Born Neftal Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, in 1904, Neruda changed his name to conceal from his

father, a railroad worker, the fact that he was a poet.

Nerudin otac nije podravao zanimanje svog sina u pisanju i u knjievnosti, ali Neruda je
dobio podrku od drugih, ukljuujui i budueg nobelovca Gabriela Mistrala.

By sixteen, Pablo Neruda was publishing poems in school magazines and in the newspapers
of his home town, Temuco. At nineteen, he published his first book, Crepusculario, and
within a year he had published Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair.

Kada je ve buknuo graanski rat u paniji, ubistvo Nerudinog bliskog prijatelja Lorke
promenilo je ne samo njegov stil pisanja ve u neku ruku i njegov ivot. Zbog svoje podrke
pancima, ileanske vlasti su skinule Nerudu sa mesta konzula. U tom periodu nastala je
njegova poema panija u srcu (Espaa en el corazn),

Podstaknut svojim iskustvima u panskom graanskom ratu, Neruda , kao i mnogi

leviarski orijentisani intelektualci svoje generacije, doao je da se divi Sovjetskom Savezu
komunistikog diktatora Josifa Staljina, delom zbog uloge koju je odigrao u pobedi nad
nacistikom Nemakom i idealistikim pogledima. Ovo je istaknuto u pesmama kao to su
Canto a Stalingrado (1942) i Nuevo canto de amor a Stalingrado (1943). 1953 Neruda je
dobio nagradu za mir Staljina .

Nekoliko nedelja kasnije u 1948, smatrajui da mu preti hapenje, Neruda je otiao u

ilegalu, a on i njegova ena krili su se od kue do kue od strane pristalica i potovalaca
narednih trinaest meseci. Dok je bio u bekstvu, senator Neruda je uklonjen iz kancelarije a
u septembru , 1948 , Komunistika partija je potpuno zabranjena

Primio je Nobelovu nagradu za knjievnost 1971. godine, koja je na najbolji nain

zaokruila njegov dugogodinji rad. Nobelovoj nagradi prethodila je nominacija za
predsednika drave (1970), koje se Neruda odrekao u korist Salvadora Aljendea (Salvador
Allende), koji ga je ubrzo nominovao za ambasadora u Parizu, tu dunost je vrio od
19701972. Tokom svog mandata uticao je da na ponovne pregovore o spoljnom dugu
ilea. Nakon nekoliko meseci boravka u Parizu, njegovo zdravlje znatno se pogorava.
Neruda se vratio u ile gde je i preminuo od sranog udara u noi 23. septembra 1973.

O uvenom Nobelovcu znamo mnogo - bio je ostraeni politiar, odlian diplomata i

senator, a istina i pravda koju je na tim funkcijama propagirao i zalagao kotale su ga
mirnog i stabilnog ivota - progonjen od strane reima azil je zatraio u susednoj Argentini.
Nagrada za mir: Kao senator odluuje da iznese na vidjelo zloupotrebu vlasti i crne rupe u
samom sistemu, to e ga skupo kotati. Prvo je proganjan od strane reima, a onda biva i
prinuen da zatrai azil u prijateljskoj Argentini. Potraie spas u Evropi 1949. godine,
izmeu ostalog, u Italiji i Francuskoj, a godinu dana kasnije dobie i meunarodnu nagradu
za mir. Nakon dvije godine bie mu dozvoljeno da se vrati nakratko u domovinu, koja e mu
dodijeliti nagradu Staljin za mir.

Pablo Neruda began his career as an apolitical love poet and ended it as an outspoken
advocate for engaged art and the Communist cause.

It is important to note, that Neruda is far too complicated an artist to provide readers with
any clear-cut division between his political and apolitical work .
His later work is overtly politicized, but still contains elements of the surrealism and love
poetry of his past.
Similarly, his early work consistently meditates on a search for connection to something
larger than the individual in a way that foreshadows his later political engagement.

Yet, Canto General does represent a turning point in Nerudas artistic life: he moves toward
completely open and outspoken politicization. The writing of the Cantos section Las
Alturas de Macchu Picchu14coincides directly with Nerudas becoming an official
Communist party member. Considered by some to be his consummate work and by others
considered his worst, the bulk of Canto General was written at a point of intense party
involvementand the height of the partys influence on his life, in a very practical way.
Exiled by President Gabriel Gonzlez Videla, for whom he had campaigned as jefe de
propaganda, chief of propaganda, Neruda had fled from Chile by horseback over the Andes
Mountains in 1948.15 Canto General was published January 28, 1950, in Mexico.

So the melancholic, egocentric surrealist becomes an expansive chronologist of the past

and his own time, and his poetry changes from an anguished meditation on the flaws of
human existence and the self to angry and propagandistic political fanfare.

Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda whom Gabriel Garca Mrquez dubbed "the greatest poet of
the 20th century" received some visitors at the Santa Mara hospital in Chile's capital
Santiago. Among them were Sweden's ambassador Harald Edelstam and the Mexican
ambassador Gonzalo Martnez Corbala, offering a plane to fly Neruda and his wife Matilde
into exile.

We know about their conversation thanks to as yet unpublished documents at the National
Archive in Sweden. Edelstam asserts he found the poet "very ill" though still willing to
travel to Mexico. In a memo sent to his superiors, Edelstam observes: "In his last hours
[Neruda] either didn't know or didn't recognise he suffered a terminal illness. He
complained that rheumatism made it impossible to move his arms and legs. When we
visited him, Neruda was preparing as best he could to travel to Mexico. There, he would
make a public declaration against the military regime."

Neruda does achieve rapture, tranquility, and immense beauty in many of theOdes.
Nevertheless, his aim was to speak to the ordinary people in the street about ordinary
things using the language of the street. He praises simple objects like onions and
tomatoes. Nerudas odes are neither didactic nor artificial. Many seem genuinely full of his
awe at the beauty around him. His enthusiasm is irresistible. We enjoy the world anew
through his eyes: yes, a simple artichoke can be seen as a soldier, wrapped in armor and
ready for battle; an onion is more beautiful than a bird / with blinding feathers.

Other odes are overtly political, condemning North American military aggression in Korea
or US appropriation of much of the Chilean copper industry.