SOURCE: "Vipers, Victims, and Virgins: Women and Their Relationships with Men in the Poetry of Nicanor Parra," in Theory and Practice of Feminist Literary Criticism, edited by Gabriela Mara and Karen S. Van Hooft, Bilingual Press, 1982, pp. 256-78.

One aspect of the work of the Chilean poet Nicanor Parra that has been insufficiently studied is the role played by women and the related themes of love and sex. This is surprising, for even a superficial examination of Parra's works from Poemas y antipoemas (1954) to the controversial Artefactos (1972) reveals a considerable preoccupation with women and with men's relationships to them.

The typical analysis of this theme in Parra's poetry has focused on his misogynic portrayal of women and his negative attitude toward love and sex. Indeed, there is considerable textual basis for such an analysis. However, a closer and more balanced reading of the poet's works, one which relates his treatment of women to other central themes in his poetry, gives a somewhat different picture. In this reading, women are seen in their relationships with men, and one is obliged to conclude that the latter are not portrayed in a particularly more sympathetic light. Parra's men are seen to be as hindered in the quest for fulfillment by sexual stereotypes and role playing as the women they relate to and as incapable of finding a satisfactory solution to the resulting war between the sexes.

The problem thus becomes one of understanding Parra's critical attitude toward innumerable facets of contemporary life, from sexual stereotyping and role playing to the over-reliance on Freudian psychology, and so on. I shall attempt to show that Parra's treatment of women is part of a larger assault on our most cherished institutions and mental habits; it is basically the attack of an anarchistic poetic persona who delights in the evidence of decay around him but who offers no real solutions. To single out the poet's misogynic treatment of women without considering these other factors is to distort his basic intent.

The principal poems I will analyze are from Poemas y antipoemas, although some reference will be made to poems from other works. There are two reasons for this selectivity: (1) the poems in the first volume adequately reveal the attitudes found in the entire body of Parra's poetry, and (2) while the subject of women and love is continuously present, a considerable change in stylistic treatment occurs in the course of Parra's poetic development. In Poemas y antipoemas the subject is dealt with extensively in poems of a confessional nature such as "La víbora"; in later works (La camisa de fuerza, Otros poemas, the new poems of Emergency Poems, and especially the Artefactos) the subject is treated much more fragmentarily. This change in treatment corresponds to the variations observable in Parra's poetic personae. In his first volume the persona is most often a passive, suffering voice who narrates his erotic (mis)adventures with bitter irony, whereas in the later works the narrative aspect is almost completely lost and the attitudes are usually expressed as psychic outbursts of a different type of poetic protagonist, the energúmeno. And finally, in the Artefactos this latter tendency is developed to the extreme, and the persona becomes something akin to the anonymous writer of graffiti.

The obvious place to begin an analysis of the subject of women, love, and sex in Parra's work is with the poem "La víbora" (Poemas y antipoemas), for this is the most complete expression of the attitudes I will be discussing.

      Durante largos años estuve condenado a adorar a una mujer despreciable
      Sacrificarme por ella, sufrir humillaciones y burlas sin cuento,
      Trabajar día y noche para alimentarla y vestirla,
      Llevar a cabo algunos delitos, cometer algunas faltas,
      A la luz de la luna realizar pequeños robos,
      Falsificaciones de documentos comprometedores,
      So pena de caer en descrédito ante sus ojos fascinantes.

In the title and introduction we are presented with the essential facts: the speaker of the poem informs us that the woman in question is "a viper" and "una mujer despreciable." Furthermore, he states that he was "condemned" to "adore" her, an interesting combination of the vocabulary of love with a word suggesting imprisonment, and finally he reveals that this imprisonment, with its serious consequences of suffering, sacrifice, and crime, was involuntary, for he was trapped by the viper's "fascinating eyes." One of Parra's critics has noted that this last element may refer to the traditional belief that snakes can hypnotize their victims. While this is certainly one level of meaning present here, there are several other levels, both more simple and more complex, which contribute to the total impact. For example, the idea of a man being trapped by a woman's captivating eyes is an everyday commonplace, and the expression "ojos fascinantes" can be simply related to the banal vocabulary of advertisements for eye makeup and the like. The use of colloquial language related to common experience is a striking feature of Parra's poetry and has been amply studied elsewhere. If one wishes to continue the search for additional levels of meaning, one can also refer to the Biblical story of the Fall, in which the serpent, closely identified with the female, Eve, seduces Adam and causes the expulsion from the Garden and the condemnation of humanity to work, suffering, and sacrifice.

Parra's use of irony as an important element of his poetic technique, which has also been extensively studied, is visible in the opening section of the poem. It is in fact supremely ironic for the poetic protagonist to state that he was trapped in a life of personal suffering, humiliation, and petty crime by something so apparently trivial as a pair of captivating eyes. Of course, the reader sees beyond this lame excuse and begins to suspect some deeper cause of the speaker's suffering.

In the next section of the poem the persona refers to the "horas de comprensión" between himself and the viper when they would have their picture taken together in the park or would go to a club, "Donde nos entregábamos a un baile desenfrenado / Que se prolongaba hasta altas horas de la madrugada." The first of these activities suggests the falsity of their "understanding," for what the reader sees is not any real togetherness or communication but rather a posture that substitutes for it (posing for a picture). It is as if the lovers are trying to capture their togetherness by creating some proof that it exists. This idea, the lack of true contact and communication between human beings and the futility of attempts to achieve it, is an important motive in Parra's poetry. The second activity, the "baile desenfrenado," introduces the motive of the erotic dance and the idea, suggested by "desenfrenado," of uncontrolled, orgiastic activity associated with sex.

