Before answer this question, which would be a difficult one, I would like to emphasize that although Shamloo shares a motherland with me and possibly I know more about him than Neruda, my love for Neruda’s poetry led me to make a special visit to Chile in order to visit his residence and his libraries and above all, to visit the country he loved so much. Although Neruda was born in little Parral and grew up in a small town called Temuco, he had wide views about life. On the other hand, Shamloo was born and mostly lived in big cities such as Tehran which has a population of 12 million people today. He also had very wide views about the world around him. Both Neruda and Shamloo very early in their literary life enjoyed and learned a lot from many well known voices of poetry in their own countries and international voices. Shamloo was guided by Yushij and Neruda was guided by Gabriela Mistral.
When I visited Neruda’s most famous house in Isla Negra, in one of the rooms which was his largest writing room, he had pictures of the poets, writers and thinkers who he admired the most in his life such as walt Withman, Neruda and Shamloo worked very hard and created large bodies of work, although Shamloo created many works not only in poetry but in many other genres. Neruda and Shamloo loved people and spoke from their voice. They both lived in a time of governments which they didn’t like – Neruda under Pinochet and Shamloo under the Islamic Republic. Shamloo never liked to have government jobs or be directly involved in the politics of government. But Neruda was an ambassador of Chile to many different countries. They were both politically active at one time in their lives. As we know, Shamloo was imprisoned twice and Neruda had to escape during Pinochet’s rule and hide in Macchu Picchu for awhile. One of the big similarities between Neruda and Shamloo was the fact that they both married three times and their last marriage was the love of their life which was the cause of a large body of most beautiful love poems by both Neruda and Shamloo. Although there is a difference between their love poems. In Neruda’s love poems, we only see pure, earthy love. But in Shamloo’s love poems, he starts with the woman he likes but eventually connects that to external or social subjects. The love of their lives – Matilda in the case of Neruda and Aida, Shamloo’s third wife – were left to live many years after the poets died and both were at their husband’s bedsides when they died. Shamloo and Neruda both died in their erly seventies in their own country. Neruda was not only the biggest poet of his generation of his country but one of the most celebrated poets of the world in the last century. Shamloo, on the other hand, was the most celebrated poet of his generation in Iran, but not as widely known internationally. One reason for that is the difficulty of translating Farsi to English, versus translation of Spanish to English. Also, it appears that Neruda wrote his lines more simply and with less complicated meanings. But in the case of Shamloo, his poems are difficult even for average readers of his own language. In terms of their lifestyles, Neruda, for the most part, lived a very happy, rich and luxurious life, compared with Shamloo who lived a difficult and not very well off life – he basically worked hard all his adult life. His personality was very serious, while Neruda had a lighter personality. Without doubt, both Shamloo and Neruda will remain part of world poetry, although for the world to know more about Shamloo, more and better translations of his work are needed which will materialize in the years to come, hopefully.
( This research is continued…for any suggestion contact: badihian@gmail.com)