2000.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

2000 is Neruda's salute to the new millennium. Published in Spanish in 1974, a year after the poet's death, 2000 looks ahead to a world in which justice will perhaps be achieved at last. "Today is today. This morning has arrived/prepared through much darkness:/still we don't know if this newly/inaugurated world is bright ..." The poet calls on the survivors of past battles and on future generations to continue the struggle to create a society in which each individual--the explorer, the queen, the cosmonaut and the farmer--is respected. In the new world order envisioned by Neruda, the weak as well as the strong will enjoy the fruits of the community's labors and all peoples will be welcome into the family of nations.

But the transformation will not occur overnight. The poet does not foresee that problems of the poor will be solved in the next few decades. "I am the poor bastard of the poor/Third World," calls out one of the voices in the section called "The Men" ("Los hombes"). "I have arrived at this esteemed year 2000, and/what is here for me?/With what is there to scratch away the fleas? What/do these three zeros that display themselves gloriously/over my own zero/over my inexistence, have to do/with me?"

As in other works, Neruda stresses the bond between nature and man by personifying the mineral and vegetable worlds. The "copper dies," the "manganese sobs," the "iron bids farewell to the coal." However, man has violated nature, extracting minerals from the earth and destroying fertile lands with no regard for the future. In spite of man's abuses, the earth has continued to provide: "...each day bread came out to greet us,/unperturbed by the blood and death/we humans wear..." but the future must be different, for we are destroying the land that sustains us, clothes us and provides materials for industry and growth.

Translator Richard Schaaf captures magnificently the rhythm and energy of Neruda's poetry. In a few cases the English seems even more vibrant than the original Spanish, as in "The Inventions" ("Las invenciones"): "mares give birth to vermilion horses/that suddenly rear up and...