#146 Tu (11/15/22) - LA CIFRA, a poem by J.L.Borges (The Limit, 1981)

 LA CIFRA
La amistad silenciosa de la luna
(cito mal a Virgilio) te acompaña
desde aquella perdida hoy en el tiempo
noche o atardecer en que tus vagos
ojos la descifraron para siempre
en un jardín o un patio que son polvo.
¿Para siempre? Yo sé que alguien, un día,
podrá decirte verdaderamente:
No volverás a ver la clara luna.
Has agotado ya la inalterable
suma de veces que te da el destino.
Inútil abrir todas las ventanas
del mundo. Es tarde. No darás con ella.
Vivimos descubriendo y olvidando
esa dulce costumbre de la noche.
Hay que mirarla bien. Puede ser última.

==============================

The Limit

The silent friendship of the moon
(I misquote Virgil) has kept you company
since that one night or evening
now lost in time, when your restless
eyes first made her out for always
in a patio or a garden since gone to dust.
For always? I know that someday someone
will find a way of telling you this truth:
"You'll never see the moon aglow again.
You've now attained the limit set for you
by destiny. No use opening every window
throughout the world. Too late. You'll never find her."
Our life is spent discovering and forgetting
that gentle habit of the night.
Take a good look. It could be the last.

A. S. T.

 

===========================

"Amid the friendly silence of the peaceful moon." — Virgil, Aeneid 

Original: (la) Tacitae per amica silentia lunae. 

Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book II, Line 255 (tr. Fairclough)

Source: https://quotepark.com/quotes/1942231-virgil-amid-the-friendly-silence-of-the-peaceful-moon/ 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#48 Mon (8/8/22) - Los cuatro ciclos (The Four Cycles) by Jorge Luis Borges (El oro de los tigres, 1972)

Found this piece in the usual place and proceeded to translate and examine it.  It was not in any of my previous translated editions, although it has a familiar feel, touching as it does upon so many of the favored topics and references; Illiad and Odyssey, myths of Ragnarök , Anglo-Saxon poetry, Sir Gawain, Jason and the Golden Fleece, the Simurgh, Captain Ahab and Kafka, Odin and Christ.  In so doing I followed (forged?) the links to Rosetti's Troy Town and Yeats' Leda and the Swan.  I found out about the Game of the Gods (tafl) recounted in the Voluspa (which also has a long roll call of familiar dwarfs, including Gandalf), and the castrated Phrygian fertility god, Attis.  I veered then back into Beckford's Vathek, and found out about the Sultan Moulay Ismail ibn Sharif of Morocco , one of the true inspirations for the cruel Caliph Vathek.  In the same edition, Beckford wrote about his dream and described some of his travels in letters (hilarious!).  I ...
Read more

Borges - VIÑETAS CARDINALES DE BUENOS AIRES (1927)

  VIÑETAS CARDINALES DE BUENOS AIRES NORTE Almacén rosadito de los que a mí me gustan . La luna entera, encima . La luna oronda, dura . El almacén — de tierno — una mejilla . SUR Ésta, que no es mi tierra , porque no quiere darme ni un querer ni otra pena , cuida en los verdes patios, cedrón y caña de ámbar… ¡Lo bien que yo sabría merecerla! ESTE El viento zamarrea las esquinas tembleques del Paseo de Julio . En la noche rotosa, los compadritos muertos le apuntalan los muros . OESTE El callejón final con su poniente . Inauguración de la pampa . Inauguración de la muerte .   * Inicial , Buenos Aires, Año 3, Nº 11, febrero de 1927.   ======================================== CARDINAL VIGNETTES OF BUENOS AIRES NORTH A pinkish store of the kind I like. The full moon, above. The plump, hard moon. The store - so tender - a cheek. SOUTH This land, which is not mine, because it refuses to give me either love or another sorrow, tends in the green patios, lemon verbena and amber can...
Read more

#45 Fri (8/5/22) - [OW] The word must have been in the beginning a magic symbol

"La palabra habría sido en el principio un símbolo mágico, que la usura del tiempo desgastaría. La misión del poeta sería restituir a la palabra, siquiera de un modo parcial, su primitiva y ahora oculta virtud. Dos deberes tendría todo verso: comunicar un hecho preciso y tocarnos físicamente, como la cercanía del mar" J.L.Borges en Prólogo a "La Rosa Profunda" (1975)   “The word must have been in the beginning a magic symbol, which the usury of time wore out. The mission of the poet should be to restore to the word, at least in a partial way, its primitive and now secret force. All verse should have two obligations: to communicate a precise instance and to touch us physically, as the presence of the sea does." J.L. Borges in Prologue to "La rosa profunda" (1975) (SP, 343-345, A.R.)   The passage continues in the next line; I have here an example from Virgil:   sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt   After providing two more examples, he ...
Read more