Nicanor Parra (1914-2018) was a Chilean writer, poet, physicist and mathematician considered one of the most important and recognized in recent times. This intellectual went down in the history of Spanish American literature as the creator of antipoetry.
The antipoetry was based on the breaking and separation of the literary precepts that prevailed in the middle of the 20th century. However, his poetic work was characterized by being simple, colloquial, popular and close to the public. The author's literary production belonged to the avant-garde and post-modernist movements.
Parriana's literary work was not extensive, but it was enough to make it stand out in originality, creativity and style. The most prominent titles of the writer were: Songbook without a name, Poems and antipoems, Artifacts Y The Holy Family. Nicanor Parra's performance as a writer earned him multiple awards.
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Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval was born on September 5, 1914 in the town of San Fabián de Alico in Chile. The writer came from a cultured family, middle socioeconomic class and with musical inclinations. His parents were the teacher and musician Nicanor Parra Alarcón and the dressmaker Rosa Clara Sandoval Navarrete. The author was the eldest of eight siblings.
Parra's childhood was marked by the economic problems of the family, the dictatorship of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo and by the constant changes due to his father's jobs. Little Nicanor lived among various cities in Chile for more than a decade, until finally he and his family were able to settle in Chillán..
The first years of Nicanor's studies were spent in the cities where he lived. Later, he attended high school at the Chillán Men's High School and at that time his interest in literature and writing was born. Parra produced his first verses at the age of thirteen, inspired by popular songs and modernist writers..
Subsequently, the young Nicanor Parra went to Santiago in 1932 with the intention of joining the School of Police. His destiny took a turn when he was helped to enter the Barros Arana National Boarding School to complete his training as a bachelor. While there the writer began to take the first steps in antipoetry.
Once Nicanor finished high school, he enrolled in the Pedagogical Institute of the University of Chile in 1933, studying physics and mathematics there. The young Parra continued to develop his literature and at the same time worked as an inspector at Barros Arana in the company of his friends Carlos Pedraza and Jorge Millas..
During his university years, Nicanor created together with Pedraza and Millas the New Magazine (1935). The publication opened the doors for Parra to publicize his first writings, including "Cat on the road." After that, the nascent writer obtained the title of professor of mathematics, exactly in 1937.
Nicanor Parra wasted no time after graduating as an educator, and that same year he dedicated himself to teaching mathematics and physics at institutions in the Chilean capital..
The professor and novel writer knew how to balance his trades and took the opportunity to publish his first poetic work Songbook with no name, also in that same year. Parra made this text under the influence of the literary style of the Spanish Federico García Lorca.
Shortly after its publication, Parra returned to the town of Chillán to teach at the Liceo de Hombres. His return coincided with the celebration of the Spring Festival (in which the writer was honored) and with the political visit of the poet Pablo Neruda in support of the presidential candidacy of Pedro Aguirre Cerda.
Nicanor Parra's literary career was quickly recognized. One year after the publication of Songbook with no name, He was awarded the Municipal Poetry Prize of Santiago. While at the award ceremony, the writer had the opportunity to meet Gabriela Mistral, who predicted a brilliant performance in poetry..
The poet returned to the Chilean capital in 1939 after the earthquake that struck Chillán. Already settled in the city of Santiago, he began to teach at the Barros Arana National Boarding School and at the School of Arts and Crafts.
At that time, Parra had achieved a certain literary prestige and that led him to be included in the anthology 8 new Chilean poets. On the other hand, he continued working on the development of his poetry and new styles, all alongside his work as a teacher..
After four years (1943) the writer traveled to the United States in 1943 to specialize in mechanics.
He returned to his country in 1945 after studying for a graduate degree at Brown University. The intellectual joined the University of Chile as a tenured professor of rational mechanics and three years later he was appointed alternate director of the School of Engineering (a position he held for two decades)..
After his postgraduate studies and subsequent incorporation to his new position at the University of Chile, Nicanor received a scholarship from the British Council and in 1949 he went to England to study cosmology..
However, the writer had little discipline to attend classes, but he took advantage of the time to soak up the readings of European authors and research on psychoanalysis. During his stay in Europe, Parra married a young Swedish woman named Inga Palmen. With her he returned to Chile in 1952.