The protagonist continues:

      Largos años viví prisionero del encanto de aquella mujer
      Que solía presentarse a mi oficina completamente desnuda
      Ejecutando las contorsiones más difíciles de imaginar
      Con el propósito de incorporar mi pobre alma a su órbita
      Y, sobre todo, para extorsionarme hasta el último centavo.
      Me prohibía estrictamente que me relacionase con mi familia,
      Mis amigos eran separados de mí mediante libelos infamantes
      Que la víbora hacía publicar en un diario de su propiedad.

In the first line of this section the imprisonment motive is repeated, this time in association with the word "encanto," giving a similar ironic contrast to that seen previously. Of course, "encanto" has several levels of meaning; on one level is the commonplace idea of being trapped by a woman's "charms" and on another that of being the victim of an evil hypnotic spell. This second level is strengthened by the reader's previous understanding that the viper is a contemptible woman. The following lines emphasize this point, for the woman's intent is apparently to control the man's soul and extort his last cent. She intends to possess him so completely that he is separated from his family and friends by her manipulations.

At the same time another motive is developed, that of the woman's aggressive and exaggerated sexuality and her exploitation of the man.

       Apasionada hasta el delirio no me daba un instante de tregua,
       Exigiéndome perentoriamente que besara su boca
       Y que contestase sin dilación sus necias preguntas
       Varias de ellas referentes a la eternidad y a la vida futura
       Temas que producían en mi un lamentable estado de ánimo,
       Zumbidos de oídos, entrecortadas náuseas, desvanecimientos prematuros
       Que ella sabía aprovechar con ese espíritu práctico que la caracterizaba
       Para vestirse rápidamente sin pérdida de tiempo
       Y abandonar mi departamento dejándome con un palmo de narices.

At this point the reader begins to associate the previous labeling of the woman as a viper with the obvious symbolic possibilities present. For example, the viper can be seen as a phallic symbol, thereby suggesting that her aggressive sexuality is "masculine." And this idea can then be related to the myth of the Fall, for in one interpretation the serpent symbolizes sexuality and what it offers Eve is sexual knowledge, which she in turn uses to seduce Adam.

After describing the viper's attempts to seduce him, the poetic protagonist refers to her "necias preguntas" of a metaphysical nature and his resulting "lamentable estado de ánimo" and physical malaise. The close association of her sexual advances with these metaphysical questions (note the apparent reversal of roles) serves to suggest that his symptoms of illness are not entirely caused by the questions. In fact, the speaker indicates that the final result is really impotence and frustration on all levels, physical and mental, which the woman compounds by her calculated flight.

In the next section of the poem we are informed that the affair with the viper went on for more than five years, a seemingly incredible amount of time to endure such suffering. During some of this time they lived together, "… en una pieza redonda / Que pagábamos a medias en un barrio de lujo cerca del cementerio." Here the prison, disguised as a love nest, takes the form of a round room—a female symbol in Freudian terms. It is, significantly, near a cemetery, thereby associating their relationship with death, another important motive in Parra. In a typical use of irony, this living arrangement is called a "honeymoon" and then the image is immediately deflated by describing their battle with "las ratas que se colaban por la ventana."

Next we are informed of other details relating to the viper's exploitative nature, particularly her intent to take economic advantage of her victim. She accuses her lover of ruining her youth, and with "flashing eyes" (another commonplace but suggestive description) she threatens to take him to court to collect the money he owes her. One begins to wonder who is exploiting whom! We remember that early in the poem the speaker claims to work night and day to feed and clothe the viper, but later he states that they share the rent in the round room, and now he is apparently borrowing money from her. Obviously he means to indicate that she is causing his ruin, for next he must live on charity and is reduced to sleeping on park benches.

      Felizmente aquel estado de cosas no pasó más adelante,
      Porque cierta vez en que yo me encontraba en una plaza también
      Posando frente a una cámara fotográfica
      Unas deliciosas manos femeninas me vendaron de pronto la vista
      Mientras una voz amada para mi me preguntaba quién soy yo.
      Tú eres mi amor, respondí con serenidad.
      ¡Angel mío, dijo ella nerviosamente,
      Permite que me siente en tus rodillas una vez más!
      Entonces pude percatarme de que ella se presentaba ahora provista de un pequeño taparrabos.

The scene of the viper's reappearance is full of "notas discordantes": the protagonist posing for a picture while living on charity; the woman showing up dressed in a loincloth, playing a child's game with her former victim and asking to sit on his lap; and the male reacting with the hackneyed phrases "deliciosas manos femeninas," "voz amada," and "tú eres mi amor." The juxtaposition of this banal love vocabulary with the "discordant" description of the viper's appearance again provides an ironic contrast that underscores the true nature of the relationship.

The speaker next discovers that the viper has new plans for them:

      Me he comprado una parcela, no lejos del matadero, exclamó,
      Allí pienso construir una especie de pirámide
      En la que podamos pasar los últimos días de nuestra vida.
      Ya he terminado mis estudios, me he recibido de abogado,
      Dispongo de un buen capital;
      Dediquémonos a un negocio productivo, los dos, amor mío, agregó,
      Lejos del mundo construyamos nuestro nido.

