For twenty years he persisted in that controlled hallucination, but one morning he was suddenly gripped by the tedium and the terror of being so many kings who die by the sword and so many suffering lovers who converge, diverge and melodiously expire. That very day he arranged to sell his theater. Within a week he had returned to his native village, where he recovered the trees and rivers of his childhood and did not relate them to the others his muse had celebrated, illustrious with mythological allusions and Latin terms. He had to be someone; he was a retired impresario who had made his fortune and concerned himself with loans, lawsuits and petty usury. It was in this character that he dictated the arid will and testament known to us, from which he deliberately excluded all traces of pathos or literature. His friends from London would visit his retreat and for them he would take up again his role as poet.
History adds that before or after dying he found himself in the presence of God and told Him: “I who have been so many men in vain want to be one and myself.” The voice of the Lord answered from a whirlwind: “Neither am I anyone; I have dreamt the world as you dreamt your work, my Shakespeare, and among the forms in my dream are you, who like myself are many and no one.”
Translated by J. E. I.
Elegy
Oh destiny of Borges
to have sailed across the diverse seas of the world
or across that single and solitary sea of diverse names,
to have been a part of Edinburgh, of Zurich, of the two Cordobas,
of Colombia and of Texas,
to have returned at the end of changing generations
to the ancient lands of his forebears,
to Andalucia, to Portugal and to those counties
where the Saxon warred with the Dane and they mixed their blood,
to have wandered through the red and tranquil labyrinth of London,
to have grown old in so many mirrors,
to have sought in vain the marble gaze of the statues,
to have questioned lithographs, encyclopedias, atlases,
to have seen the things that men see,
death, the sluggish dawn, the plains,
and the delicate stars,
and to have seen nothing, or almost nothing
except the face of a girl from Buenos Aires
a face that does not want you to remember it.
Oh destiny of Borges,
perhaps no stranger than your own.
(1964)
Translated by D. A. Y.
Chronology
1899 Born August 24 in Buenos Aires.
1914 Travels with his family to Europe. At the outbreak of the war, the Borgeses settle in Switzerland where Jorge Luis finishes his secondary education.
1919–21 Travel in Spain—Majorca, Seville, Madrid. Association with the ultraist literary group (Rafael Cansinos-Asséns, Guillermo de Torre, Gerardo Diego, etc.). His first poem published in the magazine Grecia.
1921 Returns to Argentina. Publication with friends (González Lanuza, Norah Lange, Francisco Piñero, etc.) of the “mural” magazine Prisma—pasted in poster fashion on fences and walls of the city.
1923 Family travels again to Europe. Publication at home of his first book of poetry, Fervor de Buenos Aires.
1924 Contributes to the reincarnated Proa and Martín Fierro, two important literary magazines of the time.
1925 Appearance of his second book of poetry, Luna de enfrente, and his first book of essays, Inquisiciones.
1926 Another collection of essays: El tamaño de mi esperanza.
1928 El idioma de los argentinos, essays.
1929 Cuaderno San Martín, his third volume of verses.
1930 Evaristo Carriego, an essay that honors this Buenos Aires poet, plus other pieces.
1931 Meets Adolfo Bioy Casares, with whom he will collaborate on numerous literary undertakings during the next four decades.
1932 Discusión, essays and film criticism.
1933 Begins to edit the literary supplement of the Buenos Aires newspaper Crítica, to which he contributes his first sketches.
1935 Historia universal de la infamia, a collection of his first tentative efforts at writing prose fiction.
1936 Historia de la eternidad, essays.
1937 Is named to the post of assistant librarian at a small municipal Buenos Aires library.
1938 His father dies. At Christmastime he suffers a head injury and a subsequent infection that nearly costs him his life.
1941 El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan, a collection of his short stories.
1944 Ficciones, his most celebrated volume of stories.
1946 For purely political reasons, he is relieved of his post as municipal librarian.
1949 El Aleph, a collection of his stories written during the preceding five years.
1952 Otras inquisiciones, his most important collection of essays.
1953 The first volume of Borges’s Collected Works is published by Emecé in Buenos Aires.
1954 The first book of literary criticism dedicated exclusively to his work and its influence appears: Borges y la nueva generación, by Adolfo Prieto.
1955 With the overthrow of the Peronist regime, Borges is named director of the National Library in Buenos Aires. At the same time his increasing blindness leaves him now unable to read or write as before.
1956 Assumes the chair of English and North American Literature at the University of Buenos Aires.
1958–59 Period of reduced literary productivity, marked by a return to poetic composition and the cultivation of extremely short prose forms.
1960 El hacedor, a collection of poetry and brief prose pieces.
1961 Antología personal, Borges’s selection of his own preferred prose and poetry. He shares with Samuel Beckett the $10,000 International Publishers’ Prize. In the fall he leaves with his mother for the University of Texas on an invitation to lecture on Argentine literature.
1962 Lectures at universities in eastern United States. Returns to Buenos Aires and the University where he offers a course in Old English. First book publication in English: Labyrinths (New Directions), a selection of some of his best prose writings, and Ficciones (Grove Press).
1963 Leaves for a brief tour of Europe (Spain, Switzerland and France) and England where he lectures on English and Spanish American literary topics. Travels later to Colombia to lecture and receives an honorary degree from the University of Los Andes.
