Neruda, p.56
Neruda, page 56
“¡El liceo! ¡El liceo!”: Los cuadernos de Neftalí Reyes, OC, 4:159–161.
Through most of his life: Guibert, Rita. “Pablo Neruda,” Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, Fifth Series, ed. George Plimpton (New York: Viking, 1981).
“completely off the scent”: CHV, 571.
“No one until now”: Lispector, Clarice, interview with Pablo Neruda, Jornal do Brasil, April 19, 1969. Quoted in Lispector, Clarice. A descoberta do mundo (Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1984), 278.
“The Flesh Is Sad, Alas!”: Los cuadernos de Neftalí Reyes, OC, 4:164–165.
Latin America’s very first: Ramirez, Felipe. “Los 110 años de la Federación de Estudiantes de la U. de Chile,” Universidad de Chile, October 21, 2016, http://www.uchile.cl/noticias/127751/los-110-anos-de-la-federacion-de-estudiantes-de-la-u-de-chile.
born of a hatred of war: Racine, Nicole. “The Clarté Movement in France, 1919–21,” Journal of Contemporary History 2, no. 2 (April 1967): 195.
internationalism, pacifism, and political action: Ibid., 203.
“radicals, masons, anarchists”: González Vera, José Santos. “Estudiantes del año veinte,” Babel 28 (July–August 1945): 35.
One of them vomited: Craib, Raymond B. The Cry of the Renegade: Politics and Poetry in Interwar Chile (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), Kindle location 1091.
“respectable persons”: Ibid., Kindle location 1615–1616.
In fact, after the assault: Accounts of the attack from various sources but principally Craib, Cry of the Renegade, and Craib, Raymond B. “Students, Anarchists and Categories of Persecution in Chile, 1920,” A Contracorriente 8, no. 1 (Fall 2010): 22–60. A Contracorriente is a great online journal run by Greg Dawes at North Carolina State University. José Santos González Vera’s accounts were also illustrative, especially “Estudiantes del año veinte,” 34–44.
“that aspired to give”: Schweitzer, Daniel. “Juan Gandulfo,” Babel 28 (July–August 1945): 20.
Under harsh prison conditions: Author correspondence with Raymond B. Craib, 2015.
“Within the national context”: CHV, 435.
“aggressive, combative, destined”: Silva Castro, Raúl. Pablo Neruda (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1964), 29.
“Through these verses”: Ibid., 31.
Silva Castro quite astutely: Ibid.
one of the most emotionally effective: Author correspondence with Jaime Concha, professor emeritus of Latin American literature at the University of California, San Diego, 2001, among other sources.
He seamlessly illustrates: Analysis influenced by Victor Farías’s prologue to Neruda, Cuadernos de Temuco, 22.
San Gregorio massacre: Details of massacre from Recabarren, Floreal. La matanza de San Gregorio, 1921: Crisis y tragedia, 2nd ed. (Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2003). Observation of timing between the publication and event from Schidlowsky, Las furias y las penas (2008), 1:54.
Serani ended up having: Aguirre, Margarita. Genio y figura de Pablo Neruda, 3rd ed. (Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 1997), 81–82.
“I waited for him”: González Vera, José Santos. Cuando era muchacho (Santiago: Nascimento, 1951), 270.
“Moon”: “Luna,” Los cuadernos de Neftalí Reyes, OC, 4:204–205.
The poem was in a newly: Loyola, El joven Neruda, 98.
it would serve as a calling card: OC, 4:1239.
CHAPTER FIVE: BOHEMIAN TWILIGHTS
“Night Train”: “El tren nocturno,” Memorial de Isla Negra, in Neruda, Isla Negra.
“the indispensable black suit”: CHV, 427.
“thousands of buildings housing”: CHV, 436.
impressed by new sights: Lago, Ojos y oídos, 18.
“her enormous womb”: Neruda, Pablo. Lecture, Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Universidad de Chile, April 23, 1969. Quoted in Reyes, Viaje a la poesía, 7.
The odor of gas fumes: CHV, 436.
the barks of old dogs: Reyes, Viaje a la poesía, 26.
“magnificent sheaves of colors”: CHV, 428.
“The Pension House on Calle Maruri”: “La pension de la calle Maruri” (1962), Memorial de Isla Negra, in Neruda, Isla Negra.
He continued to feel: Concha, Jaime. “Proyección de Crepusculario,” Atenea, no. 408 (April–June 1965). Available in Concha, Jaime. Tres ensayos sobre Pablo Neruda (Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1974), 13–19.
“Neighborhood Without Light”: “Barrio sin luz,” The Book of Twilights.
Murga was seen as: Tellier, Jorge. “Romeo Murga, poeta adolescente,” Atenea, no. 395 (January–February 1962): 151–171. Available at http://www.uchile.cl/cultura/teillier/artyentrev/16.html.
