Table Of ContentPENGUIN TWENTIETH-CENTURY CLASSICS
PABLO NERUDA
Pablo Neruda, the internationally acclaimed Latin American poet,
was born in 1904 in Parral, Chile. In 1920 he went to Santiago to
study and published his first book of poems, La cancion de la fiesta
(1921); and his second collection, Crepusculario (1923), brought him
instant recognition. In 1924 he published the enormously popular
Veinte poemas de amory una cancion deseperada. From 1927 to 1945 he
served as Chilean consul in Rangoon, Java and Barcelona, and was
writing continuously. Greatly influenced by events in the Spanish
Civil War, Neruda joined the Communist Party after the second
World War, and his changed attitudes registered themselves in his
poetry. From now on he regarded poetry not as an elite pursuit but
as a" statement of human solidarity addressed to 'simple people'.
Canto general (one part of which is The Heights of Macchu Picchu,
translated by Nathaniel Tarn) is a poem of epic proportions, tracing
the history of Latin America and evoking the grandeur of its land
scapes. It also introduces political polemic. Always a prolific poet,
Neruda continued to write poetry throughout the fifties and sixties,
and in 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Poetry. From 1970
to 1973 he served under Allende as Chilean ambassador to Paris.
Pablo Neruda died in 1973, shortly after the coup in Chile which
ousted Allende.
Books by Pablo Neruda
Crepusculario I Crepusculario
Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada I Twenty
Love Poems and a Song of Despair
Tentativa del hombre infinito / Venture of the Infinite Man
El habitante y su esperanza / The Inhabitant and His Hope
Anillos / Rings
El hondero entusiasta / The Ardent Slingsman
Residencia en la tierra (/) / Residence on Earth (/)
Residencia en la tierra (2) I Residence on Earth (2)
Tercera residencia I The Third Residence
La ahogada del cielo / The Woman Drowned in the Sky
Las furias y las penas / Griefs and Rages
Reunion bajo las nuevas banderas / United under New Flags
Espafia en el corazon / Spain in My Heart
Canto a Stalingrado / Song to Stalingrad
Canto general I Canto general
La l£mpara en la tierra / A Lamp on This Earth
Alturas de Macchu Picchu / The Heights of Macchu Picchu
Los conquistadores / The Conquistadors
Los libertadores / The Liberators
La arena traicionada / The Sands Betrayed
America, no invoco tu nombre en vano / America, I Don't
Invoke Your Name in Vain
Canto general de Chile / Song of Chile
La tierra se llama Juan / The Land Is Called Juan
Que despierte el lenador / Let the Rail Splitter Awaken
El fugitivo / The Fugitive
Las flores de Punitaqui / The Flowers of Punitaqui
Los rios del canto / Rivers of Song
Coral de ano nuevo para la patria en tinieblas / A New Year's
Hymn for My Country in Darkness
El gran oceano / The Great Ocean
Yo soy / I Am
Las uvas y el viento I The Grapes and the Wind
Los versos del capitdn I The Captavris Verses
Odas elementales I Elemental Odes
Nuevas odas elementales I More Elemental Odes
Tercer libro de las odas I The Third Book of Odes
Viajes / Journeys
Estravagario I Extravagaria
Navegaciones y regresos I Voyages and Homecomings
Cien sonetos de amor I One Hundred Love Sonnets
Cancidn de gesta I Chanson de geste
Las piedras de Chile I The Stones of Chile
Cantos ceremoniales I Ceremonial Songs
Plenos poderes / Fully Empowered
Memorial de Isla Negra / Notes from Isla Negra
Arte de pdjaros I The Art of Birds
Una casa en la arena / A House by the Shore
La barcarola I Barcarole
Fulgor y muerte de Joaquin Murieta / Splendor and Death of
Joaquin Murieta
Comiendo en Hungria / Eating in Hungary
Las manos del dia I The Hands of Day
Aun I And Yet
Findemundo / World's End
La espada encendida I The Flaming Sword
Las piedras del cielo I Sky Stones
Geografia infructuosa I Barren Terrain
Incitacidn al Nixonicidio y alabanza de la revolucidn chilena I A Call for
Nixonicide and Glory to the Chilean Revolution
El mar y las campanas / The Sea and the Bells
La rosa separada I The Separate Rose
2000 / 2000
Jar din de invierno / Winter Garden
El corazdn amarillo I The Yellow Heart
Libro de las preguntas I The Book of Riddles
Elegia I Elegy
Defectos escogidos t Selected Failings
Confieso que he vivido: Memorias I Memoirs
MEMOIRS
BY
Tablo Neruda
TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY
Hardie St. Martin
©
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England
Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Private Bag 102902, NSMC, Auckland, New Zealand
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
Translated from the Spanish, Confieso que he vivido: Memorias,
and first published in the United States of America
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. 1977
First published in Great Britain by
Souvenir Press (Educational & Academic) Ltd 1977
Published in Penguin Books 1978
17 19 20 18
Confieso que he vivido: Memorias
Copyright © The Estate of Pablo Neruda, 1974
Translation copyright © Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc., 1976, 1977
All rights reserved
Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic
Set in Linotype Janson
The final editing of Pablo Neruda's memoirs
was interrupted by his death
Matilde Neruda and Miguel Otero Silva
prepared the manuscript for publication.
