Neruda: poet, Communist... and seashell collector

Suggested Topics

The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda is known for many things: he was a career diplomat, an avid Communist, and of course, the Nobel Prize-winning author of erotically charged love poems, memoirs and surrealist verse.

But a seashell collector? Neruda's name might evoke images of the thousands of Spanish Civil War refugees he shipped to Chile on The Winnipeg, or the crowds who showed up for his funeral against the orders of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. A stooping beachcomber with trousers rolled is certainly not the image of him that usually comes to mind.

The author of Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair, however, was indeed passionate about the exoskeletons of molluscs. When he was not scribbling his verses or speaking in support of left-wing figures like Stalin, he was combing markets and beaches around the world for the perfect, spirally conch. Over the course of two decades, he amassed 9,000 seashells, including one from the Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

More than 400 specimens of this little-known collection of seashells – "small countries of mother of pearl" as he called them – are now on public view for the first time at the Instituto de Cervantes in Madrid. He donated the fruits of his obsession to the University of Chile in 1954. "Neruda was constantly inspired, and amazed, at this extraordinary gift of nature," said the exhibit curator, Pedro Nunez.

The poet considered the shell a metaphor for the diversity of life within the boundaries of rigid mathematical proportions, he said. They appear, in more or less recognisable form, throughout his poems. In one verse they are "immobile legacies imprisoned by a furious wave". In another, his beloved exoskeletons morph into "the breasts of the sirens", "petrified waves" and the "immobilised play of the foam". "The best thing I have collected in my life are my shells," the poet once wrote. "They gave me the pleasure of their prodigious structure, the lunar purity of their mysterious porcelain."

The exhibit, accompanied by a soundtrack of rolling waves, demonstrates the depth of Neruda's maritime love affair – to the point of acquiring tomes filled with catalogues of species.

"I remember in the museum of Peking they opened the most sacred box of molluscs from the China Sea to give me one of only two specimens of the Thatcheria mirabilis," he said on donating his collection. "This foam of the seven seas I deliver to the university."

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Top stories
News in pictures
World news in pictures
UK news in pictures
UK news in pictures
More stories
       
Independent
Travel Shop
India and Shimla
14 nights from only £1899pp Find out more
Prague city break
Three nights from £199pp Find out more
4* Soreda hotel break, Malta
Seven nights all-inclusive from £399pp Find out more
Independent Dating
and  

By clicking 'Search' you
are agreeing to our
Terms of Use.

iJobs Job Widget
iJobs General

Senior IP Associate / Partner - Manchester

Excellent Salary Package - £60K to £120K: Austen Lloyd: We have an exciting op...

Java Developer

£200 - £250 per day: Progressive Recruitment: Java Developer - Urgent Requirem...

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ARCHITECT, SAP

£70000 - £95000 per annum + Bonus, flexible working hours, remote work: Progre...

SAP BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SENIOR CONSULTANT

£50000 - £56000 per annum + Benefits package, flexible working hours: Progress...

Day In a Page

Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

A meeting of global power brokers in a Hertfordshire hotel is exciting conspiracy theorists, but what are they really about?
'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system': Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console

'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system'

Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console
Plenty of Fish dating site founder pulls 'Intimate Encounters' option to ward off sleazy men

Plenty of sleaze

Dating website pulls intimate 'hook-up' section to curb harassment
Inferno author Dan Brown 'honoured' to be invited to join the Freemasons

The Freemasons’ Code

Dan Brown reveals the message that told him door to the lodge is open
How to say ‘I’m a sellout’: Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar

How to say ‘I’m a sellout’

Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar
Why clubs are keen to take a stand

Why clubs are keen to take a stand

There's a real desire around the grounds for safe standing. But will the authorities listen?
In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

Disillusion with a siege mentality and negative playing style made change inevitable
James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

British driver was fascinating man whose epic duel with Niki Lauda in 1976 was typical of an era of glamour and glory – but also the ever-present threat of death
Stuart Hogg: Ready to climb his own Everest

Stuart Hogg: Ready to climb his own Everest

Lions' cub, 20, joins long line of players from Scottish borders club Hawick given opportunity to make his mark at highest level
Carl Froch handed rare chance of revenge with dream rematch

Steve Bunce on Boxing

Carl Froch handed rare chance of revenge with dream rematch against Mikel Kessler
'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'

Masculinity in crisis?

'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'
Have US shock jocks gone too far?

Have US shock jocks gone too far?

An incendiary remark from Rush Limbaugh may be the beginning of the end for outspoken right-wing US broadcasters
The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey pays more income tax than big cities of the North

The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey

Elmbridge pays more income tax than big cities of the North
Heavenly Bodies

Heavenly Bodies

Michael Landy's artistic marriage made in heaven... and hell
'He will always be a friend': Jackie Stewart backs Polanski

'He will always be a friend'

Jackie Stewart backs Roman Polanski