Neruda, p.69
Neruda, page 69
While the panel still could not “rule out or prove the nature, natural or violent” of Neruda’s death, they determined that prostate cancer was not the direct cause. They could not rule out that it was a natural death indirectly caused by the cancer—his body may have been so weak and immunocompromised by the cancer that it simply could not overcome an infection, for instance. The panel is in “100% agreement” that Neruda’s official death certificate was “invalid.” “Cachexia, cancer” was listed as the immediate cause. Cachexia is a weakness and wasting of the body due to a chronic illness, a state he was clearly not in, they determined.
The other focus was on the recovery of bacteria from Neruda’s remains. Based on their testing, they do not believe he died from the Staphylococcus aureus. The undamaged nature of the bacteria indicates that it was from a modern source of contamination. Even if it was present in 1973, the level found in their samples is so “extremely low” that it was highly unlikely to have caused a mortal infection.
There are, though, thousands of different bacteria present in Neruda’s remains. While looking through all the data, the team at Canada’s McMaster University came upon something “of interest” in the samples. This bacteria has “a long history of use as a biological agent, and it does produce a very lethal toxin,” explained Debi Poinar, a fellow research associate at their Ancient DNA Centre. It appears the Danish team has found similar results using different samples. (The name of the bacteria is being withheld during the investigation.)
The next step for both labs is to reconstruct the genome through computer analysis so they can identify the bacteria’s strain. This will “enable us to rule in, or, just as importantly, rule out the presence of an important pathogen.” As they presented their findings to the other members of the panel, the scientists asked for more time to finish this (mostly pro-bono) work. Judge Carroza has asked them to continue. Assuming the DNA from the bacteria is not too degraded, preventing the reconstruction of the entire genome and reaching those conclusive answers, results are expected within a year, hopefully much less.
*Chronicles written by priests and some conquistador generals describe their awe of the Mapuche’s relationship with language, especially seen in the parlimentos, the peace negotiations after each major battle. They were exhausting negotiations that could last ten days, and a speaker for the Mapuche nation might speak for forty-eight hours in a row. As he spoke, he would sometimes improvise poetry about a subject to clarify it. He might also refer to all the spiritual implications of his talking points. Much of this rhetorical rapture was lost on the Europeans, however, as their translators couldn’t keep up during the long sessions or convey the language accurately.
†In the twenty-first century, Aymaran music is still played straight through the four days and nights of their carnival, celebrating the end of harvest. In gatherings in little towns in Chile’s high plains, to the accompaniment of flutes and sixteen-string guitars, everyone present sings the coplas together. Sometimes there’s a competition to see which of the two parts of town produces the best singer and who can chant the rhymed verse the longest and loudest. The coplas are made up of quatrains, each line eight syllables long, rhyming abcb. Often a product of pure improvisation, they go on and on, themes linking from one to another.
*In some of Neruda’s adult poems he began to explore how the Mapuche words relate to colors, to landscapes, and to circles in cycles, the poetry drawing from their vision and worldview. He also described some of their rituals, in particular one where they dance and bend the fruit and other trees in order to wake them up for springtime. His affiliation with Mapuche imagery and poetics stands out in one set of lines in particular, in a poem depicting the ritual around the area of Angol (located between Temuco and Talcahuano), which is filled with the song of the naked ax that strikes the oaks.
Angol, Angol, Angol
deep ax,
song
of pure stone
in the mountain
The beauty and the resemblance to the Mapuche sounds are lost in translation from the Spanish original of “canto / de piedra pura / en la montaña.”
Neruda particularly esteemed the profoundness of the Mapuche’s culture of poetry, its deep roots in the development of Chilean culture and literature. While he had no known indigenous blood, he refers to the Mapuche people as his “father” while describing Chile’s genesis in Canto general. (He describes and relates to them with considerable tenderness in the book.)
Mark Eisner, Neruda