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's
prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
Contents
/
1 THE COUNTRY BOY 5
2 LOST IN THE CITY 29
3 THE ROADS OF THE WORLD 55
4 LUMINOUS SOLITUDE 77
5 SPAIN IN MY HEART III
6 I W E NT OUT TO LOOK FOR THE FALLEN
7 MEXICO, BLOSSOMING AND THORNY l$0
8 MY COUNTRY IN DARKNESS 165
9 BEGINNING AND END OF EXILE 193
10 VOYAGE AND H O M E C O M I NG 221
11 POETRY IS AN OCCUPATION 253
12 CRUEL, BELOVED H O M E L A ND 329
Chronology 353
Index 365
MEMOIRS
/
I
N these memoirs or recollections there are gaps here and there,
and sometimes they are also forgetful, because life is like that.
Intervals of dreaming help us to stand up under days of work.
Many of the things I remember have blurred as I recalled them,
they have crumbled to dust, like irreparably shattered glass.
What the memoir writer remembers is not the same thing the
poet remembers. He may have lived less, but he photographed
much more, and he re-creates for us with special attention to de
tail. The poet gives us a gallery full of ghosts shaken by the fire
and darkness of his time.
Perhaps I didn't live just in my self, perhaps I lived the lives of
others.
From what I have left in writing on these pages there will al
ways fall—as in the autumn grove or during the harvesting of the
vineyards—yellow leaves on their way to death, and grapes that
will find new life in the sacred wine.
My life is a life put together from all those lives: the lives of the
poet
1
The Country Boy
T^E CHILEAN FOREST
U
NDER the volcanoes, beside the snow-capped mountains,
among the huge lakes, the fragrant, the silent, the tangled
Chilean forest . . . My feet sink down into the dead leaves, a
fragile twig crackles, the giant rauli trees rise in all their bristling
height, a bird from the cold jungle passes over, flaps its wings, and
stops in the sunless branches. And then, from its hideaway, it sings
like an oboe . . . The wild scent of the laurel, the dark scent of
the boldo herb, enter my nostrils and flood my whole being . . .
The cypress of the Guaitecas blocks my way . . . This is a verti
cal world: a nation of birds, a plenitude of leaves . . . / stumble
over a rock, dig up the uncovered hollow, an enormous spider
covered with red hair stares up at me, motionless, as huge as a
crab . . . A golden carabus beetle blows its mephitic breath at
me, as its brilliant rainbow disappears like lightning . . . Going
on, I pass through a forest of ferns much taller than 1 am: from
their cold green eyes sixty tears splash down on my face and,
behind me, their fans go on quivering for a long time . . . A de
caying tree trunk: what a treasure! . . . Black and blue mush
rooms have given it ears, red parasite plants have covered it with
rubies, other lazy plants have let it borrow their beards, and a
snake springs out of the rotted body like a sudden breath, as if
the spirit of the dead trunk were slipping away from it . . . Far
ther along, each tree stands away from its fellows . . . They soar
5
