Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems
Who is Matilde Urruita from Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems and what is their importance?
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Matilde Urruita was the third wife of Pablo Neruda, and to whom he was married at the time of his death. She was the inspiration behind his publication 100 Love Sonnets, which was published anonymously in order to spare the feelings of his previous wife from whom he was separating. In his poem Autumn Testament, which reads like Neruda's last will and testament, there is a long section dedicated to her entitled, finally he addresses himself ecstatically to his beloved. Neruda says that his love for her is a "child crying" afraid to leave her arms. The poem is a beautiful statement and remembrance of the passion the two shared, and it also gives us an interesting insight into their relationship. If we read carefully, we notice that he refers to her hands as "celestial," and he speaks of her "deciphering green batons, the spider webs, the insects of my mortal calligraphy," he is referring to the fact that Matilde used to re-copy all of his scribblings for him and arranged his poetry into legible script. Also, Neruda always wrote in green ink, the color of "esperanza," or hope. After Pablo died, Matilde edited his memoir, Confieso que he Vivido or "I confess to have lived" which brought her into conflict with Augusto Pinochet, a Chilean army general who was brought into power as president of Chile right at the time of Neruda's death.