The Satrap
The only individual mentioned in this poem is referred to, in Ben Belitt's widely-read translation, as a "satrap." This word, borrowed from Persian, refers not to a powerful ruler but to a local or low-level official. This single word choice makes the character deeply contradictory and interesting. On the one hand, he seems to be one of the dictators the title references: safe in his castle, surrounded by comfort, he is able to be "finical" (finicky or high-maintenance). On the other hand, it seems that he is only a local representative of a more powerful system. This means that the broader system of dictatorship must be complex and formidable, but it also appears quite fragile in some ways: if this one representative of it needs to exert so much violence and be maintained in such great luxury, then how can the system as a whole possibly survive?
The Dead
Neruda does not mention the dictatorship's many victims by their names. This is a consequential choice. By referring to them collectively, Neruda highlights the callousness of the way they were killed. He suggests that they have died, not because of who they are or how they have behaved as individuals, but for far more arbitrary and impersonal reasons. At the same time, while their individual identities are erased, even dictatorial violence cannot entirely erase their existence. The poem opens with a description of the smell of corpses, letting us know that these victims continue to impact the space around them and that they are therefore impossible to ignore or forget.