Significantly, the plot of land is near the slaughterhouse and the new love nest will be a pyramid, both things again suggesting that their love is akin to death. Furthermore, the plan is to structure their new relationship as a business deal, emphasizing the viper's materialistic nature and the baseness of their love. But the protagonist rejects her plans and finally begins to demand something real and necessary from her; that she give him water and food, if she is to give him anything. He flatly states that the affair is over: "No puedo trabajar más para ti, / Todo ha terminado entre nosotros." He is at last unwilling to go on allowing her to imprison him. However, it is clear that this affirmative decision is not all that hopeful for him, for he is old and "profundamente agotado."

In summary, the attitudes present in this poem toward love, women, and sex are decidedly negative. Love here is an exploitative relationship in which the woman imprisons the man, causing physical and mental suffering and his eventual perdition. Furthermore, it is seen as a death-trap which must ultimately be rejected. The sexual component of love participates quite virulently in these characteristics; sex is seen as being little more than an uncontrolled, orgiastic, and finally futile and frustrating activity. The failure in sex, then, is indicative of the more general failure to establish a satisfying and communicating relationship.

The woman in the poem, the viper, does not correspond to the conventional female stereotype of the passive "homebody," for she appears both sexually and intellectually aggressive. However, the description the poetic voice gives us in fact contains a number of contradictions. In spite of the viper's supposed ability to support herself (we are told that she owns a daily newspaper), she still demands at the beginning that the man provide for her or at least collaborate in her maintenance. Her aggressive sexuality, which the reader sees in an obviously exaggerated form, threatens the protagonist's established masculine role and renders him impotent. Still, the viper makes rather traditional demands for affection. Finally, her metaphysical questionings of him suggest an underlying intellectual passivity stereotypically associated with women. The reader notes that she asks questions, seemingly looking to the male for guidance, rather than expressing or asserting her own ideas. In other words, the viper partially usurps the traditional masculine role, but not completely. But for the male this is sufficient to make her deadly; she is able to entrap and manipulate him, ostensibly against his will. She ultimately contributes to his impotence on all levels.

The protagonist himself is shown to be powerless and easily duped. Trapped by this aggressive woman who definitely represents a threat to his well-being and whom he is unable to handle, he has neither the will nor the ability to escape until the end, when it may be too late. While she is presented as being truly malevolent, he is not any better a person, for he is not only incapable of communicating with the woman, whom he views in purely sexual terms, but he is also deluded as to the true cause of his suffering—his own inability to take the action necessary to free himself from her clutches.

The poem following "La víbora" in Poemas y antipoemas, "La trampa," presents a complementary view of the themes elaborated above. Whereas in the first poem the most visible motive is that of frustration and ruin due to female malevolence and exploitation, here it is that of intellectual and sexual failure caused by the inability to communicate successfully. The imprisonment motive is also important, as is indicated by the title. The viper's trap was presented as being a hypnotic spell cast by her enchanting eyes; here the trap is objectively represented by a telephone.

The first part of the poem is a description of the poetic protagonist's mental imprisonment. He is unable to cope with "las escenas demasiado misteriosas" and his "pensamientos atrabiliarios," so he flees social contact, preferring to remain at home. Although he states that "En la soledad poseía un dominio absolute sobre mí mismo, / Iba de un lado a otro con plena conciencia de mis actos," the reader is soon aware that this is not true, for one proceeds to observe the protagonist's aimless pursuits: "… dilucidando algunas cuestiones / Referentes a la reproducción de las arañas"; "O también en mangas de camisa, en actitud desafiante, / Solía lanzar iracundas miradas a la luna"; "O me tendí entre las tablas de la bodega / A soñar, a idear mecanismos…."

The speaker of the poem next admits that these attempts at avoidance are futile. He cannot escape his desire to establish communication with someone. But he fails in his attempt.

    Comenzaba a deslizarme automáticamente por una especie de piano inclinado,
    Como un globo que se desinfla mi alma perdía altura,
    El instinto de conservación dejaba de funcionar
    Y privado de mis prejuicios más esenciales
    Caía fatalmente en la trampa del teléfono
    Que como un abismo atrae a los objetos que lo rodean
    Y con manos trémulas marcaba ese número maldito
    Que aún suelo repetir automáticamente mientras duermo.
    De incertidumbre y de miseria eran aquellos segundos
    En que yo, como un esqueleto de pie delante de esa mesa del infierno
    Cubierta de una cretona amarilla,
    Esperaba una respuesta desde el otro extremo del mundo,
    La otra mitad de mi ser prisionera en un hoyo.

This part of the poem is introduced with the images of sliding and falling, and Edith Grossman's analysis of it summarizes the main points:

… the second half of the poem, dealing with the protagonist's tortured eroticism as he slips into the chasm of frustrated sexuality is, significantly, conceived of as the fall. In the intellectual abyss, the protagonist avoids contact through withdrawal; in the sexual abyss, he avoids profound sexual contact through the removed communication of the telephone, through false and unsatisfied stimulation, through meetings in public places.

We see here the now familiar association of sexuality with imprisonment and with the Fall, and again there is the suggestion of death in the use of the words "esqueleto" and "infierno." The reader also notes that the subject suffers symptoms of physical malaise as did the protagonist of "La víbora": "manos trémulas," "incertidumbre y miseria," "comenzaba a transpirar y tartamudear," "Me producía malestares difusos / Perturbaciones locales de angustia…." And finally these symptoms become directly sexual in the form of "incipientes erecciones y … una sensación de fracaso." The theme of frustrated communication is also found in the lines following the section quoted above, as is another reference to death:

      Mi lengua parecida a un beefsteak de ternera
      Se interponía entre mi ser y mi interlocutora
      Como esas cortinas negras que nos separan de los muertos.

