The Nature of Evil
This poem explores the misery and violence of life under a dictatorship, but the title alerts the reader that, in many ways, it is more interested in the experience and psychology of the tyrant than in those of his victims. How, it asks, is it possible for an individual to create so much pain without feeling disturbed or guilty? How can overwhelming grief reign in one place, but leave no visible impact on people close by? One way in which Neruda attempts to answer these questions is through a vivid evocation of physical space and distance. He establishes the sugarcane fields and the palace as separate, though adjacent, realms. In the open space of the field, everyday people suffer and mourn. But in the enclosed structure of the palace, the dictator and his cronies can see and hear only one another. In other words, Neruda suggests, tyranny is able to continue because tyrants are willfully blind to and sheltered from the effects of their actions and policies.
Fascism
Neruda was a committed anti-fascist, and he likely wrote this work in response to the far-right fascist dictatorships that dominated much of the twentieth century. He highlights three primary effects of fascism here. One is the movement's obsession with militarism and physical strength. The violence described in this poem is peculiarly pointless and self-perpetuating, summarized with the words "bludgeon by bludgeon": it exists for its own sake as an outgrowth of a might-obsessed leadership. A second aspect of fascism highlighted here is hierarchy. Not only is there steep inequality between the everyday people dying in the field and the leadership in the palace, but Neruda also suggests there is strict hierarchy within the leadership itself. The translation at hand mentions a "satrap," or regional governor, implying the existence of a tiered system of government. This satrap, meanwhile, seems to surround himself with allies and yes-men, leading a micro-society of his own. Finally, Neruda illuminates fascism's silencing effect. He mentions "strangulation," "killed voices," and "buried blue mouths," and repeatedly evokes images of darkness and silence to suggest that fascism has chilled conversation through censorship and violence against dissidents.
Death
Death, in this poem, is rendered visceral and physical. Neruda introduces the concept through olfactory imagery, linking death to rot and decay in a shockingly vivid manner. In doing so, he makes the effect of the dictator's cruelty inescapable, ensuring that readers cannot rationalize or ignore it. At the same time, by using vivid sensory images to describe the state of bodies after death, Neruda lends those bodies a certain power, giving them a sustained presence in the world of his poem even after they are no longer living. As a result, the "vendetta" of the poem's final line is made to feel far more real than it might otherwise. Justice on behalf of the still-present dead, rather than appearing abstract or idealistic, instead feels inevitable.
