Was Pablo Neruda dalk vermoor?

Luidens ‘n berig op Yahoo se Nuusblad, heers daar tans in Chile groot ontsteltenis na aanleiding van uitsprake wat Manuel Araya, jarelange vertroueling van Pablo Neruda, onlangs gemaak het. Araya, wat nie net Neruda se sekretaris was nie, maar ook persoonlike assistent en bestuurder, het in bepaalde onderhoude die bewering gemaak dat Chile se kroondigter deur die militêre regime van Augusto Pinochet vermoor is, en dat die digter nié aan prostaatkanker oorlede is soos die amptelike weergawes dit wil hê nie.

Ek haal aan: “The Pablo Neruda Foundation still insists the poet died on September 23, 1973, from prostate cancer aggravated by emotional distress, after seeing Pinochet overthrow Neruda’s friend Salvador Allende in a coup 12 days earlier. But Manuel Araya, Neruda’s secretary, personal assistant and driver, has alleged in recent interviews that the poet was assassinated by the new military regime, which feared he would go into exile as a high-profile dissident: ‘Pinochet was a murderer. He killed Neruda so he wouldn’t leave the country, because he was an intellectual that (Pinochet) did not want to have as an opponent’,” het die 65-jarige Araya, verlede week aan AFP gesê.

Araya, wat voltyds aan Neruda se sy was tot enkele ure voor sy dood, het beweer dat Neruda gehospitaliseer was by die Santa Maria Kliniek in Santiago, nie weens gesondheidsredes nie, maar ter wille van sy persoonlike veiligheid. Neruda was glo baie gespanne en angstig; vas oortuig daarvan dat daar ‘n aanslag op sy lewe gaan wees as gevolg van sy noue band met Pinochet se voorganger, Salvador Allende. Hierdie angstigheid is verder verhoog nadat Neruda glo die nag voor sy afsterwe ‘n inspuiting deur ‘n onbekende dokter toegedien is. Skynbaar was Neruda van voorneme om op 24 September na Meksiko te vlug, maar is die dag tevore oorlede.

Die Pablo Neruda Foundation, wat alle regte op die digter se werk reguleer en verantwoordelik is vir sy nalatenskap, het Araya se bewerings verwerp: “There is no indication and no proof whatsoever that suggests that Pablo Neruda died of causes other than the cancer, at an advanced stage, that he had suffered from,” het hulle in ‘n amptelike verklaring reageer. “It does not seem reasonable to construct a new version of his death solely based on the opinion of his driver.”

Neruda, wat in 1971 met die Nobelprys vir Letterkunde vereer is, was in sy lewe ‘n senior lid van die Chileense Kommunistiese Party. Sy werk was tydens Pinochet se diktatuur van 1973 tot 1990 verban in Chile.

Vir jou leesplesier volg een van Neruda se onvergeetlike liefdesverse onder aan. En, indien dit jou interesseer, kan ‘n groot aantal van sy gedigte by PoemHunter.com gelees word.

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Sedert Vrydag het Frances Lubbe ‘n bydrae gelewer oor die Londonse Boekebeurs, terwyl Andries Bezuidenhout ‘n stuk geplaas het oor Josh Ritter se weergawe van Der Erlkönig. Gister is Zandra Bezuidenhout se resensie van M.M. Walters se nuutste bundel, Braille-briewe, ook geplaas.

Mag hierdie week vreugdevol verloop vir jou.

Mooi bly.

LE

 

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
 

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

© Pablo Neruda (Vertaling deur Stephen Tapscott)