Neruda Mix

By Roberto Lavidez

While browsing Vijay Prashad’s book “The Darker Nations,” A People’s History of the Third World, I chanced upon the last page of ‘La Paz’ chapter which is page 150 and the first page of ‘Bali’ chapter which is page 151, each page containing a Neruda poem.  A lyrical passage titled “Los Dictadores” (“The Dictators”) taken from Cantos General is printed on page 150.  Facing this page is the other Neruda poem ‘Recabarren’ (printed on p.151).  The fact that these poems appear as they did on Prashad’s book caught my eyes and invited me to mix Neruda in a concoction that I have never attempted before.  The contradiction of dictatorship (poem l) and the aggrieved communist (poem ll) urged me to play a little ‘blasphemy’ with Neruda’s words, alternating lines from each poem to see how far this process could stretch without losing much of the potency of each poem.   I began with a line from “Recabarren’ and chose to end the mix with the line from the same which is the shorter of the two poems. 

How much has happened since then,

An odor lingers among the sugarcane:

How much blood upon blood,

A mixture of blood and body, a penetrating

Nauseous petal.

How many struggles upon the earth.

Between the coconut palms the graves are filled

Hours of splendid conquest,

Of demolished bones, of smothered grasps.

Triumphs won drop by drop,

The delicate dictator talks

Bitter streets, defeated,

With wineglasses, collars, and gold braid.

Zones dark as tunnels,

The tiny palace shines like a wristwatch

Razor-edged betrayals

And smart-gloved laughter

That seemed to sever life,

Occasionally drifts across the corridors

Repressions armed with hatred,

To join the dead voices

Military crowned.

And freshly buried mouths.

The earth seemed to give way.

The sob is hidden like a plant

But the struggle goes on.