Pablo Neruda

Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda gave a French-language interview to Eric Bockstael of Radio-Canada in the fall of 1971, discussing the natural beauty and culture of the Americas, the relationship between materialism and poetry, and the effect of politics on his poetry.

“I insist on telling you that I am not a political poet,” he said. “I detest that classification which insists on designating me as the representative of an ideologically committed poetry. My ambition as a writer, if there is an ambition, is to write about all the things that I see, that I touch, that I know, that I love, or that I hate. … Poets who have not, who have never, made contact with the feelings of their people, or who have continued to be indifferent, or who have promoted or preached a poetry far removed from a certain pressing reality, can be qualified as the most political poets of our era. Because of that abstention of their poetry from the general movement of civilization, the development of the world, they have contributed to the holding back of that development.”

Additional Interview With Pablo Neruda
Neruda sat down with Rita Guibert for The Paris Review at his home in Isla Negra, Chile, in January 1970. He was at the time a candidate for the Chilean presidency as the Chilean Communist Party’s nominee, though he would withdraw a short time later. He discussed his communist beliefs, his poetical influences and his love of nature.

To learn more about Pablo Neruda, read his profile on findingDulcinea.