, 2004), 28. Most of the rest of the details of the trips into the forests with his father are from CHV, 402–403.
“in the middle of green”: Neruda, “El joven provinciano,” in Escobar, Pablo Neruda en O cruzeiro internacional, 27–29.
as Neruda would later lyricize: “Las cicadas,” Las uvas y el viento.
“La Casa”: Canto general.
By the time he was ten years old: CHV, 402–404.
“I lived with the spiders”: From “Where Can Guillermina Be?” in Neruda, Pablo. Extravagaria, trans. Alastair Reid (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974).
Neftalí’s explorations piqued: From the poem “Las cicadas,” Las uvas y el viento; words from “Infancia y poesía,” OC, 4:917–918; and a talk given at the University of Chile around his fiftieth birthday. Much of the text would find its way into his memoirs.
“Along endless beaches”: CHV, 413.
“just a sack of bones”: CHV, 403.
They had a cook: Neruda mentions the presence of a cook in CHV, 409. As Patricio Mason explained, “Having a local lady come in to prepare meals was certainly a service a railroad conductor could afford” (author correspondence, January 2017).
it had a dignifying presence: Neruda, Pablo. “Viaje por las costas del mundo,” lecture, 1942. Available in OC, 4:505.
One evening when Neftalí: “La copa de sangre,” OC, 4:417.
“like a man in mourning”: “Infancia y poesía,” OC, 4:922.
The blood fell into a basin: “La copa de sangre,” OC, 4:417–418, and “Infancia y poesía,” OC, 4:922.
“The Heights of Macchu Picchu”: Canto XII, Canto general. My translation builds upon earlier versions by John Felstiner and Stephen Kessler.
“where the rain was born”: CHV, 400.
Neftalí was always the last: Author interview with Inés Valenzuela, widow of Neruda’s childhood friend Diego Muñoz, July 2003. She and Neruda instantly formed a strong friendship upon Diego’s introduction.
“He wanted to give me his cup”: Valle, Juvencio. “Testimonio,” Aurora, nos. 3–4 (July–December 1964): 248.
When he was confined to his bed: From an interview with Neruda’s sister, Laura, in a compilation of his letters to her: Cartas a Laura, ed. Hugo Montes (1978; Santiago: Andres Bello, 1991), 12–13.
“an imperceptible vibration”: Valle, “Testimonio,” 247–248.
They took “refuge”: Ibid., 249.
“Poetry”: Memorial de Isla Negra, in Neruda, Isla Negra.
“a kind of anguish and sadness”: CHV, 416.
The original Spanish: Jofré, Manuel. Pablo Neruda: De los mitos y el ser Americano (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Ediciones Ferilibro, 2004).
the beginnings of a cosmic vision: From the text of the poem “Poetry,” Memorial de Isla Negra, Neruda, Isla Negra.
CHAPTER THREE: AWKWARD ADOLESCENCE
“Where Can Guillermina Be?”: Neruda, Extravagaria. Translations of poem in this chapter by author; translation in appendix by Alistair Reid, as noted.
“Desperation”: Collected in a text entitled Los cuadernos de Neftalí Reyes, available in OC, 4:65.
it was precious: From an expanded edition of Neruda’s memoir Confieso que he vivido, ed. Darío Oses (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2017), 44.
When he grew bold enough: Ibid., 45.
his detour to touch it: Ibid., Neruda mentions the frequency. Gloria Urgelles writes that he stopped to pet its nose on his way to school on a daily basis in “Las casas de Pablo Neruda,” El Mercurio (Santiago), September 15, 1991. Available at http://www.emol.com/especiales/neruda/19910915.htm.
Orlando was young and unruly: Particular credit goes to Bernardo Reyes for his description of Orlando throughout Neruda: Retrato de familia.
“Orlando Mason protested”: “Infancia y poesía,” OC, 4:923–924.
between eight and sixteen years old: Danús Vásquez, Hernán, and Susana Vera Iturra. Carbón: Protagonista del pasado, presente y futuro (Santiago: RIL Editores, 2010), 95.
