Neruda, Nathalie Handal, Bei Dao

Neruda, Nathalie Handal, Bei Dao

War and Politics in the Poetry of Pablo Neruda, Nathalie Handal and Bei Dao

War and politics have always been two pervading themes in literature. If in the ancient times however war was introduced and depicted in long, heroic poems, in modern poetry the writers deplore the violence and savagery caused by the war. Many modern poets and artists have also played an important role as political militants and have been involved in the political life of their countries either directly or indirectly through their writings. Contemporary poetry especially is extremely preoccupied with politics and the way it influences modern life at all levels. The three poets Pablo Neruda, Nathalie Handal and Bei Dao have all been involved in the political life of their countries. Their poetry thus expresses the social and political disturbances and the conflicts which affect the lives of the individuals. All three of them have written extensively on the subject of war. The power relationships established between people and the injustice implied by any conflict are the main themes of their poetry. What is at stake in the midst of the political conflicts which fill the modern world is humanity itself. War creates a space in which life is interrupted and men become alienated from their own world. In their writings, the three poets deplore the way in which war and strife for power in general underrates human value and blinds the individual to the true beauty of life.

Pablo Neruda is one of the greatest writers of Latin America of all times. His singular voice has won the appreciation of critics, writers and common people all over the world. Thus, Neruda not only left a great literary legacy, but during his life was also actively involved in the Spanish Civil War which took place in the thirties and which devastated Spain right before the beginning of the Second World War. Neruda openly took part in the conflicts as a Consul. This experience prompted an entire collection of poetry, Espana del Corazon, which spoke of the atrocious years that he spent on the war front. As the people's poet, Neruda felt compelled to express their woes and the extreme sufferance caused by the war. In one of his poems about war, entitled Keeping Quiet, Neruda employs silence as a metaphor for peace and life and as something that would replace the permanent turbulence of the modern world.

