Seven Unforgettable Quotes From Nicanor Parra

These Nicanor Parra quotes are great. This anti-poet lived for more than a century and never ceased to surprise us with his particular view of the world and way of expressing his vision.

He was born on September 5, 1914 in San Fabián de Alico, Chile. His father was a musician and teacher and his mother was a seamstress and weaver. From an early age, his parents taught him to appreciate popular art. Also, they have given him a strong conscience, which can be seen in many of his quotes.

He won the National Prize for Literature in 1969, the Queen Sofia Prize in 2002 and the Miguel de Cervantes Prize in 2011. He eventually died at the age of 103. Enough talk, let’s take a look at some of Nicanor Parra’s most unforgettable quotes.

Seven unforgettable quotes from Nicanor Parra

Statistics

One of the characteristics of anti-poetry is that it breaks away from the conventions of traditional poetry. For example, it uses much more bizarre structures and languages. It’s a movement that wants to show that poetry doesn’t have to be a complicated word game.

Nicanor Parra ‘s quotes are also anti-verses or anti-poems. For example: “There are two pieces of bread. You eat two. I don’t eat any. Average consumption: one loaf of bread per person.”  In this quote he refers with some irony and humor to the contradiction of statistics applied to society.

The Oracle’s Answer

Nicanor Parra’s anti-poetry explored the absurd. He managed to perfectly incorporate his views into several of his anti-poems and verses. For example: “The oracle’s answer: Whatever you do, you will regret it.”

This is a very nice way of saying that in the end it doesn’t matter what happens next and what we do. In the end it will always be imperfect and wrong to some degree. Doing something automatically means not doing something else. This almost always leads to some regret.

Guilt and forgiveness

This, too, is a beautiful verse that has become one of his most popular quotes: “Stealing flowers by the light of the moon. I beg the whole world for forgiveness. But I do not admit that I am guilty.”

The flowers stolen from the darkness are made of light and he asks forgiveness for them. The interesting part, though, is the second half of the verse because he asks for forgiveness but doesn’t plead guilty.

What a beautiful way to indicate that even if there is damage, there need be no regrets. This quote makes it clear that people act on conviction, even when they are aware that it will affect others.

Are countries real or are they just illusions?

Nicanor Parra spoke a lot about politics in his anti-poems. He was a bit of an anarchist and was more on the side of humanity and reason.

Here’s another great quote from Nicanor Parra: “We think we’re a country. But actually we are a landscape at best.”  In other words, he rejected those political-administrative concepts that man created. The earth has never bounded lands. Man created borders. In reality there is only landscape.

The names of things

This anti-poet also reflected on poetry in his poems. The poet’s role is beautifully defined in this profound quote: “The poet is not true to his word unless he changes the names of things.”

In concrete terms, this means that poetry should strive to rename the world and reality. Poets have to rename the physical and abstract world. They should be saying things in a way they’ve never done before.

These are just some of the many amazing quotes from Nicanor Parra. We hope you liked them!