Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the pen name of poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda. In 1971 Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Neruda became known as a poet while still a teenager. He wrote in a variety of styles including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and erotically-charged love poems such as the ones in his 1924 collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair.
" Neruda always wrote in green ink as it was his personal colour of hope.
During his lifetime, Neruda held many diplomatic positions and served a stint as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party. In 1948 a warrant was issued for his arrest for sympathizing with socialist cause.
Neruda hid for several months in a basement in a Chilean port and later escaped into Argentina with the help of friends. He was a close friend to socialist President Salvador Allende. When Neruda returned to Chile after his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Allende invited him to read at the Estadio Nacional(National Stadium) before 70,000 people.
However, Neruda was hospitalised with cancer at the time of the Chilean coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet. Three days after being hospitalised, Neruda died of heart failure on September 23,1973.
Already a legend in his lifetime, Neruda's death reverberated around the world. The government of Pinochet denied permission to transform Neruda's funeral into a public event. However, thousands of grieving Chileans disobeyed the curfew and crowded the streets.
I want you to know one thing
you know how this is
if I look at the crystal moon
at the red branch of the slow autumn
at my window
if I touch near the fire
the impalpable ash,
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas,
light,
metals,
were little boats that sail
towards those isles of yours
that wait for me.
Well, now
if little by little you stop loving me,
I shall stop loving you,
little by little
if suddenly you forget me,
Do not look for me.
For I shall have already forgotten you.
if you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide to leave me
at the shore of the heart
where I have roots,
Remember,
that on that day,
at that hour
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.
But
if each day
each hour
you feel you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness
if each day a flower,
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
Ah! my love,
Ah! my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished
or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love,
beloved,
and as long as you live
it will be in your arms,
without leaving mine.......
(recited by Madonna)
---daman
16/07/2012
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