Finder's Guide

Zorrilla, 1838.

Cornejo

Parodi: "supuesta pieza dramática breve que contendría algunos versos del Molinero y habría seguido representándose hasta 1972. La sintaxis, el léxico y la prosodia del título estimulan una asociación con la leyenda A buen juez mejor testigo. Tradición de Toledo (1838), poema del dramaturgo y poeta romántico español José Zorrilla (1817−1893)" (442).

Essay by English writer and caricaturist Max Beerbohm (1872-1956) first published in 1894 in the journal The Yellow Book and later included in The Works of Max Beerbohm (1896).

Bustos Domecq

Parodi: "'Vanitas, Los Adelantos del Progreso, La Patria Azul y Blanca, A Ella, Nocturnos': títulos de algunas composiciones de Bustos Domecq supuestamente publicadas en diarios de Rosario en 1907, cuando apenas tenía catorce años. El empleo del término ‘composiciones’, que en el ámbito escolar designa un escrito en que el alumno desarrolla un tema en general elegido por el maestro, insinúa que estas obras de Bustos son redacciones escolares, muy probablemente realizadas bajo la dirección de la señorita Badoglio" (16).

Zorrilla, 1888.

poem by Rubén Darío, published in El canto errante, 1907

Lenormand play, 1924

Góngora poem

Quevedo sonnet

line from a children's song about a pirate

Zorrilla, 1837.

Proust novel, 1913-1927

Hölderlin poem

Lugones poem in Odas seculares, 1910

Lugones poem in Odas seculares

Lugones poem in Odas seculares

Shakespeare poem

Pound's first book of poems, 1908

Unamuno poem

Unamuno poem

supposed tango

Parodi: "compuesto en 1908 por el violinista Antonino Cipolla, nacido en Italia en 1889. El título del tango es en este pasaje de Modelo una manera indirecta de aludir a la tradición judía de no comer cerdo" (209-10).

Wells novel, 1937

poem by Rubén Darío

Lugones poem

poem from Ildefonso Pereda’s book Música y acero

Valery Larbaud novel, 1913

ancient city in Germany where Charlemagne is buried, known in French as Aix-la-Chapelle

river in Switzerland, here spelled Aar

in the Bible, high priest of the Hebrews, brother of Moses

rabbi

family mentioned in Bustos Domecq story

Portuguese rabbi, philosopher and statesman, 1437-1508, father of León Hebreo

shopkeeper in Gualeguaychu, in Borges story

family mentioned in Bustos Domecq story

James novella

market in Buenos Aires, and the surrounding neighborhood

Parodi: "'el Mercado de Abasto': ubicado en el barrio de Balvanera, sobre la Avenida Corrientes, a pocas cuadras de la Plaza Once, el Mercado Proveedor −más tarde llamado Mercado de Abasto de Buenos Aires− fue el mayor mercado de frutas, verduras y carnes de la ciudad. Inaugurado en 1893, ocupó un edificio inspirado en el de Les Halles de París, construido en hierro y vidrio. Cerró en 1984 y fue reabierto en 1998 transformado en un centro comercial. Desde sus orígenes, la presencia del Mercado dio gran actividad a la zona, con la apertura de comercios, fondas, bodegones, hoteles, cafés, cines y teatros" (47).

Parodi:  "supuesto club de fútbol afincado en el barrio de Abasto (cf. “Doce” I §29)" (321). 

family mentioned in Bustos Domecq story

family mentioned in Bustos Domecq story

Dynasty of caliphs from 750 to 1258.

Fishburn and Hughes: "An Islamic dynasty that lasted from 750 to 1258; its eighth Caliph was Al-Mu'tasim Ibn Harun (794-842). In 762 the Caliph Mansur transferred the capital from Damascus to Baghdad, a move that marked the rise of Arab over Persian influence in Islam." (1)

family mentioned in Bustos Domecq story

Irish national theater in Dublin, associated with Lady Gregory and Yeats

village in Staffordshire, England

book by Claude Bragdon

Russell, 1923

Chaucer Poem, "An ABC (The Prayer of Our Lady)." The poem ibegins with the Latin phrase "Incipit carmen secundum ordinem litterarum alphabeti," and then consists of octaves that start with each letter of the alphbet. 

character in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi: "El nombre del druso coincide con el del médico, matemático, filósofo y poeta árabe andaluz Abu Bequer ben Abd−el−Melek ben Thofail, más conocido por Iben Thofail, Abentofail o Abubacer (ca. 1110−1185). Fue secretario del gobernador de Granada y posteriormente médico del sultán Abu Yacub Yusuf, que atrajo a su corte a los sabios más eminentes; en 1182, Abentofail fue sucedido en su cargo de médico por Averroes. Autor de libros sobre astronomía y medicina, sólo se ha conservado su obra El filósofo autodidacto, traducida al castellano en 1900" (48).

