Pablo Neruda - inspiration from his life energy

Did you know that Pablo Neruda was Chilean? I found this out when arriving in Chile, hearing about his 3 houses that are now converted to museums in Santiago, Valparaiso and Isla Negra, a tiny town by the sea. I was intrigued, went to visit all 3 of the houses and started reading his poems. What an artist and poet! Such a genius not just in his poetry but the whole way he lived his life, built and decorated his houses and hosted parties and dinners with his friends and had beautiful love stories.

I love this quote that is really relevant in each of his houses:

'El niño que no juega no es niño, pero el hombre que no juega perdió para siempre al niño que vivía en él y que le hará mucha falta'. 

'A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who does not play has lost forever the child who lived within him and who he will miss terribly'.

His houses are full of fantasy, full of tricks and funny things, also full of nature and so many of his collections: bottles, maps, paintings, compasses, seashells (so impressive!!), butterflies and insects, masks, ships inside bottles and more. In each house there are beautiful murals made from rocks of his friend Marie Martner.

Mosaic by Marie Martner in Pablo Neruda's house in Santiago, that had 4 different parts linked by a beautiful green garden. 

His collection of bells and the boat that he used at as a bar sometimes and claimed that he came out of more tipsy than if he had been at sea.

He designed the bedroom and windows in Isla Negra to be able to see the sunrise and the sunset from them. Each room has a theme, they are secret doors coming out of closets and scary devil masks meant to scare off women from the one of the bathroom that was meant to be 'men's only'.  His salt shaker said 'morphine' and his pepper shaker said 'marijuana'. He had dinner parties regularly as he loved to be surrounded by friends. Friendship was a core value of his, he wrote that he never lost any friend, only to death. He carved the names of his best friends on the wooden ceiling of his bar in Isla Negra and he hung names and poems of his role models to keep inspiring him and honoring his mentors. He was also very involved politically and initiated what he called "the noblest mission I have ever undertaken": transporting 2,000 Spanish refugees who had been housed by the French in squalid camps to Chile on an old ship called the Winnipeg. More in Wikipedia :-)

No picture can be taken inside the houses, so here are some from the website:

Valapariso

Valapariso

Salt and pepper shaker

Santiago

His bar in Isla Negra

Isla Negra house, figureheads, globes and maps

The summer bar in Santiago

His writing desk in Valparaiso

Funny story 1: there was an antique shop in his childhood with a large horse made of wood and cardboard. 50 years later he found out the shop was closing and made all arrangements to bring the horse to the house in Isla Negra. He organized a welcome party for the horse, guests had to be dressed up and bring a gift for the horse.

Funny story 2: He collected ship figureheads and then placed them with great care in his house, one of the figureheads was surrounded by other female so he wouldn't be lonely, another pair were placed in facing each other, so that they would fall in love. But he later said that it never happened because she preferred to gaze at the sea instead of the male in front of her.

He just really loved to joke and laugh with his friends and guests!

The beautiful love story he shared with Matilde Urrutia is also very moving, and the poems that come out of these many years with her until he died - deeply touching. Writing for her 'One Hundred Love Sonets'.

One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII
By Pablo Neruda
Translated by Mark Eisner

I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,   
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:   
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,   
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries   
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,   
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose   
from the earth lives dimly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,   
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,   
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,   
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971,
He died in 1973 one week after the Coup d'Etat in Chile. MAtilde restored the houses and initiated the creating of the foundation.