#71 Wed (8/31/22) - Borges, Milton and the Rose
https://tarnmoor.com/2016/09/30/borges-milton-and-the-rose/
Borges, Milton, and the Rose
“A Rose and Milton”
What do these writers have in common: Homer, John Fante, Benito Pérez Galdós, John Milton, and Jose Luis Borges? For at least part of their lives, all were blind. So when Argentinian poet Jorge Luis Borges honors Milton, it is by way of acknowledging a common fate. The name of this poem is “A Rose and Milton”:
A Rose and Milton (SP, 199)
From the generations of roses
That are lost in the depths of time
I want one saved from oblivion,
One spotless rose, of all things
That ever were. Fate permits me
The gift of choosing for once
That silent flower, the last rose
That Milton held before him,
Unseen. O vermilion, or yellow
Or white rose of a ruined garden,
Your past still magically remains
Forever shines in these verses,
Gold, blood, ivory or shadow
As if in his hands, invisible rose.
Of course, Milton could not see the color of that last rose he beheld. He could not see whether that last rose was spotless and perfect. Whatever that rose was, it was unperceived by the great poet who held it in his hands; it might as well have been invisible, or, just as well, resplendent in its glory.
The poet talks about being allowed by Fate to handle that last rose that Milton held. I could just see the ironic smile playing on Borges’s face.==================================
Found this today while searching for sources relating to the Biblical Lucifer, and thought perhaps Milton's and Dante's depictions cast their coloration on the idea. Lucifer as the Fallen Angel and the War in Heaven are not actually in the Bible per se, certainly not explicitly. There are Nephilim mentioned in Genesis, giants are mentioned here and there, and Revelations speaks of a war in Heaven, and the Archangel Michael leading the heavenly host, but unclear. Isaiah alludes to Lucifer, but this is a mistranslation of Venus, the morning star.
Almost all of this folktale is contained in the Book of Enoch, an apocryphal book, not included in the Bible. The Watchers and their leader, Samyaza, refuse God's orders, and intermix with human women, producing a race of giants, the Nephilim. This directly leads to the flood which wipes out all but Noah's family.
Genesis does mentions a younger brother of Cain and Abel, Seth.
The war in heaven and the fallen angel motif is present in Sumerian and Babylonian mythos, see Inanna and Etana.
It seems that there are several mistranslations in the Bible, but the personification of evil and the root of theodicy seems like a pretty important one to get right. If this is supposed to have happened and explain why there is evil in the world, why was it excluded from the Bible? Perhaps in its absence, people supplied a solution that seemed right, even though it was not actually in there.
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