“Nocturnal Collection”: “Colección nocturna,” translated by Jessica Powell. Loyola dates this as the first poem in Residence on Earth written outside of Chile, begun in 1927, if not 1928, and revised in 1929 to be part of Residence on Earth (1925–1931), first published in 1933 (El joven Neruda, 163).
Someone took a posed: Among other places, this photo can be seen in Olivares, Edmundo, ed. Itinerario de una amistad: Pablo Neruda–Héctor Eandi: Epistolario 1927–1943 (Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 2008), 87.
“Have I told you about Wellawatta”: Letter dated April 24, 1929, OC, 5:942.
“Caught between the Englishmen”: CHV, 493.
“If you, my dear mother”: Letter dated March 14, 1929, OC, 5:811.
“I never read”: “Sonata con recuerdos,” OC, 5:162.
The potato sacks contained: OC, 5:162.
synthesis of European modernist innovations: “George Keyt,” artist bio, Christie’s, http://artist.christies.com/George-Keyt-29852-bio.aspx.
wrote a review: George Keyt, a Centennial Anthology (Colombo: George Keyt Foundation, 2001), 4.
“idealism and mysticism”: Bradshaw, David. “The Best of Companions: J. W. N. Sullivan, Aldous Huxley, and the New Physics,” Review of English Studies 47, no. 186 (May 1996): 188–206. Quoted in Sexton, James. “Aldous Huxley’s Three Plays, 1931–1948,” in Aldous Huxley Between East and West, ed. C. C. Barfoot (Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2001), 65.
“An aunt of mine remembers”: Ondaatje, Michael. Running in the Family (New York: W. W. Norton, 1982), 79.
“I’m alone”: Letter dated April 24, 1929, OC, 5:942.
“taking out everything”: Author interview with Rosa León Muller, 2014.
“I’m very tired from”: Letter dated December 17, 1929, OC, 5:916–917.
“In those days, more than”: Quoted in Poirot, Pablo Neruda, 144.
“Madrigal Written in Winter”: “Madrigal escrito en invierno,” Residence on Earth I.
“Oh heartless lady”: From the poem “Tiranía” [“Tyranny”], Residence on Earth I.
“Female friends of various colorings”: CHV, 504.
“She walked solemnly”: CHV, 505.
“elevating the exotic Other”: Žižek, Slavoj. Living in the End Times (London; New York: Verso, 2011), 25.
“magical Malay Archipelago”: Letter dated February 1, 1930, OC, 5:950.
“I smoked one pipe”: CHV, 492.
“inspired to ecstasies”: Abrams, M. H. The Milk of Paradise: The Effect of Opium Visions on the Works of De Quincey, Crabbe, Francis Thompson, and Coleridge (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934), 3.
there is a disjuncture: Sharp (Kantor),“Neruda in Asia/Asia in Neruda.”
“I had to experience opium”: CHV, 492–493.
“Pablo sleeps, pulls”: Hinojosa’s postscript is contained and transcribed in Olivares, ed., Itinerario de una amistad, 45. The letter seems to have been written as they crossed the Bay of Bengal from Calcutta to Ceylon.
“A Day in Singapore”: Published in La Nación, February 5, 1928. Available in OC, 4:341.
In the end, the only community: Much of this discussion of Neruda’s relationship with opium was informed by Chilean professor Francisco Leal at Colorado State University, through correspondence and conversations during the spring and summer of 2015, in addition to his work “Pablo Neruda y el opio (del pueblo). Reflexiones en torno a la ‘metafísica cubierta de amapolas’ de Residencia en la tierra” (unpublished manuscript, 2013). Discussions with Roanne Kantor and her work “Neruda in Asia/Asia in Neruda” helped to inform this area as well.
opium’s “exercising effect”: Leal, “Pablo Neruda y el opio.”
“the action of opium”: Hayter, Alethea. Opium and the Romantic Imagination (London: Faber and Faber, 1968), 334.
“Nocturnal Collection”: “Colección nocturna,” Residence on Earth I.
As Roanne Kantor: Sharp (Kantor), “Neruda in Asia/Asia in Neruda,” 14–15.
“Contradicted Communications”: “Communicaciones desmentidas,” Residence on Earth I.
“Nocturnal Establishments”: “Establecimientos nocturnos,” Residence on Earth I. Analysis of the poem guided by the insightful points in Leal, Francisco. “‘Quise entonces fumar’: El opio en César Vallejo y Pablo Neruda, rutas asiáticas de experimentación” (unpublished manuscript, 2013).
“Opium in the East”: “El opio en el Este,” Memorial de Isla Negra. Translated by the author and Jessica Powell.
“opiate for the exploited”: The idea from Leal, “‘Quise entonces fumar,’” among others.
“never again”: CHV, 492.
city of Pagan: Teitelboim mentions that Neruda visited Pagan while in Burma in Neruda: La biografía, 153.
“mysterious Sinhalese”: Neruda, Pablo. “Ceylon espeso,” La Nación, November 17, 1929. Available in OC, 4:354-356.
“strange hungry Buddha”: Letter dated September 8, 1928, OC, 5:939.
blend of curiosity and skepticism: Triunfo, November 13, 1971, 18.
toward the end of 1929: OC, 1:1183.
“vital, speedy wings”: “Significa sombras” [“It Means Shadows”], Residence on Earth I. Translated by Stephen Kessler in Neruda, The Essential Neruda.
“Never lost”: Neruda, Pablo. “Orient and Orient,” La Nación, August 3, 1930. Available in OC, 4:356–357.
The crux of Neruda’s problem: Author interview with Roanne Kantor, 2015.
“Religion in the East”: “Religión en el este,” Memorial de Isla Negra.
“Sometimes I’m happy here”: From entries dated October 31 and November 21 as part of a letter he started on October 5, 1929. He continued writing the letter into November before sending it, occasionally marking the date of new entries. OC, 5:947–949.
“good servant Dom Brampy”: Letter to Héctor Eandi dated April 23, 1930, OC, 5:956.
“my Sinhalese boy”: “Boy” was written in English. CHV, 506.
“extremely friendly”: Letter to Héctor Eandi dated April 23, 1930, OC, 5:956.
She did adore him at first: As seen in a letter to Neruda from The Hague, November 18, 1938, APNF.
“soon, tomorrow even”: Letter dated October 5, 1929, OC, 5:946.
A week later he wrote: OC, 5:817–818.
“I’ve married”: OC, 5:1028.
“extremely close”: OC, 5:959–960.
“Some years later, my biographer”: CHV, 515.
CHAPTER TEN: AN INTERLUDE
“Maternity”: “Maternidad,” Residence on Earth II. Written in 1934, though not published until 1938, this poem is unique because there was an unusual amount of time between the year of composition and when the book was published, and also because so much had changed in his life and the world during those years.
“The Ghost of the Cargo Ship”: “El fantasma del buque de carga,” Residence on Earth I. Translated by Stephen Kessler, using the title “The Phantom of the Cargo Ship,” in Neruda, The Essential Neruda.
Finally, on April 18, 1932: Loyola, El joven Neruda, 254.
Neruda’s telegram to his parents: Teitelboim, Neruda: La biografía, 67.
“She was a hostile being”: Muñoz, Memorias, 182.
Neruda remained calm: Ibid.
“Now he wasn’t the somber”: Ibid., 180.
“with a melancholy air”: Souvirón, José María. “Pablo Neruda,” ABC (Madrid), December 4, 1962. Quoted in Schidlowsky, Las furias y las penas (2008), 1:205.
“You know by now”: Letter dated May 1932, OC, 5:924–925.
“My telegrams, my letters”: Letter