Caliph, 646-705, and ruling family in eleventh-century Spain.

Fishburn and Hughes: "The ruling family in eleventh-century Muslim Spain." (1)

ancient Greek city in Thrace

son of the king of Fez who besieged Gibraltar from 1331 to 1333 and reconquered it for the Moors. (Mentioned in Bustos Domecq story.)

Parodi: "supuesto gobernador de Marrakech, a quien el barón Grandvilliers habría intentado envenenar" (350).

protagonist of a tale in the Arabian Nights

character in Borges-Bioy filmscript

Abd al-Rahman the First, Umayyad ruler in Spain, fl. 750-88, author of a poem on the palm tree.

Fishburn and Hughes: "Abd ar-Rahman I, known as 'the Immigrant', was the first Umayyad Caliph in Spain. Forced to flee from Damascus when the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate, he made his way to Spain, where he deposed the Muslim ruler, proclaimed himself Emir and established an independent Umayyad Emirate. He established his capital in Cordoba, and began the construction of its great Mosque. Abdurrahman is said to have written verses full of nostalgia for his native land. The traditional classical style he adopted persisted in the poetry of Al-Andalus." (1)

Argentine scholar, 1859-1949, author of works on medicine, law, education and language, including the Idioma nacional de los argentinos, 1900, and a Latin grammar

son of Adam and Eve in the Bible, killed by his brother Cain

French philosopher and theologian, 1079-1142

character in Collins

Ibn Abbas, Moslem traditionalist theologian, cousin of Mohammed

Hajj Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, or Ibn Battuta, also known as Shams ad–Din, Islamic scholar and traveller, 1304-1369

ibn Chozai, Abulcasim Mohammed ben Ahmed ben Chozai Alquelbi, Andaluzian writer, d. 1340

Andanzas en el atardecer, poem by Augusto Stramm, 1914

theologian

Fishburn and Hughes: "A Jewish scholar, philosopher and poet best known for his penetrating biblical commentaries based on grammatical principles. He is reputed to have been the first biblical scholar to distinguish reason from faith, and is also remembered for some liturgical poems."(96)

See Gabirol, Aben

character in Borges story.

Fishburn and Hughes: "A fictitious name, reminiscent of Muhammad Ben Ismail Al-Bukhari (810-870), a compiler of Arabic traditions." (5)

Borges story in El Aleph

Abu Zaid ibn Mahommed ibn Khaldun, Arabic historian, born at Tunis, 1332-1406, author of a universal history

Fishburn and Hughes: "A fourteenth-century Arab historian, the descendant of a politically influential Seville family who migrated to Tunis. Ibn Khaldun is regarded as the first Arab historiographer. His bestknown works are The History of Muslim North Africa and Mukaddima (1375-9). The latter deals with 'all branches of Arab science and culture' and is said to be unexcelled in the Arab world for its insight and clarity. The words quoted stem from the Mukkaddima." (96)

character in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi: "el nombre del personaje de 'Doce' coincide con el de un célebre historiador, sociólogo, filósofo, economista, demógrafo y estadista bereber del norte de África, Ibn Jaldún o Ibn Khaldoun (1332−1406), conocido en el ámbito hispánico como Abenjaldún. Es autor del Libro de la evidencia, un tratado en el que compendia la historia de la humanidad hasta sus días, deteniéndose en temas de economía, conflictos sociales, creencias religiosas, modos de vida, civilización y gobierno. Además de Abenjaldún, otros protagonistas drusos del cuento llevan nombres que concuerdan con los de personajes históricos o bien que corresponden a nombres árabes de amplia difusión" (40).

Ibn Sidah the Andalusian, Spanish lexicographer, c.1006-1066, author of the Mohkam.

Fishburn and Hughes: "An Arab philologist and man of letters remembered for his Kitab-al-Mukham. There is some similarity between him and Borges: he was blind, and studied with his father, who was also blind." (1)

Grimmelshausen picaresque novel, 1668, first of four novels about Simplicius Simplicissimus

Ibn Tufail, Spanish-Arabic novelist, 1100-85, author of the philosophical romance Hayy ibn Yaqzan, "The Living One, Son of the Waking One"

English poet, 1881-1938

city in Scotland

Abyssinia, ancient name for Ethiopia

character in Collins

Spanish rabbi, 1098-c.1167.

Fishburn and Hughes: "Judeo-Spanish poet and philosopher, born in Tudela when Andalusia was under Moslem rule. Known as "Admirable", he was much admired in his lifetime for his widespread learning and scholarly commentaries on the Old Testament. He also wrote religious and secular poetry in Hebrew." (1)

town on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, site of battle in 1798 in which English defeated in the French.

