#191 Sat (12/31/22) - END OF THE YEAR

FINAL DE AÑO
Ni el pormenor simbólico
de reemplazar un tres por un dos
ni esa metáfora baldía
que convoca un lapso que muere y otro que surge
ni el cumplimiento de un proceso astronómico
aturden y socavan
la altiplanicie de esta noche
y nos obligan a esperar
las doce irreparables campanadas.
La causa verdadera
es la sospecha general y borrosa
del enigma del Tiempo;
es el asombro ante el milagro
de que a despecho de infinitos azares,
de que a despecho de que somos
las gotas del río de Heráclito,
perdure algo en nosotros:
inmóvil,
algo que no encontró lo que buscaba.

------------------------------------------------

END OF THE YEAR
nor the symbolic detail
to replace a three with a two*
nor that wasteful metaphor
that summons a period that dies and another that arises
nor the fulfillment of an astronomical process
stun and undermine
the highlands tonight
and make us wait
the twelve irreparable chimes.
the true cause
is the general and blurred suspicion
of the enigma of Time;
it is the amazement before the miracle
that despite infinite hazards,
that in spite of what we are
the drops of the river of Heraclitus,
something lasts in us:
still,
something that did not find what he was looking for. 

Jorge Luis Borges (Fervor of Buenos Aires, 1923){GT}


*serendipitously, I found this on new years 2022, replacing a 2 with a three, but he was talking about 1922.

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