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Jorge Luis Borges (24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986 / Buenos Aires / Argentina)
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Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was an Argentine writer and poet born in Buenos Aires. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school and traveled to Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in Surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. Borges was bilingual, speaking both Spanish and English. He was a target of political persecution during the Peron regime.
Due to a hereditary condition, Borges became blind in his late fifties. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library (Biblioteca Nacional) and professor of Literature at the University of ... more »
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Popular Poems
- Adam Cast Forth
- Browning Decides to Be a Poet
- El Instante
- Elegy
- History of the Night
- Instants
- Limits
- Remorse For Any Death
- Shinto
- Susana Soca
- That One
- The Art of Poetry
- The Other Tiger
- To a Cat
Quotations
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''I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does.''
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), Argentinean author. "A New Refutation of Time," Labyrinths (1964).
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Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the f...
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), Argentinian author. "A New Refutation of Time," Labyrinths (1964).
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''One concept corrupts and confuses the others. I am not speaking of the Evil whose limited sphere is ethics; I am speaking of the infinite.''
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), Argentinian author. repr. In Other Inquisitions (1960, trans. 1964). Avatars of the Tortoise (1939).
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''There is a concept that is the corrupter and destroyer of all others. I speak not of Evil, whose limited empire is that of ethics; I speak of the infinite.''
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), Argentinian author. "Avatars of the Tortoise" ["Avatares de la tortuga"], Discussion [Discusión] (1932).
Laberinto
No habrá nunca una puerta. Estás adentro
y el alcázar abarca el universo
y no tiene ni anverso ni reverso
ni externo muro ni secreto centro.
No esperes que el rigor de tu camino
que tercamente se birufca en otro,
que tercamente se bifurca en otro,
tendrá fin. Es de hierro tu destino
como tu juez. No aguardes la embestida
del toro que es un hombre y cuya extraña
forma plural da horror a la maraña
de interminable piedra entretejida.
No existe. Nada esperes. Ni siquiera
en el negro crepúsculo la fiera.
JLB (Elogio de la sombra) .
Instants...my favorite poem related to the enjoyment of life...the original Spanish version is superb! ! It is one of the best jewels of philosophical poetry...a wonderful and practical lesson for all...
Agustin Navarro
The Moment
Where will they be the centuries, where the sleep
of swords that the Tartar ones dreamed,
where the strong walls that they levelled,
where Adán's Tree and another Log?
The present is alone. The memory
it erects the time. Succession and trick
it is the routine of the clock. The year
it is not less vain than the vain history.
Between the dawn and the night there is an abyss
of agonies, of lights, of taken care;
the face that looks in the worn-out ones
the same is not mirrors of the night.
The fleeting today is tenuous and it is eternal;
another Sky do not wait, not another Hell.
A clear vision of changes.
What are lime beans? Lima, as in the cap of Peru? ? What's with the Spanish comments? I hope this site will remain in English. Does the one comment say that this was not written by Borges? If a comment is in another language, it would be helpful for a translation to be provided. Also is the THATS a typo or a poor translator?