Neruda, Pablo. 1996 180 pgs. (pbk)
ISBN: 0915745143 English translation by Richard Schaaf.
Spanish/English bilingual text. $29.95 Price for class use $19.95
Originally published in the war-front
of the bloody Spanish Civil War by the East Republican Army
[Ejército (Republicano) del Este, Ediciones Literarias del
Comisariado] in 1938, this is an Epic poem by the Chilean Nobel
Laureate poet. Neruda went to Spain, like many other
intellectuals then from around world to defend democratic and
republican ideals against a coordinated assault by monarchists,
right wing Spanish fascist factions, and Hitler's and Mussolini's
best military support forces. This poem, for the first time
published in book form, dramatizes the testimonial account of a
deeply humanist man and poetic giant who wanted to honor those
fighters that stood firmly against dictatorial forces in the dawn
of World War II, while the whole world stood dauntless watching.
The book is absolutely unique: the main text was written and
published in the Spanish front lines, the Prologue is written by
Fernando Alegría, a Chilean novelist, poet and scholar, and a
great personal friend of Pablo Neruda; the Foreword is written by
Leonard Lamb, a veteran of the famous Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a
valiant contingent of Americans who joined the internationalist
fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War in the hillsides
of Spain. And the Afterword is written by Marjorie Agosín, a
Chilean writer, poet and human right activist. A universal poem
about the horror of war and the nobility of man, about democratic
ideals crushed under boots and scalding iron, about a new day
filled with hope and humanism. No one said it better than Neruda
himself:
Who? on the road, who,
who, who? in the darkness, in the
blood, who?
in the flash, who?
who? Ashes
are falling, iron
is falling
and stone and death and a flood of
tears and flames,
who, who, mother of mine, who,
where?