The woman whom the subject is speaking to is hardly described at all, but when she is referred to it is in terms of her attempts to be overly intimate (she calls him by his first name, "En ese tono de familiaridad forzada") and her sexuality (the protagonist refers to her excited state as "efervescencia pseudoerótico"). Again the reader receives the impression of a clinging, overly erotic female whose reactions are identified by the subject as a cause of his "feeling of failure."

Finally, the speaker admits that he is left in a state of mental prostration ("aquellas catástrofes tan deprimentes para mi espíritu"). This prostration is so closely connected with his statements of purely physical symptoms as to make the sexual failure inseparable from it. At the end of the poem no solution is in sight, for the "stupid idyll" will continue: the man has arranged to see the woman the next day at a soda fountain or the door of a church, both public places that will again frustrate the desire for intimate communication. Of note is that the protagonist in this poem is somewhat more aware that his own weakness is a cause of his suffering: "Yo no deseaba sostener esas conversaciones demasiado íntimas / Que, sin embargo, yo mismo provocaba en forma torpe."

A third important poem in Poemas y antipoemas is "Recuerdos de juventud." It begins with a statement by the speaker that, unlike the persona of "La trampa," he has no illusions of being in control of himself:

       Lo cierto es que yo iba de un lado a otro,
       A veces chocaba con los árboles,
       Chocaba con los mendigos,
       Me abtía paso a través de un bosque de sillas y mesas.

But his attempts to find his way through this "forest of chairs and tables" are futile: "Cada vez me hundía más y más en una especie de jalea." The image of sinking recalls the sliding and falling of "La trampa," and the jelly has a possible sexual connotation. The poetic voice continues:

      La gente se reía de mis arrebatos,
      ............................
      Y las mujeres me dirigían miradas de odio
      Haciéndome subir, haciéndome bajar,
      Haciéndome llorar y reír en contra de mi voluntad.

The word "arrebatos," which closely follows upon the image of sinking into the jelly, recalls the "desenfreno"—the uncontrolled, orgiastic activity—in "La víbora" and strengthens the possible sexual connotation. And the next three lines cited are a direct statement of the protagonist's victimization by women, who manipulate him both emotionally (the references to laughing and crying) and sexually (the suggestive use of "subir" and "bajar") against his will.

"De todo esto resultó un sentimiento de asco," states the persona. Since this line follows the section on women, the reader suspects that a large part of the repulsion is sexual, although the character at first slates that it manifested itself as "… una tempestad de frases incoherentes, / Amenazas, insultos, juramentos…." However, the next section confirms the original suspicion:

      Resultaron unos movimientos agotadores de caderas,
      Aquellos bailes fúnebres
      Que me dejaban sin respiración
      Y que me impedían levantar cabeza durante días,
      Durante noches.

The sexual reference could not be clearer. Sex is seen as a dance, recalling the erotic dance in "La vibora," and is associated again with physical prostration and death ("fúnebre"). Therefore sexual activity is presented here as both a causal factor in the protagonist's situation and as a desperate attempt to resolve it, one which only leads to further repulsion and alienation.

The protagonist's next attempts to escape are intellectual rather than sexual: "Con una hoja de papel y un lápiz yo entraba en los cementerios / Dispuesto a no dejarme engañar." We note that this effort involves writing as a form of communication (a possible biographical reference) and that it takes place in cemeteries, relating it to the death motive. Following this is a description of other intellectual endeavors and attempts to communicate in classrooms, literary circles and private houses, but all efforts fail:

      Con el filo de la lengua traté de comunicarme con los espectadores:
      Ellos leían el periódico
      O desaparecían detrás de un taxi.

The last two lines of the poem reflect the protagonist's complete despair: "Yo pensaba en un trozo de cebolla visto durante la cena / Y en el abismo que nos separa de los otros abismos." The startling first line signals the continuation of his disconcerted mental state and the second his awareness of the futility of his attempts to communicate with others, who are as trapped in the abyss as he is.

Other poems from Poemas y antipoemas that belong to the same thematic unit, in that they express the same attitudes, are "El túnel," "El peregrino," and "Notas de viaje." In "El túnel" there is another version of the imprisonment theme, this time presenting a protagonist who is considerably younger. Interestingly, the figures who trap and manipulate him are his aunts, "tres ancianas histéricas," "temibles damas"; they oblige him to work for them and deceive him cruelly by feigning helplessness in the form of illness and paralysis. The imprisonment here is referred to in terms of the tunnel of the title, the "interior de una botella de mesa," a "malla impenetrable," and a "campana de vidrio." The first two of these, especially, in association with the figures of the aunts and the imprisonment motive, can be seen as symbolically representing female malevolence (comparable to the round room in "La víbora").

The young protagonist in "El túnel" has essentially the same problems as the previous personae. At the hands of his aunts he suffers a constant martyrdom, revulsion, anguish, and finally ruin and misery, which he attempts to escape by another type of flight, that of playing a role to please them: "… angustia que yo trataba de disimular al máximo / Con el objeto de no despertar curiosidad en tomo a mi persona." He experiences the same failures of understanding and communication seen previously, for he has a distorted perception of reality ("Yo lo veía todo a través de un prisma") and he is isolated from others:

      Un joven de escasos recursos no se da cuenta de las cosas.
      El vive en una campana de vidrio que se llama
      Arte
      Que se llama Lujuria, que se llama Ciencia
      Tratando de establecer contacto con un mundo de relaciones
      Que sólo existen para él y para un pequeño grupo de arnigos.