Nicanor Parra joined the cultural and literary activities of his country shortly after returning from England. This is how he participated in the exhibition Osprey, which he did together with the artist Alejandro Jodorowsky and the writer Enrique Lihn.
After that activity, the writer announced Poems and antipoems (1954), which would be his second publication. It was with this work that Nicanor Parra officially began his antipoetic movement, which was characterized by breaking with the traditional style of poetry, especially the one developed by Pablo de Rokha and Neruda.
The poet achieved international literary fame with the publication of this second work. From then on, his life was spent in constant travel around the world. Parra gave courses, workshops and conferences in Panama, Mexico, Peru and the United States.
At the end of the 1950s, Nicanor Parra made a long tour of Asia and Europe, visiting cities such as Madrid, Moscow and Rome. The intellectual traveled to Beijing in 1959 as a guest of the World Peace Council. But before that, the poet made a stop in Stockholm, and while there he met the writers Artur Lundkvist and Sun Axelsson.
In 1960 Nicanor Parra forged literary ties with some members of the “beatniks” movement, among them Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg. At that time, the poet published three important works: Living room verses (1962), Russian songs (1967) and Thick work (1969).
During that period, the intellectual made some trips to Cuba and served as a visiting professor at various universities in the United States. After these activities, Parra was awarded the National Literature Prize in 1969, for his influence on the aesthetic and cultural development of Chile..
In 1970 Parra had a bad experience after being photographed under deception with Pat Nixon, the first American lady. This action broke the relations it had with the Cuban government and supporters with left-wing thinking. In fact, as a result, the poet was removed from the Casa de las Américas Prize jury..
Nicanor Parra was one of the professors who made up the Department of Humanistic Studies at the University of Chile in 1973. However, the freedom of thought of academics was overshadowed by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
The writer distanced himself from antipoetry for a time to avoid being persecuted and attacked by the regime, so he devoted himself to other projects. Nicanor's silence was short, since he published two works between 1977 and 1979 in which he denounced aspects of the government of the day.
Nicanor Parra developed a poetry of ecological content at the beginning of the eighties, this with the intention of awakening the attention of the socialist and capitalist camps that were part of the Cold War. This is how he published his Ecopoems in 1982, a work based on environmental pollution and its possible solutions.
During those years, he remained focused on his subtle criticisms of Pinochet's dictatorial mandate. Parra released some works far from ideological, but not from the complaint. Some of them were: Jokes to disorient the police poetry, political poetry Y Christmas verses.
Parra's literary life returned to normal in 1990 with the departure of the military government of Augusto Pinochet. The poet participated in various exhibitions and was honored for his work in the area of letters. The Chilean government honored Nicanor's life in 1994 after turning eighty years old..
At that time, he was symbolically appointed as rector of the Creative Writing Career at the Diego Portales University. After that, Nicanor Parra went through three attempts to apply for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, 1997 and 2000.
Although Nicanor Parra did not get the nomination for the Nobel Prize, he was honored with the Reina Sofía Prize for Ibero-American Poetry of Spain in 2001. The poet's state of health did not allow him to travel, so his son Juan de Dios received it in his name at the Royal Palace of Madrid.
Parra's advanced age and poor health did not prevent him from continuing to develop his writing. This is how he began a series of texts on his position before society, which he compiled in the work he published in 2006: After-dinner speeches. That same year Nicanor exhibited Public Works.
Parra always showed interest in the life situations of the less favored. For this reason, he did not hesitate to join the hunger strike that some Mapuche community members began in 2010. Shortly after that the writer received the Cervantes Prize, on December 1, 2011.
One year after receiving the Cervantes, the poet was awarded the Ibero-American Poetry Award.
Nicanor Parra reached one hundred years on September 5, 2014, which is why a series of cultural and literary events were organized to honor him. But the intellectual did not attend any of the activities and only met at his residence in Las Cruces with Michelle Bachelet, the then presidential president..
The last years of the life of this Chilean writer were spent between awards, publications and tributes. After more than a century since his birth, Nicanor Parra died in the company of his relatives on January 23, 2018 at his home in the La Reina commune, in Santiago de Chile.