Fishburn and Hughes: "The scene of the battle of the Nile (1-2 August 1798), in which the English fleet under Nelson defeated the French." (1)

Walpole, 1931

river in the Luján delta area of El Tigre

Jewish statesman, philosopher, theologian and commentator, 1437-1508

Biblical patriarch, sometimes Abram

prince in Celtic legend

Childhood friend of Borges in Geneva, later a lawyer and political figure, 1901-81.

Fishburn and Hughes: "A Jewish lawyer, writer and poet whom Borges met in the College of Geneva in 1914 and with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. During his stay in Spain, Borges frequently wrote to Abramowicz on literary matters. Borges once told the authors that he had written 'The Unworthy Friend' as a memento of Abramowicz and an expression of his feelings of unworthiness towards him." (1-2)

Parodi: "el supuesto divul-gador de una información reservada lleva el mismo nombre que un condis-cípulo y amigo de Borges en Ginebra. En Borges 978, recuerda Bioy: “Aña-dimos un párrafo al cuento, que titulamos “Homenaje a César Paladión”. Por mi sugerencia cambiamos a Raymond Roussel, como confidente de Pa-ladión, por Abramowicz, amigo de Borges en Ginebra.” En “Goliadkin” es mencionado como ‘el padre Abramowicz’; cf. I §20" (257). 

Parodi: "el apellido de este sacerdote, aquí confesor de la Princesa Fiodorovna, coincide con el de Maurice Abramowicz (1901−1981), abogado y político suizo de origen polaco, condiscípulo de Borges durante los años en que residió en Ginebra (1914−1917) y asistió al Collège Calvin. Mencionado también en Crónicas (“Paladión”). Para la ocupación atribuida a Abramowicz, cf. “Doce” i §4" (60).

family

emanations of divine spirit, according to Basilidian Gnostics

Linde article

Vilaseco poem, 1901

Parodi: "supuesto poema de Vilaseco influido por Guido Spano (cf. infra), Núñez de Arce (cf. infra) y Elías Regules (cf. infra). El título del poema recuerda el del primer libro de Rubén Darío, Abrojos, publicado en Chile en 1887" (310).

in the Bible, a son of David

Faulkner novel, 1936

fish in Egyptian mythology

Spanish traveller and writer born in Tolosa (1059-1126). Author of Siradj-el-Moluk.

mentioned in Margaret Smith's The Persian Mystics

Syrian translator of Aristotle, c. 870-940

Fishburn and Hughes: "A Syrian translator of Aristotle. According to Renan, Averroes based his work on Aristotle partly on this translation." (2)

character in Bustos Domecq story, owner of taxi cabs

Parodi: "el nombre de este personaje coincide con los de varias figuras históricas y literarias: poetas, sultanes, pensadores religiosos, gobernantes de la España árabe, también con el de un personaje de las Mil y una noches" (43).

Abu'l-Baka Salih ar-Rundi, Arabic poet who may have influenced Jorge Manrique

character in Borges story about Averroes.

Fishburn and Hughes: "Perhaps an allusion to Aboul-Hosein Ibn Djohein who, according to Renan, reproached Averroes for straying from his faith." (2)

12th century poet

Abu-l-Fida Isma'il ibn 'Ali 'Imad-ud-Dni, Arabian historian and geographer, 1273-1331

Fishburn and Hughes: "The name commonly given to the Arab geographer and historian Abu al-Fida. Abulfeda's two major works, History of Mankind and Location of the Countries, were much used by orientalists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries." (2) 

character in the Arabian Nights

Jack London, novel, 1913.

the Argentine literary academy, to which Borges was admitted in 1962

Parodi: "Miguel de Torre comenta: 'Cuando aceptó ser académico de letras (recién sería incorporado en 1962, cuando resultaba escandaloso que el escritor más conocido no perteneciera todavía a la corporación), yo me escandalicé. Si siempre había sido el más talentoso e independiente hombre de letras, el enorme burlón de toda solemnidad −yo lo veneraba como a un Arlt, aunque de la especie cultivada, naturalmente−, ¿por qué ahora −como él me decía con sorna de buena parte de sus pares− se mezclaba con 'vagos señores de los que nadie podría citar siquiera el título de sus libros', con figurones que ya Bustos Domecq había ridiculizado para siempre en el personaje del doctor Gervasio Montenegro? […] Pero las sesiones de la Academia, aunque le parecían tediosas, lo mantenían ocupado por unas horas... y eran una fuente inagotable para sus parodias y sarcasmos' (249)" (32).

Academie Française, academy of the French language, founded in 1635

Academie Goncourt, a literary society founded by the will of Edmond de Goncourt, began to function in 1903

mentioned by Suárez Lynch

Parodi: "academia apócrifa que supuestamente llevaría el nombre del teólogo y filósofo danés Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)" (217).