"El peregrino" again refers to the sexual and intellectual abyss in which the protagonist lives and his abortive attempts to communicate with other people:

      Un alma que ha estado embotellada durante años
      En una especie de abismo sexual e intelectual
      Alimentándose escasamente por la nariz
      Desea hacerse escuchar por ustedes.
      Deseo que se me informe sobre algunas materias,
      Necesito un poco de luz….

Finally, in "Notas de viaje" the persona tries to flee the abyss by abandoning his job and travelling. In spite of his flight, however, he still attempts to communicate superficially with others by "exchanging impressions." The dance motive is present again and is related to thoughts of "cosas absurdas" and "cosas fantásticas relacionadas con mi familia," which bring to mind the "desenfreno" seen previously in reference to the dance. And the image of the boat entering the river "… a través de un banco de medusas" has suggested to one critic a concretely sexual picture. This vision affects the protagonist's spirit, obliging him to resort to a self-imposed imprisonment.

The remaining poems examined in this paper offer somewhat different stylistic treatments of the subject of women, love, and sex. Nevertheless, most of these poems express attitudes that are the same or complementary to those already discussed, while only a few appear to offer contradictory views.

The poem "Canción" presents a different type of woman from that seen previously.

      Quién eres tú repentina
      Doncella que te desplomas
      Como la araña que pende
      Del pétalo de una rosa.
 
      Tu cuerpo relampaguea
      Entre las maduras pomas
      Que el aire arranca
      Del árbol de la centolla.
 
      Caes con el sol, esclava
      Dorada de la amapola
      Y lloras entre los brazos
      Del hombre que te deshoja.

This is not the sexually domineering and manipulating woman of "La víbora" and other poems. Instead she is virginal, receptive, and submissive. The term "esclava" refers to the fact that she is bound both to her nascent, uncontrolled passions and, to a lesser degree, to the man who deflowers her.

      Herida en lo más profundo
      Del cáliz, te desenrollas,
      Gimes de placer, te estiras,
      Te rompes como una copa.
 
      Mujer parecida al mar,
      —Violada entre ola y ola—
      Eres más ardiente aún
      Que un cielo de nubes rojas.
 
      La mesa está puesta, muerde
      La uva que te trastorna
      Y besa con ira el duro
      Cristal que te vuelve loca.

In contrast with previous poems, it is the woman who is here associated with imagery of physical and emotional distress and pain related to sex ("te desplomas," "herida," "Te rompes," "violada"; "lloras," "gimes," "ira"). Similar to the "unhinged" male protagonists seen earlier, she has lost control ("La uva que te trastorna," "Cristal que te vuelve loca"); this contrasts with the consciously manipulative sexual extravagances of "La víbora."

Therefore in this poem the roles are reversed. Whereas previously woman has been the manipulator and sexual aggressor, now she is manipulated (and thus a potential victim); where previously she caused suffering, now she suffers, albeit for the "higher" purpose of sexual initiation. Both types of women are presented in the poems in such a way as to be ultimately negative: the one because she controls and effectively castrates the male, and the other because she is at the mercy of unbridled instincts that do her physical violence and cast her in the unenviable and limited role of submissive receptacle of the phallus.

A poem that deals with the theme of male victimization of woman is "Las tablas." This poem has many different levels of meaning, and the following brief analysis is only one possible reading.

      Soñé que me encontraba en un desierto y que hastiado de mí mismo
      Comenzaba a golpear a una mujer.
      Hacía un frío de los demonios; era necesario hacer algo,
      Hacer fuego, hacer un poco de ejercicio;
      Pero a mí me dolía la cabeza, me sentía fatigado
      Sólo quería dormir, quería, morir.

The poem begins with the familiar idea of the protagonist not being able to stand himself or cope with the world; this time he seeks an escape through action in the form of sexual violence. We next discover that he is, in fact, beating his mother: "'Por qué maltratas a tu madre' me preguntaba entonces una piedra." The poetic persona is plagued by accusatory voices and visions ("Y veía la imagen de ese ídolo / Mi dios que me miraba hacer estas cosas") and he reacts by trembling, biting his nails, and attempting to divert his thoughts.

All of this is useless, for the voices return in other forms: the "tablets of the law" and the birds that will record his crimes. He soon becomes bored with listening to the voices, and failing to be rid of them:

      Entonces y me volví de nuevo a mi dama
      Y le empecé a dar más firme que antes.
      Para mantenerse despierto había que hacer algo
      Eslaba en la obligación de actuar.

Finally he makes one last effort ("Y decidí quemar el busto del dios"), only to discover that in ridding himself of his guilt he has also lost the one thing he may successfully take out his frustration on: "Mi madre me había abandonado." Because of his actions he is cut off from any human contact, with further action of any kind frustrated ("Ya no podía más"). He has destroyed the "tablets of the law," the norms of social behavior, and is therefore excluded from society.

"Las tahlas" complements the negative view of sexuality seen elsewhere, and the inclusion of the mother figure adds a new dimension. The poem may be understood on one level as an expression of sexual loathing, the type of expression that often takes its strongest form in dreams such as this. The mother figure's humiliation suggests the whole question of familial relations and their effect on male and female sexual behavior (e.g., sadistic and masochistic behavior, respectively).