“What she had hoped”: Lagerlöf, Selma. The Saga of Gösta Berling, trans. Paul Norlén (New York: Penguin, 2009), 141.
These incorrigible bohemians: Author interview with José Miguel Varas, Chilean author and friend of Neruda’s, 2003.
“semi-mute” childhood: Author interview with Aida Figueroa, attorney and wife of Minister of Justice Sergio Insunza, 2003.
“Carlos Sabat is a great river”: Neruda, Pablo. Claridad, December 5, 1923. Available in OC, 4:311.
“Carlos Sabat. From the first”: OC, 5:923–933.
“the eccentricity of a storybook prince”: CHV, 437.
“in the midst of so much despicable”: Descriptions of the Grand Bacchanalia from Muñoz, Diego. Memorias: Recuerdos de la bohemia Nerudiana (Santiago: Mosquito Comunicaciones, 1999), 105–109.
twenty-five or so other poets: González Vera, Cuando era muchacho, 222.
“Song of the Fiesta”: “La canción de la fiesta,” OC, 4:227.
“La juventud tenía”: Teitelboim, Neruda: La biografía, 56.
Neruda was asked to read: González Vera, Cuando era muchacho, 222.
“1921”: Memorial de Isla Negra. Translated by Jessica Powell.
“You don’t know that”: Neruda, Pablo. “Empleado,” Claridad, August 13, 1921. Available in OC, 4:253.
In a 1922 editorial: Neruda, Pablo. Claridad, May 20, 1922. Available in OC, 4:262–263. Pointed out in Craib, Cry of the Renegade, 176, 177i.
His friends at Claridad: CHV, 449.
As Alone wrote in a book: Alone (Hernán Díaz Arrieta). Los cuatro grandes de la literatura Chilena durante el siglo XX: Augusto d’Halmar, Pedro Prado, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda (Santiago: Zig-Zag, 1963), 175–176.
Alone had just cashed in: Alone (Hernán Díaz Arrieta). “Pablo Neruda, Premio Nobel de Literatura,” El Mercurio (Santiago), October 24, 1971. Quoted in Salerno, Nicolás. “Alone y Neruda,” Estudios públicos 94 (Fall 2004): 297–389.
“That moment when the first book appears”: CHV, 450.
The book itself marks: Concha, Jaime. Neruda (1904–1936) (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1972), 84.
“The dizzying array”: Craib, Cry of the Renegade, 89.
T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”: Author correspondence with Raymond B. Craib, July 1, 2015.
Thus The Book of Twilights wasn’t: Most of this analysis comes from Concha, Tres ensayos, 13–18.
“We are wretched”: Neruda, Pablo. “Miserables!” Claridad, September 1, 1923. Available in OC, 4:317.
Within them he employed: Drawn from Montes, Hugo. Para leer a Neruda (Buenos Aires: Editorial Francisco de Aguirre, 1974), 10.
Neruda acutely feels: Concha, “Proyección de Crepusculario,” in Tres ensayos, 18.
And the poems’ speaker: Montes, Para leer a Neruda, 10.
We see the purity: Concha, Neruda (1904–1936), 84.
“I’m Scared”: “Tengo miedo,” The Book of Twilights.
The scream stays paralyzed: Concha, Tres ensayos, 5–24.
“Overall, the work seems”: Concha, Neruda (1904–1936), 138.
“My Soul”: “Mi alma,” The Book of Twilights.
Diego Muñoz wrote that shortly: Muñoz, Memorias, 105–109.
prescreened these disciples’ verses: Ibid., 47.
Early in 1924, Neruda: Alazraki, Jaime. Poética y poesía de Pablo Neruda (New York: Las Américas, 1965).
“All of you, everyone”: Neruda, “Miserables!” in OC, 4:317–318.
He was now fixed: Neruda, Pablo. “Algunas reflexiones improvisadas sobre mis trabajos,” Mapocho (Santiago) 2, no. 3 (1964). Available in OC, 4:1201–1202.
“curious experience”: CHV, 451.
As if possessed by some: Neruda, “Algunas reflexiones,” in OC, 4:1201–1202.
Neruda felt he had discovered: Ibid.
“Are you sure those lines”: CHV, 451.
“Read this poem”: OC, 5:934.
“Seldom have I read”: CHV, 451.
“Sabat Ercasty’s letter ended”: CHV, 452.
CHAPTER SIX: DESPERATE SONGS
Poem V: Neruda, Pablo. Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada [Twenty Love Poems and a Desperate Song] (Santiago: Editorial Nascimento, 1924).