Parra's memory was honored with two days of national mourning decreed by the government. His body was veiled in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago and the funeral service was held in Las Cruces, where his body was deposited after a private ceremony was held..
The literary style of Nicanor Parra was framed in the movement that he created and which he called antipoetry. However, his work went through several stages before reaching its definitive genre. In a general sense, the poetry of this author was irreverent, dynamic, creative, new, ingenious, critical, shrewd and realistic.
Parriana poetry stood out for the use of a simple, popular and precise language. In his writings humor, street art, the absurd, the ironic and a high dose of culture were notorious. The intellectual was in charge of giving his poems surreal, contradictory and agitated touches.
Nicanor Parra was introduced to various movements or styles before reaching his famous antipoetry. At first, the poet experimented with the poetry of clarity, which arose in opposition to the works of authors such as Pablo Neruda and Vicente Huidobro. Then the writer joined socialist realism, which did not convince him due to its doctrinal nature..
After a long walk, Parra headed towards the literary avant-gardes in search of new ways of making poetry. This is how he came to antipoetry and broke away from the academic and style parameters that stood out in his time. This poet managed to leave indelible marks with his unique, questioning and controversial legacy.
He applied eight-syllable verses for the development of Creole romances, especially in the poetry that he produced at the beginning of his literary career. Parra also used the hendecasyllable metric and experimented with the use of free verse.
- Songbook with no name (1937).
- Poems and antipoems (1954).
- The long cueca (1958).
- Living room verses (1962).
- Manifest (1963).
- Russian songs (1967).
- Thick work (1969).
- The teachers (1971).
- Emergencys poems (1972).
- Artifacts (1972).
- Sermons and sermons of the Christ of Elqui (1977).
- New sermons and sermons of the Christ of Elqui (1979).
- The anti-Lazarus (nineteen eighty one).
- Poem and antipoem to Eduardo Frei (1982).
- Ecopoems (1982).
- Jokes to disorient the "police" poetry (1983).
- Political poetry (1983).
- Christmas verses (antivillancicos) (1983).
- Grape leaves (1985).
- The Spleases family (1997).
- Lear, king and beggar (2004).
- After-dinner speeches (2006).
- Public Works (2006).
- Antiprose (2015).
It was the first collection of poems that Nicanor Parra released and with which he won the Santiago Municipal Prize in 1938. The work consisted of twenty-five poems that referred to topics such as nature, religion and some Chilean traditions. The writer presented the poems through a narrative thread and the presence of characters.
The following were the poems that made up the work:
- "The matador".
- "Valparaíso, bull of fog".
- "Throw".
- "Margarita, I want to kill the river".
- "Pendulum".
- "Inner whirlpool".
- "Jasmine of death".
- "Murder at dawn".
- "Top".
- "Sentimental swirl".
- "The spiteful boyfriend".
- "Battle between mother and devious son".
- "Fundamental tune".
- "Question of the poor husband".
- "The boyfriend is dying for his cousin".
- "The Chela girl".
- "Dress". (Poem in two chapters).
- "Violent suicide".
- "The deceived girl".
- "Riddle of the estuary".
- "The stubborn girl".
- "The lost spur".
- "Omen".
- "The good girl".
- "The dead cat".
"I'm dying for my tie
of a rose of burning shadow,
if I want me to tell you,
I'm dying because I love you.
On my tie they reman
ships of sea and dream,
from my shirt lift
seagulls light the wind.
... I'm dying because I like it
my velvet cap
and because I have a ship
of castaways in the chest.
With this moon tie
I hit you because I love you,
if you want me to kill myself
I hang myself with your handkerchief ".
It was the second work that this Chilean poet published and was characterized by having a certain degree of black humor and elements related to the absurd. The poems that made up this book were - to a large extent - conceived after Parra's experience in England. The verses lacked sentimentality and nostalgia.
Nicanor Parra structured the work in three parts. In the first phase it included seven traditional poems, in the second it incorporated six texts that paved the way for antipoetry. The last part was made up of the first sixteen antipoemas of the author.
