Sunday (6/26/22) Not a day goes by that we are not, for a moment, in paradise.

Borges quote:

Al cabo de los años he observado que la belleza, como la felicidad, es frecuente. No pasa un día en que no estemos, un instante, en el paraíso. No hay poeta, por mediocre que sea, que no haya escrito el mejor verso de la literatura, pero también los más desdichados.

Prólogo a "Los conjurados*", Jorge Luis Borges, 1985

Over the years I have observed that beauty, like happiness, is frequent. Not a day goes by that we are not, for a moment, in paradise. There is no poet, no matter how mediocre, who has not written the best verse in literature, but also the most unfortunate.

Prologue to "Los conjurados", Jorge Luis Borges, 1985

 


 

* Los conjurados should be translated as The Conspirators (from conjurado, one who participates in a conspiracy), and yet it also invokes one who conjures or those who conjure, the conjurors.

 Addendum (8/1/22):

"Years of solitude had taught him that days, in memory, tend to be the same, but that there is not a day, not even in jail or hospital, that doesn't bring surprises, that isn't a web of minimal surprises. "

 Jorge Luis Borges ("The Wait." The Aleph)

 

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