Albertina knew of his intelligence: Neruda, Pablo. Para Albertina Rosa: Epistolario, ed. Francisco Cruchaga Azócar (Santiago: Dolmen Ediciones, 1997), 9–15.
Ninety-six female: Reyes, Viaje a la poesía, 25.
She ignited romantic: Loyola, El joven Neruda, 79. Physical appeal and other attributes from author’s interviews with others and various readings.
They saw each other at: Information on Albertina in this paragraph from Poirot, Luis. Pablo Neruda: Absence and Presence, trans. Alastair Reid (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990), 144.
“He was so young”: Neruda, Pablo. Cartas de amor de Pablo Neruda, ed. Sergio Fernández Larraín (Madrid: Ediciones Rodas, 1974); and Loyola, Neruda: La biografía literaria, 144.
April 18, 1921: Various sources indicate that this is the probable date, including Teitelboim, Neruda: La biografía, 96, and Neruda, Para Albertina Rosa, 9.
He continued to walk: Poirot, Pablo Neruda, 144.
Albertina was smart: Author interviews with Inés Valenzuela, 2003 and 2008; Aida Figueroa, 2003; and José Miguel Varas, 2003.
Albertina’s significance for Neruda: Teitelboim, Neruda: La biografía, 86, and Loyola, Neruda: La biografía literaria, 115.
At first, their relationship: Loyola, El joven Neruda, 79.
“Sex”: Neruda, Pablo. Claridad, July 2, 1921. Available in OC, 4:225.
A piece Neruda wrote in his sixties: CHV, 304.
That would be a pivotal: As Loyola titles three of the subsections in this part of his book Neruda: La biografía literaria, “1923: El año de la encrucijada,” 141–148.
“And as you know”: Translated by Megan Coxe. OC, 5:847.
“It rained yesterday”: Coxe, trans., OC, 5:848.
“I confess to you”: Coxe, trans., OC, 5:850.
“The sole center of my existence”: OC, 4:285.
“spread out on the moist grass”: OC, 5:862.
Poem VI: Rexroth, Kenneth, ed. and trans. Thirty Spanish Poems of Love and Exile (San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1968).
“Little One”: OC, 5:862.
“This lullaby is for you”: “Poema de la ausente,” OC, 5:291.
“Did you like it”: Letter dated January 25, 1922/3, OC, 5:855.
“Almost always I feel”: Ibid.
Poem XV: Translation of second and third lines by Robert Hass (see Appendix I); “sealed” from W. S. Merwin.
“when we went for walks”: Poirot, Pablo Neruda, 144.
Albertina herself said: Cardone, Inés M. Los amores de Neruda (Santiago: Plaza Janés, 2005), 50.
“Your life, God, if he exists”: OC, 5:851.
“The only thing that makes”: Letter dated September 1925, OC, 5:900.
“I’ll eat you up with kisses”: OC, 5:887.
“square and rigid frames”: In the Claridad article “Sex,” he describes a “wave of rage” against those who make him fit his life into “square and rigid frames.” OC, 4:225.
a young Greta Garbo: Muñoz, Diego. Prologue to Ventana del recuerdo, by Laura Arrué (Santiago: Nascimento, 1982), 8.
A couple of years later, her older sister: Arrué, Ventana del recuerdo, 53.
Laura, now seventeen, thought: Ibid., 52.
Laura’s father was a learned: Ibid., 12.
Perhaps it was from him: Ibid.
Laura and Agustina found him: Ibid., 54.
an old sugar crate: Teitelboim, Neruda: La biografía, 115–116.
Laura’s grandparents owned: Arrué, Ventana del recuerdo, 14–16.
“atrocious troubadour”: Cardone, Los amores de Neruda, 75.
“I loved Pablito”: As quoted by her niece, Susan Sanchez, in Cardone, Los amores de Neruda, 85. The quote itself does not appear in the memoir Ventana del recuerdo, used throughout the paragraphs above.
“Here I have finished”: OC, 5:934–935.
overcome their initial shock: De Costa, Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 19–25.
The aging Augusto Winter: From Neruda’s introduction to the seventh edition of Twenty Love Poems, commemorating a million copies in print: Neruda, Pablo. “Pequeña Historia,” Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada [Twenty Love Poems and a Desperate Song], 7th ed. (Buenos Aires: Losada, 1961).
“He’ll be sorry”: OC, 5:1024.
Neruda’s attitude toward his work: De Costa, Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 20.
“A very calm, modest muchacho”: Reyes, Felipe. Nascimento: El editor de los Chilenos, 2nd ed. (Santiago: Minimocomun Ediciones, 2014), 119–120.
“frail and quiet”: Ibid., 120.
In person, Neruda was: Testimony of Nascimento from El Siglo (Bogotá), July 11, 1954, quoted in Reyes, Nascimento, 120; and author correspondence with Felipe Reyes.
