Neruda's last one sails out of the park!

[govegan]

I get the impression that Pablo Neruda's last work was not widely distributed in the USofA.

A Call for the Destruction of Nixon And Praise for the Chilean Revolution

I don't think this is widely available even today. I have found a copy published by West End Press in 1980, translated by Teresa Anderson.

from Neruda's "Brief Explanation"

This is an incitement to an act never before seen; a book dedicated to poets ancient and modern, dead or alive; we are putting a cold and raving perpetrator of genocide against the wall of History.

In this book there takes place his arraignment, trial and possible final disappearance, caused by heavy poetic artillery, sent into action here for the first time.
...
I make no excuses: Against the enemies of my people my song is offensive and hard as Araucanian stone.
...
Steady now, I'm going to fire. -- Neruda, Isla Negra, January, 1973

And fire he does, invoking Walt Whitman at the outset, while "the paper flies up and the pen is unsheathed."

The Judgment

Summoned by me the entire earth
that fits, as you will see, inside my sonnet

will deliver the judgment of spring,

face to face, looking at your skeleton,
so that never again will any mother

bleed into the razed earth--
carrying in the sun, under the sad moon,
a child whom I raise up like a sword,

sister-comrade, over the neck of Nixon.

A masterful poet raging against the dying of the light.

Awesome!

[govegan]

1. The Song of Punishment

This book has been so rarely quoted, I thought I would add a brief excerpt from the beginning of "The Song of Punishment".

We shall not count on his repentance
nor expect this work to come from heaven;

he who brought about this suffering on earth
must meet his judges here below
for both sentence and punishment.

We will not destroy him out of vengeance
but rather for what I sing about and what would inspire me--
my reasons are peace and hope;

Sentence & Punishment
vis a vis
Peace & Hope



Here is a complete list of the individual titles in the book:

i. I Begin by Invoking Walt Whitman
ii. I Say GoodBye to Other Subjects
iii. The Song of Punishment
iv. Him
v. The Judgment
vi. Copper
vii. Victory
viii. The Inheritance
ix. I Call upon You
x. Return of the Troubadour
xi. Those Who Came Before
xii. I Remain Here
xiii. Come With Me
xiv. A Vulgar Story
xv. Reading Quevedo by the Sea
xvi. A Lesson
xvii. With One Clear Stanza
xviii. Portrait of the Man
xix. Peace, But Not His
xx. Cuba Forever
xxi. About Conspiracies
xxii. Sorrow in Chile
xxiii. No, Never
xxiv. L.E.R.
xxv. Against Death
xxvi. Never
xxvii. The Great Silence
xxviii. It Is Sad
xxix. My General, GoodBye
xxx. The Sea and the Love of Quevedo
xxxi. Victory
xxxii. The 4th of September, 1970
xxxiii. From That Day
xxxiv. The Worms Are Revived
xxxv. The Parrots' Daily
xxxvi. Passional Act
xxxvii. Madmen and Crazies
xxxviii. I Will Not Be Silent
xxxix. Eternal Warning
xl. Another Warning
xli. With the Lightning
xlii. My Comrade Ercilla
xliii. Don Alonso Speaks
xliv. We Speak Together