It should be noted that there are generally few negative references to the family in Parra's poetry, and these usually relate to the wife rather than to mother, sisters, or daughters. For example, in "Lo que el difunto dijo de sí mismo" (Versos de salón), the persona reacts violently to a question regarding his abandonment of his wife: "Respondí con un golpe en el pupitre / 'Esa mujer se abandonó a sí misma.'" In "Vida de perros" (Versos de salón) we see the following: "El hogar es un campo de batalla. / La mujer se defiende con las piernas."

In other poems extremely positive attitudes toward female family members are present. "Catalina Parra" (Poemas y antipoemas) is a nostalgic and affectionate poem about the poet's daughter. "Defensa de Violeta Parra" (Otros poemas) is a poem of praise, admiration, and respect for the poet's sister, the most positively drawn female in any of Parra's poems.

Two poems from Poemas y antipoemas provide a strange contrast with the others analyzed to this point. These are "Es olvido" and "Cartas a una desconocida." Their strangeness results from their unusually nostalgic, melancholic, and even somewhat romantic tone, a rarity in Parra's work, though it does appear elsewhere (See "Aromos" and other poems in Canciones rusas).

"Es olvido" is a lament on the death of a young girl whom the poet belatedly discovers was in love with him. She is presented in what is almost the classic vocabulary of romantic love poems: she is described as "una joven pálida y sombría," recalling the pale and sad princesses of Darío and others; she is also "una joven triste y pensativa," "múltiple rosa inmaculada," "una lámpara legítima," "una paloma fugitiva." Furthermore, the protagonist's relationship with her is partially expressed in similar tones: "Mas moriré llamándola María," "Y una que otra mención de golondrinas"; her death causes "… tal desengaño / Que derramé una lágrima al oírla." All of this is not to say that the irony so typical of Parra is not present; the last line cited is followed by "Una lágrima, sí. ¡quién lo creyera! / Y eso que soy persona de energía." The poem is really a mixture of romantic and ironic elements.

Significantly, the protagonist affirms that for him this relationship meant little or nothing, for he cannot even remember the girl's real name. He indeed insists on this point:

      Debo creer, sin vacilar un punto,
      Que murió con mi nombre en las pupilas,
      Hecho que me sorprende, porque nunca
      Fue para mi otra cosa que una amiga
      .............................
      … jamás vi en ella otro destino
      Que el de una joven triste y pensativa.
      .............................
      Puede ser que una vez la haya besado
      ¡Quién es el que no besa a sus amigas!
      Pero tened presente que lo hice
      Sin darme cuenta bien de lo que hacía.
      No negaré, eso sí, que me gustaba
      Su immaterial y vaga compañía
      .........................
      Mas, a pesar de todo, es necesario
      Que comprendan que yo no la quería.

Aside from noting that her importance to him, and indeed his vision of her as a person, is rather limited, we may conclude that this is basically another example of a failure of communication. The girl offers him love and happiness, but he does not see it until it is too late. The protagonist actually admits this frustrated communication in the line "Nada más que palabras y palabras." The fact that he has forgotten her, "Como todas las cosas de la vida" is a sad reflection of the transitory nature of human experience.

Another melancholic and semi-romantic poem is the short "Cartas a una desconocida."

     Cuando pasen los años, cuando pasen
     Los años y el aire haya cavado un foso
     Entre tu alma y la mía; cuando pasen los años
     Y yo sólo sea un hombre que amó, un ser que se detuvo
     Un instante frente a tus labios,
     Un pobre hombre cansado de andar por los jardines,
     ¿Dónde estarás tú? ¡Dónde
     Estaraás, oh hija de mis besos!

The title is important, for the woman is "una desconocida." The speaker's contact with her was brief, he does not really know her, and he sees that time and distance will destroy even his memory of her. The use of the word "foso" recalls the abyss of poems such as "Recuerdos de juventud"; the combined effect of the presentation of the unknown woman and the abyss again suggests isolation and non-communication. And the activity of "walking through gardens" reminds the reader of the aimless pursuits of the various protagonists elsewhere. Finally, the reader notes that in spite of the tone of the poem, the language is generally commonplace rather than elevated, contrasting with the usual language of love poetry. Therefore Parra here complements the view seen previously by emphasizing the mediocrity of human communication and feeling and the hopelessness of aspiring to the ideal of a lasting love relationship.

To expand the discussion of our subject, reference could be made to many other poems from Parra's later works. However, most of these poems deal with the same attitudes already discussed, although the particular treatment may vary the stress. One poem that should be examined is "Mujeres" (Versos de salón). This poem exemplifies the tendency to define women according to a limited or narrow framework; here they are categorized on the basis of their sexual attitudes or sexual behavior, or simply on the basis of appearance.

     La mujer imposible,
     La mujer de dos metros de estatura,
     La señora de mármol de Carrara
     Que no fuma ni bebe,
     La mujer que no quiere desnudarse
     Por temor a quedar embarazada,
     La vestal intocable
     Que no quiere ser madre de familia
     ........................
     La que sólo se entrega por amor
     La doncella que mira con un ojo,
     La que sólo se deja poseer
     En el diván, al borde del abismo,
     La que odia los órganos sexuales,
     La que se une sólo con su perro,
     La mujer que se hace la dormida.

