Pablo Neruda, "Standard Oil Co."

Today is Pablo Neruda's birthday (12 July 1904). Listen to his poem "Standard Oil Co." (Trans. Jack Schmitt).

Video by 4SeasonsProductions

Neruda said in the poem:

Compran países, pueblos, mares,
policías, diputaciones,
lejanas comarcas en donde
los pobres guardan su maíz
como los avaros el oro:
la Standard Oil los despierta,
los uniforma, les designa
cuál es el hermano enemigo,
y el paraguayo hace su guerra
y el boliviano se deshace
con su ametralladora en la selva.

They buy countries, people, seas, police, county councils,
distant regions where the poor hoard their corn
like misers their gold:
Standard Oil awakens them,
clothes them in uniforms, designates
which brother is the enemy.
the Paraguayan fights its war,
and the Bolivian wastes away
in the jungle with its machine gun.

People have resisted their power, sometimes successfully, though always only at great costs to themselves.