With burning patience
The novel With Burning Patience (Spanish: Ardiente paciencia ) was written by the Chilean writer Antonio Skármeta . With this he has erected a memorial to the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and his postman.
The title of the novel is derived from the Rimbaud quote “At dawn, armed with burning patience, we will enter the cities”.
action
Mario Jiménez, a 17-year-old boy from a Chilean fishing family, started working as a postman on his father's advice. Since the small Chilean village of Isla Negra has a high rate of illiteracy , its only customer is the famous poet Pablo Neruda . After initially tentative contact, an ever closer friendship develops over the course of the novel. At the same time as this storyline, Mario falls in love with the beautiful Beatriz Gonzáles, whom he finally wins through metaphors from his friend Neruda. Beatriz and Mario get married and have a son, whose godparents are the poet and who is named Pablo Neftalí Jiménez Gonzáles in his honor.
Shortly thereafter, Neruda decided to pursue a political career. He gives up his candidacy as Chilean president in favor of Salvador Allende , who ultimately wins the elections in Chile and wants to establish a democratically legitimized, socialist society in Chile. Neruda becomes ambassador to Paris, while Mario and Beatriz work in their mother's pub. In the meantime Mario has started to write poetry himself. One of his works achieved national fame.
After the government was overthrown in a coup by Augusto Pinochet , Neruda returned from Paris seriously ill. Mario visits the poet in extreme danger shortly before he is transported to a hospital in Santiago de Chile. After this last meeting, the poet dies a little later. Mario is arrested on the pretext of a routine interview.
The epilogue takes place "Years Later" in a café. It is about the narrator and a Chilean who was in exile in Mexico. The narrator asks the exile if he has heard of the whereabouts of the poet in that award-winning poem. The latter answers this question in the negative. The work ends with him ordering a coffee and drinking it "bitter". This is a nod to the fate of Mario.
Miscellaneous
The only valid German translation so far is that by Willi Zurbrüggen , which was first published in 1985 by Piper-Verlag , Munich and Zurich. The book quickly developed into a bestseller in German-speaking countries and had twelve editions with a total of 107,000 copies by Piper-Verlag by 1994 ( ISBN 978-3-492-22678-3 ).
Antonio Skármeta's novel was filmed twice, in 1983 under the direction of the novelist and the original title, in 1994 with the title The Postman with Philippe Noiret under the direction of Michael Radford .
The novel Ardiente Paciencia has been the star topic in the Baden-Württemberg Abitur in Spanish since 2008 .
literature
- Gerhard C. Krischker and Ansgar Leonis (comm.): Skármeta, with burning patience. Text and comment. Buchner's School Library of Modernism, 20th CC Buchner, Bamberg 2005, ISBN 3-7661-3970-3 .
- Antonio Skármeta and Monika Ferraris (eds.): Ardiente Pacienca (El cartero de Neruda) Reclam's Universal Library, 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-019706-6 .
Web links
- Ardiente paciencia (1983) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Postman (1994) in the Internet Movie Database (English)