The following are the titles of the twenty-nine poems that made up this book by Parra:
- "Cradle Symphony".
- "Defense of the tree".
- "Catalina Parra".
- "Questions at tea time".
- "There is a happy day".
- "It is oblivion".
- "It sings to the sea".
- "Disorder in the sky".
- "San Antonio".
- "Self-portrait".
- "Song".
- "Ode to some doves".
- "Epitaph".
- "Warning to the reader".
- "Puzzle".
- "Landscapes".
- "Letters to a stranger".
- "Travel Notes".
- "Madrigal".
- "Piano solo".
- "The pilgrim".
- "Words to Tomás Lago".
- "Memories of youth".
- "The tunnel".
- "The snake".
- "The trap".
- "The vices of the modern world".
- "The tables".
- "Soliloquy of the Individual".
"I am the Individual.
I first lived on a rock
(I recorded some figures there).
Then I looked for a more appropriate place.
I am the individual.
I had to get food first,
look for fish, birds, look for firewood,
(I would worry about other matters).
... I am the Individual.
At the same time I wondered,
I went to an abyss full of air;
a voice answered me:
I am the individual.
... I went down a valley watered by a river,
there I found what I needed,
I found a wild town,
a tribe,
I am the individual.
... Maybe it is better that I return to that valley,
to that rock that served as my home,
and start recording again,
back to front record
The world upside down.
But no: life has no meaning ".
In this work, Nicanor Parra highlighted Chilean folklore through the cueca dance as an oral tradition. The writer briefly separated himself from antipoetry to give a higher level to the costumbrista culture of his country. The collection of poems was made up of four titles, which were:
- "Couples of wine".
- "The Chuico and the Damajuana".
- "Toast to the human and the divine".
- "The long cueca".
"I'm going to sing a cueca
longer than feeling
for my black woman to see
that they don't tell me stories.
Dancers say
for arming boche
that if they sing to them, they dance
all night.
All night, yeah
pumpkin flower
on the court is where
you can see the roosters.
The roosters crow, yeah
let's go in one
this is the long cueca
of San Beniuno.
There is no woman who does not have
my grandfather says
a mole on earth
and another in the sky.
... That I am from the Treasury, yes
the nightingales
they will never tire
to suck flowers.
Sneezing is not laughter
laughter is not crying
parsley is good
but not so much.
Go, laugh with tears
singing is over ".
This work was Parra's fourth collection of poems and consisted of thirty antipoems. The text was characterized by having a dynamic and accelerated rhythm and by the use of hendecasyllable verses. The titles that made up this book were:
- "Name changes".
- "Journey through hell".
- "The roller coaster".
- "Mummies".
- "Long live the Andes Mountains"
- "Moais".
- "Warning".
- "I ask that the session be adjourned".
- "In the cemetery".
- "The perfect gallant".
- "Butterfly".
- "Dreams".
- "Three poems".
- "Man to water".
- "Poetry ended with me".
- "Fountains of soda".
- "Compositions".
- "The maiden and death".
- "Gallant conversation".
- "Women".
- "I come up with bright ideas".
- "Funeral speech".
- "Loose verses".
- "Newsletter 1957".
- "The petty bourgeois".
- "What the deceased said about himself".
- "Dawn party".
- "Only for people over a hundred years old".
- "Dog's life".
- "My tongue stuck to my palate".
"It is a mistake to believe that the stars
can be used to cure cancer
the astrologer tells the truth
but in this respect he is wrong.
Doctor, the coffin heals everything.
A knight just died
and your best friend has been asked
to pronounce the phrases of rigor,
but I would not want to blaspheme,
I just want to ask a few questions.
The first question of the night
refers to the afterlife:
I want to know if there is an afterlife
nothing more than if there is life beyond the grave.
... Gravedigger, tell me the truth,
how is there not going to be a court,
Or the worms themselves are the judges!
Tombs that look like soda fountains
answer or I will pull my hair out
because I no longer answer for my actions,
I just want to laugh and sob ... ".
This work was a poetic anthology made by the Chilean writer and was made up of his previous books with the exception of Songbook with no name. In addition, Parra added forty-seven poems never before published, which he conceived between 1950 and 1968.
