‘Universal’ poet

ISLA NEGRA, Chile — Literary pilgrims come from around the world to pay homage at the home of the poet whose verse reflected the essence of the human spirit. The life, poetry and legacy of Pablo Neruda, whose simple yet searing verse earned him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1971, will be celebrated worldwide Monday on the centennial of his birth.

Why? What was there about Mr. Neruda that he is remembered a century after his birth and 31 years after his death?

“That’s difficult to answer,” said Hernan Loyola, Mr. Neruda’s friend and biographer, who fled to Italy during Chile’s military regime but now teaches an occasional course on Mr. Neruda at Catholic University of Chile in Santiago. “We loved the person of Neruda. He was an extraordinary person, on various levels, at different angles. He knew how to touch the most varied themes, important for any human being, the themes of love and death, but also natural things and objects, everyday things. He loved this planet and knew how to communicate this love.”

Neruda researchers discover three personages: Mr. Neruda the poet, the politician, the lover. All are evident at the three houses in which he lived and which are now museums: Isla Negra, La Chascona in Santiago and La Sebastiana in Valparaiso.

He was born Neftali Reyes in Parral, Chile, on July 12, 1904, the son of a railroad worker. He discovered his talent for poetry as a student and found inspiration in the works of Walt Whitman, Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire. He took his pen name from Czech poet Jan Neruda.

He published his first work, “Crepusculario,” at 19. At 20, he published “Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Cancion Desesperada” (“Twenty Love Poems and One Desperate Song”), which became an international sensation and remains in print.

He became a diplomat, serving in Burma and the Dutch East Indies, where he married Antonieta Hagenaar in 1930. Posted in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War, he embraced communist politics and left his wife for Delia del Carril, 20 years his senior.

“It was based on sex and turned to affection,” Mr. Loyola said. “His first wife he loved in an intellectual way.”

His first marriage in Java was not recognized in Chile, which left him free to marry Miss del Carril in 1936 — making him a bigamist in some countries.

Mr. Neruda was elected to the Chilean Senate as a communist in 1948. During this period, he published his best-known political work, “Canto General,” a condemnation of the right-wing government.

“The political part of his poetry is not of good quality,” said Cedomil Goic, who teaches literature at Catholic University. “He is remembered more for his poetry that dealt with nature, with love.”

During the government’s crackdown on communists in 1951, Mr. Neruda fled to Italy, where he spent a year in exile. His residence on the Isle of Capri was the inspiration for the 1995 Italian motion picture “Il Postino” (“The Postman”).

During a visit to Mexico in 1952, Mr. Neruda fell in love with Matilde Urrutia, a Chilean, whom biographers regard as his greatest love. He left Delia del Carril and lived openly with Miss Urrutia, but divorce was against the law in Chile, and remained so until this year. He married Miss Urrutia after his second wife’s death in 1966.

Mr. Neruda was to be the communist candidate for Chile’s president in 1970 but yielded to Salvador Allende, who headed a three-party coalition and became the world’s first elected Marxist president. Mr. Neruda was Mr. Allende’s ambassador to France when he received the Nobel Prize. He soon returned to Chile, suffering from prostate cancer.

Mr. Allende was overthrown and committed suicide during a bloody military coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet on September 11, 1973. Twelve days later, Mr. Neruda died in Santiago. The military monitored his Santiago funeral to prevent political demonstrations.

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