“With a glance, the penetrating eyes”: Lillo, Baldomero. Sub-Terra: Cuadros mineros (Santiago: Imprenta moderna, 1904), 21–22.
“A deplorable neglect continues”: Venegas, Alejandro. Sinceridad: Chile íntimo en 1910 (1910; repr., Santiago: CESOC Ed., 1998), 250–251.
“These two are the factors”: Neruda, Pablo. “Entusiasmo y perseverancia,” La Mañana, July 18, 1917. Available in OC, 4:49–50.
Neftalí was reflecting on: Victor Farías notes the sense of responsibility for what Neruda witnessed in the prologue to Neruda, Pablo. Cuadernos de Temuco: 1919–1920 (Buenos Aires: Seix Barral, 1996), 19.
In broad, abstract terms: Colón, Daniel. “Orlando Mason y las raíces del pensamiento social de Pablo Neruda,” Revista chilena de literatura 79 (September 2011): 23–45.
“a very beautiful woman, dark skinned”: Author interview with Inés Valenzuela, July 2003.
verses of Garcilaso de la Vega: Author correspondence with Tina Escaja, poet and director of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies at the University of Vermont, 2011.
“historical cadences” of Francisco de Quevedo’s: Ibid., Much of this information and analysis, including the “historical cadences” wording.
“the way the poem embodies”: Hass, Robert. A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry (New York: Ecco, 2017), 3.
an additional, purposeful effect: Ibid.
As author René de Costa: De Costa, René. The Poetry of Pablo Neruda (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979), 35.
“My Eyes”: Los cuadernos de Neftalí Reyes, OC, 4:55.
nearly thirty poems: Schidlowsky, David. Las furias y las penas: Pablo Neruda y su tiempo, vol. 1 (Providencia, Santiago: RIL Editores, 2008), 51.
CHAPTER FOUR: THE YOUNG POET
Teresa León Bettiens won the title: After her mother remarried, Teresa León Bettiens went by Teresa Vasquez. For clarity, her original last name is used throughout this book.
On the first day of vacation: CHV, 408–409.
the heartbeat of the universe: CHV, 410.
“but that cry of all”: “Chucao tapaculo,” Canto general.
a masculine model: Loyola, Neruda: La biografía literaria, 64–65.
“Hate”: “Odio” (October 11, 1919), Los cuadernos de Neftalí Reyes, OC, 4:110.
“Puerto Saavedra had the smell”: Neruda, Pablo. “65,” Ercilla, July 16, 1969. Available in OC, 5:234–235.
“they’d both starve”: Author interview with Rosa León Muller, Teresa León Bettiens’s niece, 2014.
“black and sudden eyes”: “65,” OC, 5:234–235.
“condemned to read”: Ibid.
“Have you read this one yet?”: CHV, 416.
Neruda once noted: Cardona Peña, Alfredo. Pablo Neruda y otros ensayos (Mexico City: Ediciones de Andrea, 1955), 25.
“I have fixed myself up”: Teitelboim, Volodia. Neruda: La biografía (1996; Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 2004), 39.
“terrible vision”: CHV, 418.
He was a flamboyant man: Lago, Tomás. Ojos y oídos: Cerca de Neruda (Santiago: LOM Ediciones , 1999), 24.
“in Chemistry class”: At bottom of the poem, OC, 4:82.
“Damn slackers”: Reyes, Neruda: Retrato de familia, 89–91.
Neftalí was crestfallen: Ibid., 106–107.
“Sensación autobiográfica”: Los cuadernos de Neftalí Reyes, OC, 4:132–135.
It showcases how Neftalí: Loyola, Hernán. “Los modos de autorreferencia en la obra de Pablo Neruda,” Aurora, nos. 3–4 (July–December 1964). Available at http://www.neruda.uchile.cl/critica/hloyolamodos.html.