A lay educational institution for the wealthy society of Buenos Aires.

dance academy in Montevideo, discussed by Vicente Rossi in Cosas de negros

Swedish Academy, selects the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

Text written by Vicente Rossi.

Cicero treatises on education, of which only part of the second survives, also known as the Lucullus.

Fishburn and Hughes: "Otherwise known as the Lucullus, after its main speaker. The first draft of the Academica was in two books. It was later recast in four, of which we possess part of the first (Academica posteriora) and the Lucullus. In it Cicero examines the question of the certainty of knowledge, supplying Latin terminology for Greek philosophical ideas. He tends to favour the Stoics, blaming the Epicureans for many failings, not least 'their neglect of literary style'. CF 202: two passages in the Academica priora concern the possibility that people and eventsmay be repeated across the universe. In the first Lucullus opposes Catullus's theory that 'in this world there exists a second Catullus, or indeed in countless other worlds there exist countless copies of him' (ch. 17, para. 5). In the second passage alluded to in the story, Cicero mocks Lucullus' idea that 'just as we are at this moment close to Bauli ... so there are countless persons in exactly similar places with our names, our honours, our achievements, our minds, our shapes, our ages, discussing the same subject' (ch. 40, para. 125)." (2)

street in Buenos Aires

Parodi: "Acassuso es una localidad del partido de San Isidro, en el Gran Buenos Aires (cf. supra 'A manera de Prólogo' §7). ‘El ruso senza caperuzza’ hace alusión a Fingermann, judío y circuncidado, es decir, sin prepucio, sin capucha. El enunciado −un ejemplo de ‘cocoliche− ’mezcla palabras en castellano, en italiano (senza) y un híbrido del castellano ‘caperuza’ provisto de una doble consonante que supuestamente lo italianizaría. Para cocoliche, cf. 'Doce' i §5" (240). 

city in Greece, site of naval battle in 31 B.C.

Lugones political essays

Book of poems by Jean Giono

Parodi: "primer poemario de Giono, publicado en 1924, un conjunto de poemas bucólicos en prosa inspirados en Platón y Virgilio" (76).

Lane book, 1836

character in Borges

Borges story-essay, a review of Mir Bahadur Ali's Approach to Al-Mu'tasim

family

Fishburn and Hughes: "Azevedo (also Acevedo) An alternative spelling of Borges's family surname on his mother's side, Acevedo. Its Sephardic associations have suggested that Borges had Jewish ancestry, something that he has ambiguously both 'regretfully denied' and acknowledged (Emir Rodríguez Monegal, Jorge Luis Borges: A Literary Biography, NY 1978, 12-13). Daniel Simón Azevedo is a pivotal character in Death and the Compass. A Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz (1829-1874): Francisco Xavier Acevedo was a relative of Borges. The Encounter: the owner of the house in which the story is set was called Acevedo, or Acebal." (20)

Borges's mother, 1876-1975

Uruguayan writer, 1851-1919, author of Brenda, Ismael and Nativa.

character in Borges story

Borges's maternal grandfather (1835-1905)

Catalan merchant who came to Buenos Aires in 1728

Argentine military officer, 1799-1841

woman mentioned in the Book of Revelation, daughter of Sophia, important in Gnostic thought and theosophy

F. O. Matthiessen book, 1947

pharmacist in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi: "la farmacia de la familia Achinelli estaba ubicada en Vicente López 1701, esquina Rodríguez Peña, a dos cuadras de la Avenida Quintana, en el barrio de Recoleta. Bioy y Borges fueron vecinos de la zona; cf. 'Ojo' §2" (393).

highest mountain in South America, near Mendoza, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile

Parodi: "el nacionalista Ubalde elige como término de comparación con el Dent de Chat al cerro Aconcagua, el más alto de la cordillera de los Andes (6962 metros), situado en la provincia de Mendoza" (346).

