In person, Neruda was: Testimony of Nascimento from El Siglo (Bogotá), July 11, 1954, quoted in Reyes, Nascimento, 120; and author correspondence with Felipe Reyes.
That square shape: Neruda, “Pequeña historia,” Veinte poemas (1961).
“the greatest departure from myself”: Neruda, Pablo. “Exégesis y soledad,” La Nación, August 20, 1924. Available in OC, 1:323–324.
It was a book that made: Author interview with Federico Schopf, poet and professor of literature at the University of Chile, 2003.
“right away wanted a memento”: González Vera, Cuando era muchacho, 222.
“fails to convince”: Latorre, Mariano. “Los Libros,” Zig-Zag, August 16, 1924. Quoted in Schopf, Federico. Neruda comentado (Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana, 2003), 84.
“emotion is absent”: Escudero, Alfonso. “La actividad literaria en 1924,” Atenea, February 31, 1925. Quoted in Schopf, Neruda comentado, 85.
“a certain halting”: Alone (Hernán Díaz Arrieta). “Crónica literaria: Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada, Editorial Nacimiento,” La Nación, August 3, 1924.
“still haven’t sprouted”: Ibid.
The critics and similar old-guard readers: Much of the discussion in this and the following paragraphs on the differences between Twenty Love Poems and the poetry of Max Jara and others is drawn from conversations between the author and Chilean poet and scholar Rodrigo Rojas, particularly in April and June 2005.
In his important book: De Costa, Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 32–33.
Diego Muñoz tried to reason: Muñoz, Memorias, 39.
“I undertook the greatest”: Neruda, “Exégesis y soledad,” in OC, 1:323–324.
Years later, Alone admitted: Alone, Los cuatro grandes, 196.
a succès de scandale: De Costa, Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 25.
By 1972, two million copies: OC, 1:1149. A commemorative edition for reaching two million copies was published by Losada in December 1972.
Though global sales numbers: Hernán Loyola, for example, states that more than ten million copies had been sold by 2004, as referenced in the Santiago newspaper La Opinión, “Celebran los 100 de Neruda,” July 12, 2004. Also as reported by the Spanish international news agency Agencia EFE. For example, Wolter, Matilde. “Neruda sigue siendo el poeta más leído,” Agencia EFE, December 7, 2004. Available at http://www.elperiodicomediterraneo.com/noticias/sociedad/neruda-sigue-siendo-poeta-mas-leido_114767.html.
“suddenly gave us back”: Cortázar, Julio. “Neruda entre nosotros,” Plural (Mexico City) 30 (March 1974): 39. Quoted in Felstiner, John. Translating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1980).
CHAPTER SEVEN: DEAD GALLOP
“Every day I have to find”: OC, 5:899.
“Pablo’s state of mind”: Azócar, Rubén. “Testimonio,” Aurora, nos. 3–4 (July–December 1964): 215.
“These days have been bitter”: Neruda, Cartas de amor de Pablo Neruda, 228–229.
“money, love, and poetry”: Azócar, “Testimonio,” 215.
“You know that I like”: OC, 5:884–885.
“Hide them under your mattress”: Arrué, Ventana del recuerdo, 62.
“Ah,” he wrote Albertina: OC, 5:887.
Neruda conspired to kidnap Laura: Cardone, Los amores de Neruda, 75–76. Cardone points out that it was Loyola who identified, through direct conversations with Arrué, that Neruda’s companion for the kidnapping was indeed Barrios.
“his soul was spinning”: Azócar, “Testimonio,” 215.
“strip poetry of all”: Silva Castro, Raúl. “Una hora de charla con Pablo Neruda,” El Mercurio, October 10, 1926.
“irreducible purity”: Neruda, Pablo. “Erratas y erratones,” Ercilla, August 27, 1969. Available in OC, 5:237.
“one of the most important books”: Neruda in conversation with Cardona Peña: Cardona Peña, Alfredo. “Pablo Neruda: Breve historia de sus libros,” Cuadernos americanos 54, no. 6 (November–December 1950): 265.
“A Scattered Expression”: Cited and contextualized in de Costa, Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 43–44. Full text in OC, 4:322.
As Breton wrote: Quotes from Breton, André. Manifestoes of Surrealism, trans. Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane (1924; Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969), 26.
These measured changes: De Costa, René. Pablo Neruda’s tentativa del hombre infinito: Notes for a Reappraisal (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1975); originally published in Modern Philology 73, no. 2 (November 1975): 141–142.
The poets Neruda’s eccentric: Wilson, Jason. A Companion to Pablo Neruda: Evaluating Neruda’s Poetry (Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Tamesis, 2008), 82.
“poetic workshop”: From a speech given with Nicanor Parra at the University of Chile, March 1962, published as Nicanor, Parra, and Pablo Neruda. Discursos (Santiago: Editorial Nascimento, 1962). Pointed out for this context in Wilson, Companion to Pablo Neruda, 81.
When Nascimento eventually sent: According to Neruda, “Erratas y erratones,” in OC, 5:237–238.
“one part quest”: Author Tomás Q. Morín’s blurb for Neruda, Pablo. venture of the infinite man, trans. Jessica Powell (San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 2017). Excerpts of venture of the infinite man are from Powell’s translation.
like Alice with her looking glass: Wilson, Companion to Pablo Neruda, 85.
In a midbook climax: René de Costa explains how this “sexual act becomes a metaphor for ultimate oneness” in Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 53.
“twisting to that side”: venture of the infinite man, trans. Jessica Powell (all passages quoted herein).
meditative thinking generates: Wilson, Companion to Pablo Neruda, 85.
“the least read”: Cardona Peña, “Pablo Neruda: Breve historia,” 265.
“The flesh and blood”: Quoted in de Costa, Poetry of Pablo Neruda, 45.
“going the way of the absurd”: Ibid., 42.
It shimmers with poetic tension: De Costa, Pablo Neruda’s tentativa del hombre infinito, 146–147.
“I have always looked”: Neruda, “Algunas reflexiones,” in OC, 4:1204.
“profesor de profesores”: Arrué, Ventana del recuerdo, 46.
Neruda managed to see Albertina: Varas, José Miguel. “El cara de hombre,” Mapocho 33 (First Semester 1993): 14.
He was about to have: Azócar, “Testimonio,” 215.
After a few days in Temuco: Loyola, Neruda: La biografía literaria, 206. 131 “the first night that we”: Letter dated September 15, 1926, OC, 5:901.
Neruda rekindled his relationship: Loyola, Neruda: La biografía literaria, 207.
“One honest word from you”: Letter dated November 1925, OC, 5:908.
The rain covered the town: OC, 5:909.
Rubén had rented: Azócar, “Testimonio,” 216.
“a triumph”: La Nación, September 26, 1926. Quoted in Alone, Los cuatro grandes, 186.
“I’ve got a dramatic”: Translated by Megan Coxe. OC, 1:217.
“Now, my house is the last one in Cantalao”: Coxe, trans., OC, 1:219.
“It’s a story”: La Nación, September 26, 1926. Quoted in Alone, Los cuatro grandes, 186.
a dinner was thrown: Azócar, “Testimonio,” 217.
“The southern skies”: “Tristeza,” Anillos.
The room Neruda, Lago, and Oyarzún shared: Arrué, Ventana de recuerdo, 60.
One day Laura Arrué came: Ibid., 61.
“Autumn appears in the corner”: Ibid., 112.
“I’ve been through so much!”: Letter dated January 9, 1927, OC, 5:915.
“I’m bored of everything”: OC, 5:912–914.
It was a very serious composition: Letter to the Argentine
