Garden of Remembrance
"Where is the child I was, still inside me or gone?"
Love
Because of you, in gardens of blossoming flowers I ache from the perfumes of spring.
I have forgotten your face, I no longer remember your hands;
how did your lips feel on mine?
Because of you, I love the white statues drowsing in the parks,
the white statues that have neither voice nor sight.
I have forgotten your voice, your happy voice; I have forgotten your eyes.
Like a flower to its perfume, I am bound to my vague memory of you.
I live with pain that is like a wound; if you touch me, you will do me irreperable harm.
Your caresses enfold me, like climbing vines on melancholy walls.
I have forgotten your love, yet I seem to glimpse you in every window.
Because of you, the heady perfumes of summer pain me;
because of you, I again seek out the signs that precipitate desires:
shooting stars, falling objects.
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Here I Love You
In the dark pines the wind disentangles itself.
The moon glows like phosphorous on the vagrant waters
Days, all one kind, go chasing each other
The snow unfurls in dancing figures.
A silver gull slips down from the west.
sometimes a sail. High, high stars.
Oh the black cross of a ship.
Alone.
Sometimes I get up early and even my soul is wet.
Far away the sea sounds and resounds.
This is a port.
Here I love you.
Here I love you and the horizon hides you in vain.
I love you still among these cold things.
Sometimes my kisses go on those heavy vessels
that cross the sea towards no arrival.
I see myself forgotten like those old anchors.
The piers sadden when the afternoon moors there.
My life grows tired, hungry to no purpose.
I love what I do not have. You are so far.
My loathing wrestles with the slow twilights.
But night comes and starts to sing to me.
The moon turns its clockwork dream.
The biggest stars look at me with your eyes.
And as I love you, the pines in the wind
want to sing your name with their leaves of wire.
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BIOGRAPHY
Neruda was born on July 12 in 1904, in a small
agrarian town of southern Chile. His real name is Neftal’ Reyes Basualto. In
1910 he is admitted in the Liceo de Temuco, a city in the south of Chile, where
he finishes secondary school ten years later.
In 1920 he writes a poem entitled "Hombre", which he signs with the
"pseudonym" of Pablo Neruda, the name which he will continue to use
for the rest of his life.
He travels to Santiago, the capital of Chile, to study French at the Instituto
Pedag—gico of the Universidad de Chile.
In October 1921 he achieves his first literary success obtaining the First Prize
in the "Concurso de los Juegos Florales", organized by the Federaci—n
de Estudiantes, FECH, of the University, with the poem "La Canci—n de la
Fiesta" (The Feast Song), published in the Students Federation's magazine
"Claridad".
In 1923 he publishes his first book entitled "Crepusculario". At the
age of 20 years, he is considered one of the most promising young poets with his
book "Veinte poemas de amor y una canci—n desesperada".
In 1927, he sets off to Rangoon, in Burma, to work in a very modest consular
position. In 1928, he is transferred to Ceylon and later in 1930, to Java. The
world economic crisis forces him to return to Chile,where he arrives in 1932.
During this traveling period throughout the Orient, he writes one of his
masterpieces, the first volume of "Residencia en la Tierra".
In 1934 he is appointed as Consul in Madrid, where he meets the most reknown
personalities of the so-called "Generaci—n del 27", among them
Alberti, Aleixandre, Altolaguirre, Gerardo Diego, Miguel Hern‡ndez, Garc’a
Lorca, and others.
At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, while Madrid is subjected to the
bombing and the blockade of Franco's troops, Neruda lives in Madrid. During that
time, he writes "Espa–a en el Coraz—n", a unique book because it was
written on paper produced in rather peculiar circumstances, during the Spanish
Civil War.
In 1940, he travels to Mexico where he fullfills consular duties until 1943.
Back in Chile, in the year 1945, he is elected Senator by the province of
Tarapac‡ and Antofagasta. That same year he is awarded the National Literature
Prize.
As a member of the Communist Party, in 1948 he is deprived of his parliamentary
rights and persecuted, whilst the Communist Party outlawed.
In 1949, he takes refuge in France and later in Mexico, where he publishes the
first edition of his most extraordinary work, "Canto General". In
Chile, at the same time, a clandestine edition is published.
From then on, Neruda travels and lives in many different countries. He returns
to Chile and in 1954, on his 50th birthday, he offers a series of conferences
about his life and his poetry at the University of Chile, that would be the
basis for his memoirs, which he publishes later, by chapters, in "O
Cruzeiro" magazine and then in the book "Confieso que he vivido".
During that same year he publishes his "Odas Elementales" (Elementary
Odes).
That same year he donates his most valuable library and collection of peri-winkles
to the University of Chile.
On the 30th of March, 1962, the Faculty of Philosophy and Education of the
University of Chile, in the University's Honor Hall, receives Neruda as an
academic member "in recognition of his vast poetic work of universal
meaning". The welcome speech is made by Nicanor Parra.
At the age of 60, in 1964, Neruda writes another of his masterpieces, the five
volumes of "Memorial de Isla Negra".
In 1969 he is proclaimed a presidential pre-candidate.
In 1971, he is appointed Ambassador to France.
That same year he is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
He dies in September 1973.