Mir y Baralt, 1934

Parodi: “Acopio de pullas y de gracejos (Madrid, 1934) de don Julio Mir y Baralt”: supuesta obra en la que se registraría una situación crítica vivida por el Molinero. En Borges 216, una nota al pie, Daniel Martino puntualiza: “En “Deslindando responsabilidades” (1977), Borges y Bioy mencionan a un tal Julio Mir y Baralt, cuyo nombre es una portmanteau word tomada de Julio Cejador y Frauca, Juan Mir y Rafael María Baralt.” De los nombres que se fusionan en el de este supuesto autor, Julio Cejador y Frauca es mencionado en Seis problemas (cf. “Sangiácomo” iv §7). Juan Mir y Noguera (1840-1917), fue un jesuita español que dedicó sus mayores esfuerzos a la tarea de mantener la pureza de la lengua liberándola de galicismos. En su Prontuario de hispanismos y barbarismos (1908) y su Rebusco de voces castizas (1907) recopiló de todos los clásicos castellanos las locuciones, modismos, formas adverbiales y prepositivas; sobre la base de esa selección estableció la dicción y casticidad de una palabra o frase; completó los diversos capítulos del Prontuario con un catálogo de escritores incorrectos, acompañando cada ejemplo con una cita. En Borges 1044, apunta Bioy: “Hablamos del padre Mir, de sus Rebuscos −todas las palabras le parecían pocas− y reconocemos que ellos también, Mir, Baralt, etcétera, recomendaban el procedimiento de la huida: terror al galicismo, prevención contra cualquier barbarismo. No por lo tanto, sino por tanto; no en el futuro sino en lo futuro, no de inmediato, no constatar, etcétera (ad nauseam).” En Descanso 299, en el apartado sobre “los libros que más asiduamente manejaba en mis albores de escritor”, menciona Bioy Prontuario de hispanismo y barbarismo [sic], del padre Mir.” Rafael María Baralt (1810−1860) fue poeta, abogado, ingeniero, filólogo, crítico literario y político venezolano. Su obra más célebre, Resumen de la historia antigua y moderna de Venezuela, el primer ensayo de su género escrito en Venezuela, fue publicada en París en 1841. Trabajó en la elaboración de un Diccionario crítico−etimológico de la lengua castellana que quedó inconcluso y de un Diccionario matriz de la lengua castellana (1850), un proyecto monumental que pretendía ser el inventario general de la lengua española y del que sólo se editó un “Prospecto”. Su último trabajo como lingüista fue el célebre Diccionario de galicismos ó sea de las voces, locuciones y frases de la lengua francesa que se han introducido en el habla castellana moderna, con el juicio crítico de las que deben adoptarse, y la equivalencia castiza de las que no se hallan en este caso (1855), el primer diccionario de este tipo del idioma español. Desde 1843 vivió en España donde colaboró en diversas publicaciones y dirigió la Gaceta de la Corona; fue el primer latinoamericano elegido para ocupar una silla en la Real Academia. Para el apellido ‘Baralt’ en Bustos Domecq, cf. Crónicas “Prólogo” §4.

Eisenstein film about the revolt on the battleship Potemkin, 1925

Frost

port city in Israel with famous Crusader fort

in Athens

Edgar Lee Masters's autobiography, 1936

Hemingway, 1950

Kipling's book, 1909.

Alberto Hidalgo book, 1933

Peyrou’s novel, 1963.

character in the Iliad

Aquarius in Greek mythology and in zodiac

Bonavena

Uruguayan poet, 1790-1862

Argentine poet and journalist, author of a collection of poems in 1955

original man according to the Kabbalah

German historian and geographer, c.1045-1076, author of Historia Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae, of which the Libellus is the fourth book

Yeats poem in In the Seven Woods, 1904

French writer, 1899-1980, author of Le Secret de l'aventure vénétienne and of a history of French literature and editor of Rimbaud

giant from Los Lusiadas

British poet, 1898-?, scholar of Middle English poetry and translator of Jacques Maritain

Adam, first man in Bible

Fishburn and Hughes: "In the Biblical account, the first man. The story of Adam's creation is related twice in Genesis: first, as part of the general creation of the world, in 1:26-31, and later in more detail at 2:7: 'And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.' The reference to 'red Adam' can be explained by its Hebrew etymology, in which Adam means both man and red. Gnostic theories linking the creation of Adam by demiurges with the creation of an homunculus - a being who is soul-less until instructed in certain rites - has roots in Cabbalistic interpretations of the creation of Adam. The description of the wizard who 'uttered lawful syllables of a powerful name and slept' before achieving his dream is an allusion to Cabbalistic belief in the creative power brought by knowledge of the secret combination of God's name. J. Alazraki, in 'Borges and the Kabbalah', TriQuarterly, 1972, points to certain parallels between the act of creation in 'The Circular Ruins' and the Cabbalistic account of the creation of Adam where, by permutation of the numbers corresponding to the letters of Adam and YHWY (see Tetragrammaton), the creation of Adam is identified with that of God himself." (3)

Adam stvoritel, Karel Capek play written in collaboration with brother Josef, 1927

Elmer Rice play, 1923

capital of Ethiopia

English writer, 1672-1719

Diderot's follow-up to Pensees philosophiques. Book of aphorisms, 1770. Published anonymously.

Capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. 

University in Adelaide, Australia.