1964 L’Herne in Paris dedicates a 538-page special number to Borges and his work. Obra poética (1923–1964), an updated collection of his poetry.
1967 Marries Elsa Astete de Millán. Travels to Harvard University to give a series of lectures during the fall semester.
1969 Elogio de la sombra, poetry and prose, and El otro, el mismo, poetry.
1970 El informe de Brodie, a new collection of short stories. His three-year marriage ends in divorce.
1971 Made an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Awarded honorary degrees by Columbia University and Oxford University.
1972 El oro de los tigres, poetry and prose.
1973 On the return of Juan Domingo Perón to Argentina to assume the country’s presidency, Borges retires from his position as director of the National Library.
1974 Publication of the 1161-page Obras completas, including eight volumes of poetry (four of which contain short prose pieces), five collections of essays, and four volumes of short stories.
1975 La rosa profunda, poetry, El libro de arena, short stories and Prólogos, a collection of prologues written for others’ books.
1976 Teaches two courses on Argentine literature during the winter term at Michigan State University and offers a series of five public lectures in English. La moneda de hierro, poetry and prose.
1977 Historia de la noche, poetry.
1978 Extensive travels through Europe, Africa, and the Orient.
1979 Obras completas en colaboración, a col
lection of thirteen books written in collaboration with other authors between 1942 and 1978.
1980 Shares with poet Gerardo Diego Spain’s Cervantes literary prize.
1981 Nueve ensayos dantescos, essays.
1982 Travels to the United States and Europe.
1983 Is awarded the French Legion of Honor.
1984 Atlas, a collection of short texts by Borges that accompany photographs taken during their travels by companion María Kodama.
1985 Los conjurados, poetry and prose. At year’s end, leaves Buenos Aires with María Kodama for an indefinite stay in Europe.
1986 In April marries María Kodama in Geneva, Switzerland. Dies on June 14 in that same city.
new directions presents
A Simple Story
by Leila Guerriero
translated by Frances Riddle
Obsession and mastery in their purest states: the story of one dancer's attempt to win the biggest contest of his life.
Copyright © 1962, 1964, 2007 by New Directions Publishing Corporation
Copyright © 2007 by William Gibson
All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, or television review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
This volume was first published clothbound by New Directions in 1962; it was issued in an augmented edition as New Directions Paperbook 186 in 1964. Reissued as New Directions Paperbook 1066 in 2007 with a new preface, “An Invitation by William Gibson.” A Postscript by James E. Irby has been added to his original Introduction, and numerous textual corrections in the translations have also been made by the editors Donald A. Yates and James E. Irby in this 2007 reissue.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Published in Canada by Penguin Books Canada Limited
Design by Rodrigo Corral and Gus Powell
Labyrinths, Selected Stories & Other Writings, by Jorge Luis Borges, has been translated and published by agreement with Emecé Editores, S. A. Buenos Aires, Argentina. All selections here included and translated into English have been taken from the following volumes originally published in Spanish by Emecé: Ficciones (1956), El Aleph (1957), Discussión (1957), Otras Inquisiciones (1960) and El Hacedor (1960).
We also acknowledge permission to reprint those translations into English here included which have previously appeared in magazines and books, as follows: translated by Donald A. Yates: “The Garden of Forking Paths”: Michigan Alumnus Quarterly Review, Spring 1958; translated by James E. Irby: “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” New World Writing No. 18, April 1961, and “The Waiting,” Americas, June 1959; translated by John M. Fein: “The Lottery in Babylon,” Prairie Schooner, Fall 1959; translated by Harriet de Onis: “The Secret Miracle,” Spanish Stories & Tales, Pocket Books (PL 40) 1956; translated by Julian Palley: “Deutsches Requiem,” New World Writing No. 14, 1958 (Property of the Rutgers Translators); translated by Dudley Fitts: “The Zahir,” Partisan Review, February 1950; translated by Anthony Kerrigan: “The Fearful Sphere of Pascal,” Noonday No. 3, 1959.
eISBN: 9780811227230
New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin
by New Directions Publishing Corporation,
80 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10011
Table of Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Table of Contents
An Invitation by William Gibson
Introduction by James E. Irby
Fictions Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
The Garden of Forking Paths
The Lottery in Babylon
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote
The Circular Ruins
The Library of Babel
Funes the Memorious
The Shape of the Sword
Theme of the Traitor and the Hero
Death and the Compass
The Secret Miracle
Three Versions of Judas
The Sect of the Phoenix
The Immortal
The Theologians
Story of the Warrior and the Captive
Emma Zunz
The House of Asterion
Deutsches Requiem
Averroes’ Search
The Zahir
The Waiting
The God’s Script
Essays The Argentine Writer and Tradition
The Wall and the Books
The Fearful Sphere of Pascal
Partial Magic in the Quixote
Valéry as Symbol
Kafka and His Precursors
Avatars of the Tortoise
The Mirror of Enigmas
A Note on (toward) Bernard Shaw
A New Refutation of Time
Parables Inferno, 1, 32
Paradiso, XXXI, 108
Ragnarök
Parable of Cervantes and the Quixote
The Witness
A Problem
Borges and I
Everything and Nothing
Elegy
Chronology
Copyright
Labyrinths Page 28