While there is considerable variation in the types presented, this is of course a limited and limiting view of women as people.

A related motive in Parra's poetry is that of the search for some type of "ideal" woman, a search which is inevitably frustrated. (In the poem "Vida de perros" in Versos de salón, the poet cries "¡Dónde encontrar a la mujer precisa!"). It is never really clear what this ideal might be; it is certainly neither the aggressive, manipulating woman nor the submissive virgin. At the end of "Mujeres" the poet indicates his frustration and his ultimate inability to deal widi any of the women he has described in such limiting and stereotypical terms.

     Todas estas walkirias
     Todas estas matronas respetables
     Con sus labios mayores y menores
     Terminarán sacándome de quicio.

The dislike—or even fear—of the sexually aggressive woman and the resultant impotence of the male are also present in "Mujeres," where the poet rejects

     La mujer que camina
     Virgen hacia la cámara nupcial
     Pero que reacciona como hombre.

This idea is also very clear in "Conversación galante" (Versos de salón), where the woman is the aggressor and the man is incapable of responding: "—Pero entonces, ¿por qué no reaccionas? / Tócalos, aproveca la ocasión. /—No me gusta tocarlos a la fuerza." And finally, "Cartas del poeta que duerme en una silla" (Otros poemas) presents a disguised statement of this attitude in the form of a dream. (Note the references to death, physical and mental suffering, war, and insanity.)

     Toda la noche sueño con mujeres
     Unas se ríen ostensiblemente de mí
     Otras me dan el golpe del conejo.
     No me dejan en paz.
     Están en guerra permanente conmigo.
 
     Me levanto con cara de trueno.
     De lo que se deduce que estoy loco
     O por lo menos que estoy muerto de susto.

Other important poems are (1) "Se me ocurren ideas luminosas" (Versos de salón), where the emphasis is on role playing and the failure of verbal and sexual communication; (2) "La doncella y la muerte" (Versos de salón), which pictures woman as femme fatale or temptress and associates sexuality with death; and (3) "Como les iba diciendo" (Emergency Poems), in which the protagonist brags of his sexual prowess.

It is hardly necessary to state that this is a generally dreadful picture of love and sex and women. In the world of Parra's poetry, love is impossible, sex is frustrating, and the women presented are certainly not people one would want to have relationships with. A superficial reader might dismiss these attitudes as misogynic, sick, perverted, or whatever; it is also possible, of course, that the reader might identify with these attitudes. Their dismissal is not so easy when they arc taken in the total context of Parra's poetry. In fact, an understanding of these attitudes as an integral part of the poet's larger vision does much to clarify exactly what this vision is.

Parra's poetry presents a profoundly critical attack on the decaying world we live in and the poverty of the values we live by. Humanity in general is seen as being imprisoned by its cherished attitudes and mental habits, by its faulty perception of reality, and by its inability to communicate its despair or take positive action to remedy the situation. As José M. Ibáñez-Langlois aptly states:

Los poemas de Nicanor Parra, en su caótico flujo, subvierten inveterados hábitos mentales de nuestra herencia filosófica, cultural, política. Toda una visión convencional del mundo, toda una estructura lógica del pensamiento, todo un edificio verbal que sustenta el orden establecido, todo un conjunto de seguridades tácitas que defienden el "paraíso del pequeño burgués", es revelado en su vacuidad y corroído desde su interior por el impacto de las descargas antipoéticas.

As this quotation indicates, Parra employs a varied arsenal of weapons in his attack. Perhaps the most powerful of these are his use of irony and occasionally parody and the use of colloquial, anti-metaphorical language rather than traditionally "poetic" language. Both of these techniques serve to demythologize or deflate the importance of traditional habits of thought, patterns of behavior, and values.

To accomplish this poetic deflation Parra first signals his targets. This paper has analyzed one such target: the attitudes toward women, sex, and love. This and other targets are catalogued in the poem "Los vicios del mundo moderno" (Poemas y antipoemas):

     Los vicios del mundo moderno:
     El automóvil y el cine sonoro.
     Las discriminaciones raciales,
     El exterminio de los pieles rojas,
     Los trucos de la alta banca,
     La catástrofe de los ancianos,
     ..........................
     El auto-erotismo y la crueldad sexual
     ..........................
     El endiosamiento del falo,
     ..........................
     La destrucción de los ídolos,
     ..........................
     Las gotas de sangre que suelen encontrarse entre las sábanas de los recién desposados.

In sum, Parra's vision takes on all our cherished myths, our political and financial institutions, our social behavior, and even the gadgets, conveniences, and diversions of our daily life.

Parra's treatment of the subject of love and women has been seen to present, or at least allude to, the myth of the Fall, the impossibility of experiencing romantic love, and the stereotyping of both the male and the female along traditional lines. The use of the myth of the Fall is particularly revealing. In this myth and related ones such as that of Pandora's box, the female is assigned the unenviable role of being the cause of human suffering, knowledge, and sin. It is still an important foundation of our sexual attitudes, as is witnessed by the popular conception of the femme fatale, the sexual temptress. These attitudes are clearly present in poems such as "La víbora." Nevertheless, Parra deflates the validity of this myth by revealing his protagonists to be at least partially responsible for their own suffering. In other words, the evil female is no more to blame for the situation than the man.