Bustos Domecq

Parodi: “'Vanitas, Los Adelantos del Progreso, La Patria Azul y Blanca, A Ella, Nocturnos': títulos de algunas composiciones de Bustos Domecq supuestamente publicadas en diarios de Rosario en 1907, cuando apenas tenía catorce años. El empleo del término ‘composiciones’, que en el ámbito escolar designa un escrito en que el alumno desarrolla un tema en general elegido por el maestro, insinúa que estas obras de Bustos son redacciones escolares, muy probablemente realizadas bajo la dirección de la señorita Badoglio” (16).

name given in Arabic histories to Alfonso XI of Castile

Jean-François Brierre play, 1955

title invented for a poem in an anthology by G. B. Harrison

tango song by Pelay, Canaro and Mores, 1945

Parodi: "un tango−canción estrenado en 1945, con música de Francisco Canaro y Mariano Mores, y letra de Ivo Pelay" (375).

tango song by Carlos Gardel

Parodi: "un tango-canción de 1917, con letra y música de Carlos Gardel (cf. “Enfoque” §2) y de José Razzano (“Amistad” §18)" (372).

Co-author with Michael Revon of Japanische Literatur. Geschichte und Auswahl von den Anfängen bis zur neusten Zeit (1926).

James Barrie play, 1903

character in Bustos Domecq story, also known as Arlequin de la Muerte

Jules Supervielle poetic narrative in L'Arche de Noé, 1938

Shelley elegy for Keats, 1821

Marino poem on Venus and Adonis, 1623

youth of great beauty in classical mythology, favorite of Aphrodite

E. R. Dodds translated by Borges in 1920

character in Adriana Buenos Aires by Macedonio Fernández

Macedonio Fernández novel, "última novela mala," written in 1922 but published posthumously in 1975

Publius Aelius Hadrianus, Roman emperor, 76-138

Adriatic Sea

Julien Green work, 1927

Town on outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Fishburn and Hughes: "A city in the southern outskirts of Buenos Aires (now part of Greater Buenos Aires The hotel in which Borges and his family spent vacations and of which he had nostalgic memories most probably refers to the now-demolished 'Las Delicias', where `Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius' was written. Triste-le-Roy also stands for this hotel (see Aleph 173 (268)). “. In Adrogué (1977), Borges wrote: 'En cualquier lugar del mundo en que me encuentre, cuando siento el olor de los eucaliptos, estoy en Adrogué' ('Wherever I may be in the world, when I sense the smell of eucalyptus I am in Adrogué')." (3)

founder of town of Adrogue outside of Buenos Aires

Parodi: “Adrogué es una ciudad del Gran Buenos Aires situada a 23 km al sur de la Capital, sobre la línea del Ferrocarril Roca. Fue fundada en 1873 y bautizada con el nombre de Esteban Adrogué (1815-1903) quien donó tierras para el tendido del ferrocarril y para algunos edificios públicos. Don Esteban era el propietario del Hotel La Delicia, del que los Borges fueron asiduos huéspedes. Como apunta Daniel Martino en Borges (“Índice”): 'Los Borges veraneaban allí a principios del siglo XX, en la quinta La Rosalinda (1907-1914) y en el Hotel La Delicia' (1599), que había sido la vivienda de la familia Adrogué hasta esa fecha en que se convirtió en un prestigioso lugar de veraneo” (400-401).

Bacon philosophical treatise, 1605

Ellery Queen, short story. published in the collection The New Adventures of Ellery Queen (1940)

Aventura del niño imaginativo, Walpole story in Head in Green Bronze

Ellery Queen, short story from The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1934).

Conan Doyle story about Sherlock Holmes, 1891

Conan Doyle story, here reduced to five Napoleons

Conan Doyle story

Lang essays, 1905

Ellery Queen, collection of short stories, 1934.

Conan Doyle, collection of short stories, 1892.

Juan de Panonia work refuting the idea of circular time

Sextus Empiricus philosophical work, a critique of various philosophical systems

Excerpt from the 1001 Nights.

magician mentioned in the Skaldskaparmal

in Greek mythology, Jason's father

West Saxon king, 894-939

Gaboriau detective novel, 1868

German dramatist, 1798-1857

Fischart translation of Rabelais, 1575

Afghanistan, country in Central Asia

continent

South Africa

H. F. Trew book about South Africa, 1938

Aphrodite, goddess of love in Greek mythology

Weatherhead, 1942

Yeats

Arthur Miller play, 1964

Agamemnon, Greek hero, general of Greek forces in Trojan war

Swiss geologist and paleontologist, 1807-1873

lines from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra II.ii

probably a reference to Antonio Aita, q.v.

Parodi: "posible alusión al escritor y crítico literario Antonio Aíta (1891-1966). Fue presidente del pen Club Argentino y autor, entre otros títulos, de Algunos aspectos de la literatura argentina (1930), La literatura argentina contemporánea (1931). Borges lo menciona en la Postdata a “El Aleph” (OC I:626)" (168).

place in Poland where Hauptmann lived, now known as Jagniatków

Jacques Spitz science fiction novel, 1935

town in western Uruguay

character in Ariosto

Agrigentum, ancient port city in Sicily

Agrippina the younger, Roman noblewoman, sister of Caligula and mother of Nero, 16-59

German writer, soldier, physician and magician, 1486-1535, author of De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum et artium atque Excellentia Verbi Dei Declamatio.