Below are the titles of the unpublished poems that were added to this work:
- "I retract everything said".
- "Song of the stranger".
- "The limits of Chile".
- "A man".
- "Chili".
- "Ponchartrain causeaway".
- "Thoughts".
- "I define myself as a reasonable man".
- "Sentimental office".
- "Stains on the wall".
- "In the cemetery".
- "Telegrams".
- "Letters from the poet who sleeps in a chair".
- "Defense of Violeta Parra".
- "The two compadres".
- "Manifest".
- "Sigmund Freud".
- "Zoo Garden".
- "British Council".
- "Childish games".
- "The woman".
- "One thousand nine hundred and thirty".
"Before saying goodbye
I have the right to one last wish:
generous reader
burn this book.
It doesn't represent what I meant
even though it was written in blood
does not represent what i meant.
... Forgive me reader
friendly reader
that I can't say goodbye to you
with a faithful hug:
I say goodbye to you
with a sad forced smile.
I may not be more than that
but hear my last word:
I retract everything I said.
With the greatest bitterness in the world
I retract everything I said ".
It was one of the last works published by Nicanor Parra, which collected the speeches, workshops and conferences that the poet gave throughout his professional career in various parts of the world. The appearance of the texts was apparently messy, but they were extensive antipoems.
The content of the work was focused on breaking paradigms and consisted of thanks and praise. The writer incorporated jokes, popular sayings, quotes from authors, idioms, colloquial phrases and some documentary references.
"The first time I passed by here
this was a lot of years ago
was in the condition of guide to a street vendor
fruit
vegetables
desk supplies.
Perline and radioline
I will never forget that wicker basket
I would be about 12 or 13 years old
I was in the 2nd and 3rd year of humanities
at the Chillán high school ...
Now I am a Doctor Honoris Causa damn
good bye to all that
changes, everything changes
I enjoy the confidence of some philosophers
the oracle was right
changes, everything changes
only the Dictablanda remains ".
- Poet honored at the Spring Festival in Chillán in 1937.
- Municipal Award of Santiago in 1938 for the work Songbook with no name.
- "Juan Said" Poetry Prize in 1953 by the Society of Writers of Chile.
- Prize of the National Poetry Contest in 1954 for the work Poems and antipoems.
- Municipal Award of Santiago in 1955 for Poems and antipoems.
- Illustrious Son of Chillán in 1967.
- National Prize for Literature in 1969.
- Guggenheim Scholarship in 1972.
- Richard Wilbur Award in 1985 by the American Literary Translators Association.
- Doctor Honoris Causa from Brown University in 1991.
- Prometheus Poetry Prize in 1991 by the Prometheus Poetry Association of Spain.
- Juan Rulfo Prize for Latin American and Caribbean Literature in 1991.
- Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Concepción in 1996.
- Luis Oyarzún Award from the Austral University of Chile in 1997.
- Gabriela Mistral Medal in 1997 by the Government of Chile.
- Abate Molina Medal in 1998 from the University of Talca.
- Rectoral Medal in 1999 by the University of Chile.
- Honorary Fellow in 2000 by the University of Oxford.
- Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Bío-Bío in 2000.
- Bicentennial Award in 2001 by the Cultural Corporation of Chile.
- Reina Sofía Prize for Ibero-American Poetry in 2001.
- Konex Award in 2004 for Mercosur: Letters.
- Miguel de Cervantes Award in 2011.
- Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Award in 2012.
- "I think I'll die of poetry".
- “There are two loaves. You eat two. Me neither. Average consumption: one loaf per person ".
- “Good news: the earth recovers in a million years. We are the ones who will disappear ".
- "We no longer ask for bread, shelter, or shelter, we settle for a little air of excellence".
- "Whatever you do you will regret it".
- "I ask that they give me the Nobel for humanitarian reasons".
- "The one who washes the dishes has to be a cultured person, otherwise they will be worse off than before".
- “Ladies, gentlemen, after-dinner speeches are usually good, but long. Mine will be bad, but short, which shouldn't surprise anyone ".
- "Reality tends to disappear".
- "I forgot her without wanting to, slowly, like all things in life".
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