That square shape: Neruda, “Pequeña historia,” Veinte poemas (1961).
“the greatest departure from myself”: Neruda, Pablo. “Exégesis y soledad,” La Nación, August 20, 1924. Available in OC, 1:323–324.
It was a book that made: Author interview with Federico Schopf, poet and professor of literature at the University of Chile, 2003.
“right away wanted a memento”: González Vera, Cuando era muchacho, 222.
“fails to convince”: Latorre, Mariano. “Los Libros,” Zig-Zag, August 16, 1924. Quoted in Schopf, Federico. Neruda comentado (Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 2003), 84.
“emotion is absent”: Escudero, Alfonso. “La actividad literaria en 1924,” Atenea, February 31, 1925. Quoted in Schopf, Neruda comentado, 85.
“a certain halting”: Alone (Hernán Díaz Arrieta). “Crónica literaria: Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada, Editorial Nacimiento,” La Nación, August 3, 1924.
“still haven’t sprouted”: Ibid.
The critics and similar old-guard readers: Much of the discussion in this and the following paragraphs on the differences between Twenty Love Poems and the poetry of Max Jara and others is drawn from conversations between the author and Chilean poet and scholar Rodrigo Rojas, particularly in April and June 2005.
In his important book: De Costa, Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 32–33.
Diego Muñoz tried to reason: Muñoz, Memorias, 39.
“I undertook the greatest”: Neruda, “Exégesis y soledad,” in OC, 1:323–324.
Years later, Alone admitted: Alone, Los cuatro grandes, 196.
a succès de scandale: De Costa, Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 25.
By 1972, two million copies: OC, 1:1149. A commemorative edition for reaching two million copies was published by Losada in December 1972.
Though global sales numbers: Hernán Loyola, for example, states that more than ten million copies had been sold by 2004, as referenced in the Santiago newspaper La Opinión, “Celebran los 100 de Neruda,” July 12, 2004. Also as reported by the Spanish international news agency Agencia EFE. For example, Wolter, Matilde. “Neruda sigue siendo el poeta más leído,” Agencia EFE, December 7, 2004. Available at http://www.elperiodicomediterraneo.com/noticias/sociedad/neruda-sigue-siendo-poeta-mas-leido_114767.html.
“suddenly gave us back”: Cortázar, Julio. “Neruda entre nosotros,” Plural (Mexico City) 30 (March 1974): 39. Quoted in Felstiner, John. Translating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1980).
CHAPTER SEVEN: DEAD GALLOP
“Every day I have to find”: OC, 5:899.
“Pablo’s state of mind”: Azócar, Rubén. “Testimonio,” Aurora, nos. 3–4 (July–December 1964): 215.
“These days have been bitter”: Neruda, Cartas de amor de Pablo Neruda, 228–229.
“money, love, and poetry”: Azócar, “Testimonio,” 215.
“You know that I like”: OC, 5:884–885.
“Hide them under your mattress”: Arrué, Ventana del recuerdo, 62.
“Ah,” he wrote Albertina: OC, 5:887.
Neruda conspired to kidnap Laura: Cardone, Los amores de Neruda, 75–76. Cardone points out that it was Loyola who identified, through direct conversations with Arrué, that Neruda’s companion for the kidnapping was indeed Barrios.
“his soul was spinning”: Azócar, “Testimonio,” 215.
“strip poetry of all”: Silva Castro, Raúl. “Una hora de charla con Pablo Neruda,” El Mercurio, October 10, 1926.
“irreducible purity”: Neruda, Pablo. “Erratas y erratones,” Ercilla, August 27, 1969. Available in OC, 5:237.
“one of the most important books”: Neruda in conversation with Cardona Peña: Cardona Peña, Alfredo. “Pablo Neruda: Breve historia de sus libros,” Cuadernos americanos 54, no. 6 (November–December 1950): 265.
“A Scattered Expression”: Cited and contextualized in de Costa, Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 43–44. Full text in OC, 4:322.
As Breton wrote: Quotes from Breton, André. Manifestoes of Surrealism, trans. Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane (1924; Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969), 26.
These measured changes: De Costa, René. Pablo Neruda’s tentativa del hombre infinito: Notes for a Reappraisal (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1975); originally published in Modern Philology 73, no. 2 (November 1975): 141–142.
The poets Neruda’s eccentric: Wilson, Jason. A Companion to Pablo Neruda: Evaluating Neruda’s Poetry (Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Tamesis, 2008), 82.
“poetic workshop”: From a speech given with Nicanor Parra at the University of Chile, March 1962, published as Nicanor, Parra, and Pablo Neruda. Discursos (Santiago: Editorial Nascimento, 1962). Pointed out for this context in Wilson, Companion to Pablo Neruda, 81.