Fishburn and Hughes: "Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486-1535), a German author of Latin texts on magic and the occult who fought against the condemnation of witchcraft. He was Professor at the University of Dôle and Pavia. Persecuted by the Inquisition, he was imprisoned for a time in Brussels. His writings, based on an explanation of the world in terms of Pythagoras' numerology and a Cabbalistic interpretation of the Hebrew alphabet, aim to demonstrate that God is best reached through magic." (4)

Silva Valdés book of poems, 1921

Runeberg poem

Gracian, 1648

street in Buenos Aires

Parodi: “una esquina frente al Mercado de Abasto (cf. “Doce” i §29) en la que, desde 1907, estuvo ubicado el célebre Café O’Rondeman, un bar de mala fama en el que se inició como cantor Carlos Gardel (cf. “Enfoque” §2). Fue demolido en 2006. La calle Humahuaca es también mencionada en “Limardo” i §11” (324).

eagle in Dante

character in Borges story

Quevedo polemical work against Góngora, 1631.

Fishburn and Hughes: "A short satirical work by Quevedo attacking linguistic preciosity. It consists of: a 'recipe' for writing 'Soledades' (a poem of extreme artificiality by Quevedo's rival, Luís de Góngora) in one day; a parody of a romance by another contemporary, Juan Pérez de Montalbán, describing the mouth of his beloved in the affected style of the period; and a poem on twilight, full of exaggerated metaphors and classical allusions. It concludes in self-parody by invoking 'God's mercy' on the 'Castilian language' and by wishing that the air polluted by so much arcane verse be cleared once and for all." (4)

Una vindicación del falso Basílides, Discusión, OC, 216. Historia de la eternidad, Historia de la eternidad, OC, 359, 367. La doctrina de los ciclos, Historia de la eternidad, OC, 388, 392. Los teólogos, El Aleph, OC, 550, 551. La creación y P. H. Gosse, Otras inquisiciones, OC, 651. El “Biathanatos,” Otras inquisiciones, OC, 701. Del culto de los libros, Otras inquisiciones, OC, 714. Nueva refutación del tiempo, Otras inquisiciones, OC, 764. El dragón en Occidente, El libro de los seres imaginarios, OCC, 622. La salamandra, El libro de los seres imaginarios, OCC, 689. La transmigración, Qué es el budismo, OCC, 744. La gesta de Beowulf, Literatura de la Inglaterra sajona, Literaturas germánicas medievales, OC, 873. La sepultura, Literatura de la Inglaterra sajona, Literaturas germánicas medievales, OCC, 897. El libro, BO, 14, Emanuel Swedenborg, BO, 49. El tiempo, BO, 85, 86, 88, 91, 97. El libro de las ruinas, CS, 162. Ejecución de tres palabras, I, 153. La memoria de Shakespeare, MS, 62. El último viaje de Ulises, NED, 114. La invención de Morel, P, 23. Del infierno y del cielo, OP, 429. Las últimas comedias de Shaw, PB, 144. La Divina Comedia, SN, 18. Las mil y una noches, SN, 58. El budismo, SN, 89, 96. El propósito de Zarathustra, TR2, 213.

St. Augustine, Aurelius Augustinus, bishop of Hippo and Church father, 356-430, author of De Civitate Dei, Confessiones and other works

Fishburn and Hughes: "One of the four Fathers of the Christian Church. In his youth Augustine abandoned the Christian faith, but he returned to it in 386. When he became bishop of Hippo he described his spiritual struggle in his Confessions. After his conversion he was fully engaged in church activities and religious controversies, denouncing the preachings of the various Christian sects which had sprung up before orthodoxy had been formalised. Dominant among these sects were the Manichaeans, who saw the world as the scene of a conflict between good and evil, and the Pelagians, who held that the sin of Adam did not affect the rest of humanity - a doctrine expounded by Augustine's pupil Coelestus, who was later tried and excommunicated. CF 202: According to Augustine all human nature is sinful and divine intervention is imperative. This view dominates his moral and theological treatises, his Letters, the commentaries on the Gospel, and his main work Civitas Dei ('City of God'), which elaborates the theory of human predestination: the principle that God has established a priori who will be damned and who saved." (18-19)

Writer mentioned in the Antología de la literatura fantástica and in Cuentos breves y extraordinarios as the author of the story "Los ojos culpables." 

line from Poe ode to Helen of Troy, 1831.