Keeping Quiet is an extremely evocative poem, which urges the audience to hold a moment of absolute silence. The urge is very significant as it emphasizes the fact that the modern world forgets itself in the permanent conflicts that exist between countries and between individuals. Thus, the text is an invitation to the whole world for a moment of self-awareness which would enlighten the useless pains and struggles people usually engage in. Wars and the violent conflicts of any type are what the poet fervently engages against. A moment of perfect stillness and silence is the only way in which the whole world would look upon itself and realize that humanity should actually be bound by a general sense of brotherhood. Neruda requests his audience to take a brief pause from the constant restlessness and rage that drives the world alone: "And now we will count to twelve / and we will all keep still. / for once on the face of the earth / let's not speak in any language, / let's stop for one second, / and not move our arms so much."(Neruda) Significantly, the urge for silent has the role to unite people by annihilating the language barrier that keeps them apart and that makes them focus on difference. Politics and the relationships which involve power exchange between peoples or individuals compel men to forget about the value of humanity. Instead of seeing the beauty of the world and perceiving the fact that people should be united through their humanity, men engage in destructive conflicts and wars. The thirst for power is certainly the driving force behind the political games which engages the modern world and keeps it from the actual values that should be cherished. This moment of perfect silence and peace would put a stop for a minute to all difference and to the noise of the contemporary busy universe: "It would be an exotic moment / without rush, without engines,/we would all be together / in a sudden strangeness."(Neruda) Neruda thus advocates togetherness as opposed to conflict, silence and peace as opposed to the mad pursuits of our modern society. The metaphor of silence which dominates the structure of the text is an obvious allusion to the impaired communication among the individuals of the world community. The text proceeds in detailing the consequences that the general stillness would bring. The images which ensue are very evocative, as they target particular elements of violence which commonly take place in the world: "Fisherman in the cold sea / would not harm whales / and the man gathering salt / would not look at his hurt hands. / Those who prepare green wars, / wars with gas, wars with fire, / victory with no survivors, / would put on clean clothes / and walk about with their brothers / in the shade, doing nothing. "(Neruda) the instance given by the fishermen who would no longer hurt their whales is symbolic of a power exchange between different people. Thus, the whales who are the victims of the hunt cannot defend themselves in front of the men's savage attack. Neruda draws attention to the injustice of that is always implied by a violent conflict. War itself in all its forms is targeted next by the poem, as Neruda imagines how the violence would be stopped instantly and the people who are usually involved in war would do nothing. The perfect stillness is not however to be confused with inactivity, as Neruda urges: "What I want should not be confused / with total inactivity. / Life is what it is about, / I want no truck with death."(Neruda) This absolute silence seems however the only way that the world would stop the mad race it permanently runs and become aware of life. For the poet, the life that pursues death through war and conflict is unimaginable. In any conflict some of belligerents are evidently the victims of the others. Thus, war is a horrendous reality which keeps men away from life and makes them focus solely on death. The obstinacy of gaining power over other fellow beings is thus destructive. In the poem, the modern constant rush is seen as detrimental to the people. Neruda refers to the state of the world as a general 'sadness' which is void of any true understanding for the value of life: "If we were not so single-minded / about keeping our lives moving, / and for once could do nothing, / perhaps a huge silence / might interrupt this sadness / of never understanding ourselves / and of threatening ourselves with death. / Perhaps the earth can teach us / as when everything seems dead / and later proves to be alive."(Neruda) as the text draws to its end thus, Neruda brings to light a new meaning for the metaphor of absolute silence: a moment of general, absolute silence would make the earth seem lifeless and unpopulated. This would be a signal or a warning remonstrating against our forgetfulness of the importance and the meaning of life. Absolute silence is similar to death and it could remind people of the actual value of life. Politics thus require us to pay a much too dear price: human life itself. The ending of the poem is also symbolic: Neruda reminds his audience of the 'game' he had proposed at the beginning of the text and urges them to keep quiet on the count of twelve: "Now I'll count up to twelve, / and you keep quiet and I will go."(Neruda) the poet's playfulness is significant, as it emphasizes the return to innocence and purity. Instead of the natural and wonderful movement of life, the rush of the modern world resembles rather a permanent conflict and a moment of silence would actually and paradoxically be a reminder of life and its meaning. Keeping Quiet is thus an extremely convincing poem which emphasizing the violence and conflict which pervade the modern world.

War is also a powerful and dominating theme in Nathalie Handal's poetry. Although Handal is a very young poet, she has already come to the attention of critics and the wide public as well, as a great writer. Her first collection of poetry, the Lives of Rain, is a hear-rending and profound volume which is preoccupied with the negative aspects of modern life, with its violence and permanent conflict. A few of the autobiographical elements of the author's life are clearly reflected in the poems. Thus, Handal, who is originally from Palestine, has traveled extensively spending her life in her country as well as in the United States, Latin America and many other places. This first collection of poetry relates of these experiences of dislocation, refuge and identity crisis, as Abinader, one of the reviewers of Handal's work, points out: "Nathalie Handal's new collection of poetry, the Lives of Rain, places us in gritty scenes of exile, occupation, dislocation, refuge, and solitude -- scenes that are often associated with poets of Palestinian background."(Abinader, 256) These themes are obviously common with Palestinian poets due to the fact that they generally experience violence and political conflict more closely and therefore more poignantly. As Abinader emphasizes, the people who are depicted in Handal's poems are invariably the victims of history itself and the pressure it puts on the individual: "Handal's heroes are the survivors not only of war but of the mutability of time and the volatility of history."(Abinader, 256) One of the very significant poems in this collection is Gaza City, a text which describes a brief moment in the poet's life as she sits in her room. The poem is disturbing as it emphasizing the very oppressive atmosphere that dominates the city of Gaza because of the permanent wars and fighting that takes place in this area.

