Neruda wrote the liner notes for a number of recordings released by young folk Chilean artists under the DICAP label.

Many compositions were directly inspired by the poetry of Neruda and popular protest songs were often musical arrangements for his poetical text.

Neruda's epic work Canto General, from which several poems featured in this recording were taken from, has been a major source of text for compositions by folk, contemporary and classical composers.

The verses from Neruda's poems adapted to songs were translated from their original Spanish to French by Geneviève Dourthe, Jean Marcenac, Eduardo Carrasco Jr., Emmanuelle and Gérard Clery.

Para los pueblos fué mi canto escrito en la zona del mar y viví entre el mar y los pueblos como un centinela secreto que defendía sus batallas lleno de amor 'y de rumor: porque soy el hombre sonoro, testigo de las esperanzas en este siglo asesinado… My chant was written for the common people in the region of the sea for I lived between the sea and the people as a secretive sentinel who defended its battles full of love and rumour because I am a sonorous man, a witness to the hopes of this assassinated century…