The myth of romantic love is also destroyed by its negative presentation. The use of irony, of hackneyed colloquial language, and the stress on the motives of failed communication, distance, and sexual frustration demonstrate the emptiness of traditional love as a form of human communion. This point is related to the stereotyping of mate and female behavior. The playing of traditional sexual roles, roles that are defined by the stereotypes, is shown to be ultimately negative, for such roles are clearly very limiting. For example, if woman conforms to the ideal of physical and intellectual passivity, thereby casting the male in the role of the aggressor, her destiny is to be raped and the male becomes a rapist. If the reverse occurs, and woman becomes the aggressor, the male is left impotent. Neither of these is satisfactory, of course, and there is the strong suggestion that sexual role playing is closely linked to disastrous male-female relationships.

Most importantly, Parra's critical vision even attacks our ways of thinking about the world and analyzing our experience. Our "inveterados hábitos mentales" and our "estructura lógica del pensamiento" referred to by Ibáñez-Langlois are systematically undermined in poems such as "Siegmund Freud" (Otros poemas). The particular point of this poem is to challenge the tendency in our culture to view the world in psychoanalytic terms, e.g., our exaggerated ability to see phallic symbols and the like everywhere. After a masterful parody in which the poet lists the numerous phallic possibilities, he concludes the poem with a section referring to himself visiting a factory in China and relating all he sees to sex organs. The use of the words "delirar" and "locura" indicates the distortion of reality resulting from reliance on this or any limited mode of thought. The end of the poem openly asserts that it is futile to try to understand human experience in such terms and that the system will eventually bring on its own destruction:

     El laberinto no tiene salida.
 
     El Occidente es una gran pirámide
     Que termina y empieza en una psiquiatra:
     La pirámide está por derrumbarse.

The realization that even one's way of thinking is being challenged has a disconcerting effect on the reader of Parra's poems. We realize that we too are caught in the trap of conventional thinking. This problem certainly affects the analysis presented here, for it has been difficult to avoid speaking in terms of "themes" and "motives" and other traditional literary jargon. The references to sexual symbolism (for example, the female symbolism of the tunnel) were consciously made with tongue in cheek, for one wonders if the poet has not intentionally laid a trap for the reader by using such symbols.

A final question to examine is whether or not the poet presents any solution. The world is in a shambles, humanity is trapped by its conventions, and we are on the verge of self-destruction. Is there any hope? It might be claimed that the mere perception of the human situation, the acceptance of it, and the insight into the reasons for it, represent a type of hope: in other words, that knowledge and understanding are the first step in a cure. But we have seen that for the poet our supposed "knowledge" and "understanding" are actually part of the trap, so the answer must basically be negative.

Ibáñez-Langlois presents a convincing argument for viewing the religious questioning of Parra's poems as a possible element of hope. But, as this critic also notes, in poems such as "La cruz" (La camisa de fuerza), religious revelation is a future possibility, not a present hope for the solution of humanity's dilemma.

One poem that seems to offer an immediate solution is "Los vicios del mundo moderno":

     Tratemos de ser felices, recomiendo yo, chupando la miserable
     costilla humana.
     Extraigamos de ella el líquido renovador,
     Cada cual de acuerdo con sus inclinaciones personales.
     ¡Aferrémonos a esta piltrafa divina!
     Jadeantes y tremebundos
     Chupemos estos labios que nos enloquecen;
     La suerte está echada.
     Aspiremos este perfume enervador y destructor
     Y vivamos un día más la vida de los elegidos:
     De sus axilas extrae el hombre la cera necesaria para forjar el rostro de sus ídolos.
     Y del sexo de la mujer la paja y el barro de sus templos.

Edith Grossman has suggested that this is a somewhat sardonic description of women (i.e., sex) as the salvation of humanity. It is certainly sardonic, but it is difficult to see that "salvation" is the goal, especially for the female half of humanity. Rather, this would seem to be simply a desperate recipe for male survival, for, after all, "la suerte está echada."

This section of the poem has also been seen to suggest that humanity simply try to maintain the illusion of happiness by clinging to what it has, impoverished and rotten as it is, and by continuing to "suck" and "extract" from life all that it has to offer. Implicit in this extraction is the continuation of the exploitation of others.

However, the sexual references are too clear to ignore (or perhaps, again, too clear to take seriously!). The "costilla humana" can be seen to refer to woman by association with the Biblical story of the creation of Eve from Adam's rib. The subsequent references to sucking on "maddening lips" and to breathing the "enervating and destructive perfume" also appear to be female references. And finally, the statement that man extracts the straw and mud for his temples from woman's sex is the clearest reference to the exploitation of women, and suggests to this reader the often observed commonplace that men, not women, create our official culture; woman is seen as being creative only through the product of her sexuality.

Therefore this solution to the dilemma is also a false one, at least as long as humanity clings to its condition so tenaciously. Perhaps, then, the only true hope for Parra is in the destruction of this condition, in the "crumbling of the pyramid." But no, for we are told in "Soliloquio del individuo" (Poemas y antipoemas) that this is a vain wish:

     Mejor es tal vez que vuelva a ese valle,
     A esa roca que me sirvió de hogar,
     Y empiece a grabar de nuevo,
     De atrás para adelante grabar
     El mundo al revés.
     Pero no: la vida no tiene sentido.

In the end, then, the only hope for Parra would seem to be the acceptance of the situation ("la vida no liene sentido") and the ability to laugh, or at least smile, at the insanity of it all.

     Por todo lo cual
     Cultivo un piojo en mi corbata
     Y sonrío a los imbéciles que bajan de los árboles.
     "Los vicios del mundo moderno."