The author depicts herself standing by the window and looking upon the disaster caused by the fighting. Importantly, the poem opens with a disheartening and grim image: the people endeavor to pray in the war laden atmosphere, but their spiritual experience is disrupted by the noises made by guns and explosions. Instead of spiritual illumination the people only gain fear and infinite sadness: "The chants enter my window and I think of all / those men and women bowing in prayer, fear escaping / them at every stroke, a new sadness entering / their spirit as their children line up in the streets / like prisoners in a death camp."(Handal) the image is evocative as the children, the symbol of innocence, are seen as 'the prisoners in a death camp'. The allusion to the death camps is significant because it portrays the helpless and innocent people as alien and prisoners in their own world. Also, Handal hints that any war is in its essence a genocide that destroys the sense of humanity and justice in people. If Neruda portrayed the destructive effects of war by employing the metaphor of absolute silence which would resemble death but would be at the same time an urge to think about life and its meaning, Handal describes the aftermath of the violent fighting on the life of a city. Here also the usual course of life is disrupted, and all that remains is terror and sadness. Symbolically, the window through which Handal tries to look out on the devastated world is in itself a relic of the war, broken or cracked presumably by the fighting. The image of the town is thus desolated and barren, emptied of life and of meaning: "I walk towards the broken window / my head slightly slanted and try to catch a glimpse / of the city of spirits -- those killed / who pass through the narrow opening of their tombs."(Handal) the scene which should normally be the vivid picture of movement and life is a barren desert, an open tomb in which the gay figures of the people are replaced by the spirits of the dead who desperately float in the gruesome world. The imagery of the poem is more direct than that of Neruda's Keeping Quiet, but it hints at the same ultimate picture of a desolated and barren scenery from which life has disappeared. If Neruda emphasizes the permanent movement of life which has become destructive through violence, Handal focuses on the aftermath of war which transforms a scene that should be filled with life with a death scene.

The next sequence of the poem intensifies the desolation of the scene. A silent spectator, the speaker in the poem makes desperate gestures which tear her clothes. The extreme pain and shame represented by her gesture of hiding her face 'like a slut' is also significant. Handal thus expresses her feeling of alienation and pain, despite the fact that she should feel at home in her own country: "My hands and the side of my fight face / against the cold wall, I hide like a slut, ashamed. / I pull the collar of my light blue robe so hard / it tears, one side hanging as everyone's lives hang here."(Handal) the play on words that she uses between the torn collar of her robe and the torn and 'hanging' lives of the people in the streets suggests the rendering effect of the war on life. The continuous fighting brings life to shreds and the claws of violence make life look like a permanent funeral" "My fingers sink deep in my flesh, / I scratch myself, three lines scar my chests, / three faiths pound in my head and I wonder / if God is buffed in the rubble. Every house is a prison, / every room a dog cage. Debke is no longer part of life, / only funerals are. Gaza is pregnant / with people and no one helps with the labor."(Handal) the symbolic imagery continues, as the author hints that this extreme violence has 'buffed' God himself, spirituality itself being affected. The image of the 'pregnant' city alludes to the fact that war uproots life from its very beginning. Again, the elements of life are absent from the terrible scene: "There are no streets, no hospitals, no schools,/no airport, no air to breathe."(Handal) Normal human activity has been thus completely replaced by conflict and death. The author hints at the fact that she perceives this crude reality from the inside and that this terror-inspiring experience could never be understood from the CNN news: "In America, I would be watching television / listening to CNN saying the Israelis demand, / terrorism must stop. Here all I see is inflicted terror, / children who no longer know they are children."(Handal) in Gaza City, Handal virtually portrays a world in which death has completely usurped life and nothing remains of the value and beauty of humanity.

In another poem, Handal pinpoints the conflicts of power in the modern world and their significance. Thus, through an interesting play on words the author asserts that nothing is 'even' in our world, hinting thus at the permanent hunt for power and supremacy among countries and individuals alike: "Our nature is not even so why even try to get even / instead let us find an even better place / and call it even."(Handal) a few politicians thus destroy the world by playing a horrible game of power in which normal people are the innocent actors and victims. Handal plays with the word even and the differences between cultures which actually cause the permanent conflict. She also hints at the expression 'to get even' which symbolizes the people's race for revenge and their thirst for power.