A century of ‘love and despair’: Neruda honoured in Thailand

Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Pablo Neruda’s enduring influence in the world of literature was marked on Monday at a special event held by the Chulalongkorn University in collaboration with the Embassy of Chile.

The event was held to celebrate the centenary of the Nobel laureate’s iconic poetry collection, “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair”, the poet’s 120th birth anniversary as well as mark 20 years since the book’s first Thai translation was published.

This seminal work in Chilean literature was first published in 1924 when Neruda was only 19 years old.

Also attending the event, titled “100 Years of Twenty Love Poems and One Desperate Song: Neruda and the ‘Journey’ to Thai Language”, were ambassadors from Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Spain, Peru, Colombia, Cuba, and Argentina.

“Translated into many languages, ‘Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair’, reflects the universal human emotions of love, despair, pain and happiness,” Chilean Ambassador Patricio Powell said.

Professor Olan Preutiranyanont from Ramkhamhaeng University noted that of all the literature in Spanish that has been translated into Thai, Chilean literature perhaps tops the list. He said, so far, at least 15 works have been translated into Thai, including literature classics, poetry and children’s books.

He also said it was likely that Neruda the first Chilean poet to be introduced to Thai readers in the 1970s through his political poetry.

Interestingly, Neruda’s connection to Thailand goes back long before this, when he was serving as Chile’s honorary consul in colonial Yangon between 1927 and 1928. It is believed he visited Thailand during this time.

From Spanish to Thai
The Thai translation of “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair”, by Assoc Prof Pasuree Luesakul from Chulalongkorn’s Faculty of Art, was published in 2004.
At the event, the professor shared the challenges she experienced translating Neruda’s poems.

“There are forms, contexts, nuances that cannot be transferred into other languages,” she said.

Pasuree said she took the challenge on in her first year of professorship, thinking translating 21 poems could not be that difficult. However, she soon realised that the nature of poetry itself posed significant challenges, including wordplay, rhyme, alliteration, and assonance. These literary devices are often unique to each language, making it difficult to convey the original feelings behind the text, particularly between languages as distinct as Spanish and Thai, which differ in grammar, writing systems, phoentics and cultural contexts.
 

One example Pasuree shared involved solving wordplay in Neruda’s poem by creating an equivalent in Thai. A stanza filled with /s/ sounds, for instance, would feature the repetition of another sound that aligns with the overall context.
“This book doesn’t have many cultural elements, as it primarily focuses on love,” Pasuree said.

When faced with cultural references, translators typically choose between domestication or foreignisation strategies. Pasuree opted for the latter, aiming to retain information from the source text. This approach allows readers to gain insight into the original context. In this case, Pasuree kept the Spanish names of plants and flowers if they did not have English eqivalents.

The Thai translation of “Twenty Love Poems …” has seen two editions already since it was first published by the Butterfly Book House 20 years ago. This iconic collection of Chilean poetry has not only touched the hearts of thousands of Thai readers but is also being used as a textbook to teach Spanish phonetics and literature.