The Night in Isla Negra
Ancient night and the unruly salt
beat at the walls of my house.
The shadow is all one, the sky
throbs now along with the ocean,
and sky and shadow erupt
in the crash of their vast conflict.
All night long they struggle;
nobody knows the name
of the harsh light that keeps slowly opening
like a languid fruit.
So on the coast comes to light,
out of seething shadow, the harsh dawn,
gnawed at by the moving salt,
swept clean by the mass of night,
bloodstained in its sea-washed crater.
Pablo Neruda
Buenos dias, its me again--exlrrp, still in Chile (leaving Tuesday night)
Wow, just wow. My family and I took a trip to the beach and to see Casa de Isla Negra.
Isla Negra is one of the homes of Pablo Neruda and each one I've seen outdid the other. This guy had some style---he was the embodiment of hip, and lived to see that era too. What a guy!!
They're ALL gorgeous. Fantastico!
(I know I say that a lot about the things Ive seen in Chile but if you want reports of dullness read someone else's diaries.)
You gotta see this to believe it.
follow me below the squiggly thing
"The wild coast of Isla Negra, with the tumultuous ocean movement, it allowed me to give myself passionately to the business of my new canto"
I had heard about this but hadn't had the chance to see it. After I came back from Valparaiso my son, hearing of my interest in Neruda (he's now my role model) packed me and the family up and headed down to check this place out.
I'd like to live in any of Neruda's houses (he had 3: one in Valparaisoo, one in Santiago and this one: Isla Negra -Black Island) but this is my favorite. (yes I know I said that about La Sebastiana too but I hadn't seen this one yet.)
the name is misleading, its not on an island but on the beach in a place called El Quisico in what was then outside of a town. Its about 50 miles south of Valparaiso or about an hour and a half coming out of Santiago. Formerly called Las Gaviotas, Neruda named it after the black rocks around it and because he came here for solitude. He wrote many of his famous works here.
He bought it in 1938, then a stone hut, and had it expanded twice, in 1942 and 1965. Its massive stone and wood, 2 main buildings, spread out.
Neruda had an everlasting love for the sea and collected many things concerning it, as you can see in the pictures. Neruda was a master collector of nautical kitsch The house is full of it---ship models in cases, dozens of ship models in bottles, statues, boat figureheads, cases of mounted insects, lewd postcards, masks, dozens of paintings, most with a nautical theme and every kind of whatnot. The whole inside of the house feels like one is on a ship.
He got the boat figureheads by salvaging them from boatyards when the boats were salvaged and broken apart. What he got for free or dirt cheap are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The living room, where the figureheads are kept, is gorgeous, with a massive stone fireplace and drop dead gorgeous view
he had his own bar in it
the outside of the bar (bottom floor
the dining room
A hallway
more kitsch
His bedroom
The view from the bedroom--there's a view like this in every room
the entrance
"I return to my voyages, to navigate the construction of happiness"
The exterior is full of toys, statues, whatnot.
"In my house, I have put together a collection of small and large toys I can't live without… I have also built my house like a toy house and I play in it from morning till night."
.
"I touch the stubborn spirit of the rock,
its rampart pounds in the brine,
and my flaws remain here,
wrinkled essence that rose
from the depths to my soul,
and stone I was, stone I will be. Because of this
I touch the this stone, and for me it hasn't died:
it's what I was, what I will be, resting
from a struggle long as time."
Ciao, see you on the road