Fishburn and Hughes: "A line from a romantic ode to Helen of Troy by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1831. The poet describes his vision of an enchanted garden in which Helen appeared to him in the still, perfumed air, under the full moon of a July night. As he enters the garden, everything disappears and he and his beloved are left alone. Finally, Helen also fades, only her eyes remaining to guide him through life." (4)

character in Melville's Moby Dick

Fishburn and Hughes: "Captain Ahab, the central character in Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick (1851) who loses his leg in the vengeful pursuit of a white whale. The alludesion to an incident in chapter 36 that typifies Ahab's relentless quest: he nails an ounce of Spanish gold to the mast, with the words, 'Whosoever of ye raises me a white- headed whale with wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw, whosoever of ye raises me that white- headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke, look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have his gold ounce, my boys.' " (4)

Persian king mentioned several times in the Bible

prince in the Arabian Nights

Swinburne poem in Poems and Ballads, here misspelled "Awolibah"

character in Borges-Bioy filmscript

US poet and novelist, 1889-1973

See Eneas

Parodi: "Bonfanti reprueba que una exhibición de películas de Jannings no haya incluido la más importante: una adaptación al cine de la sátira de Butler Ainsi va toute chair cuyo título en castellano sería supuestamente De carne somos. La confusión que Bonfanti hace de autores, obras y títulos se explica porque la sátira de la época victoriana The Way of All Flesh, escrita por Samuel Butler (1835−1902) y publicada en 1903 lleva el mismo título que una película muda estrenada en 1928, The Way of All Flesh (presentada en el ámbito hispano con el título, El destino de la carne), la primera película filmada por Jannings en Hollywood, dirigida por Victor Fleming y basada en un guión escrito por el guionista y novelista norteamericano Perley Poore Sheehan (1875-1943). El libro de Butler fue traducido al francés en 1921 por Valery Larbaud con el título que menciona Bonfanti -Ainsi va toute chair-, en la edición española se tituló El destino de la carne. La relación entre la obra de Butler y la película se circunscribe entonces a la coincidencia de los títulos en inglés. Para Butler y su obra, cf. “Vestuario II” §2" (88).

editor of the poems of Christopher Smart with Edward Noyes, 1943

Aire y ángeles, John Donne poem

Henry Miller travel book about the United States, 1945

battlefields in northern France from 1914-1915

Argentine educator and writer, 1891-1966, president of the PEN club in Argentina and, in the words of the Enciclopedia de la literatura argentina, "entusiasta difusor de la cultura americana," called "Tony Agita" in one Bustos Domecq text.

Fishburn and Hughes: "An Argentine writer and critic, secretary of the Argentine PEN Club, who sought to disseminate interest in Latin American literaure. The reference to his winning of the First National Prize for literature is fictitious. He did, however, win a literary prize in Belgium." (5)

town in France on Lake Bourget, south of Geneva

Parodi: “el hotel donde, en 1924, suceden las acciones del cuento, está ubicado en Aix-les-Bains, una ciudad francesa del departamento de Saboya, próxima al lago Bourget, famosa por sus aguas termales de azufre y de alumbre indicadas para el tratamiento del reumatismo. El edificio termal, que Ubalde compara con la Estación Constitución (cf. infra §6), data de 1864. Desde el siglo xix, las termas de Aix-les-Bains fueron frecuentadas por altas personalidades de la política, las finanzas y la cultura, desde la reina Victoria a Henri Bergson y, en varias ocasiones, Bioy. El nombre completo del hotel real donde supuestamente se alojaba Ubalde es ‘Hotel Notre Dame des Eaux’ y fue construido en 1892” (344-45).

A'isha bint Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar, queen of Granada, Boabdil's mother, who according to legend tells him after his loss of Granada that if he had fought like a man he would not have had to flee like a woman

Mughal emperor of India, 1542-1605.

Fishburn and Hughes: "An Indian emperor of Mongol descent who expanded his territories and reorganised their administration. Though himself a Muslim, Akbar opened the civil service to Hindus and encouraged members of different religions to discuss their beliefs. He also patronised the arts." (5)

Aqibha ben Yoseph, rabbi who was a central contributor to the Mishnah, c. 50-135, here Akiba ben Yosef

town in Japan west of Osaka

mosque in Jerusalem

German expressionist magazine founded by Franz Pfemfert and was published between 1911 and 1932

Japanese short story writer and critic, , sometimes called Agutagawa, 1892-1927, author of a parody of the story of the forty-seven Ronins, A Day in the Life of Oishi Kuranosuke, 1917

Old name for Sittwe, the capital city of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma).

poem by Macedonio Fernández

beginning of Lugones poem "Alma venturosa"

Fishburn and Hughes: "The Arabic word for Andalusia, probably derived from al-Andlish, Arabic for 'the Vandals'. The name al-Andalus was used only for Spain's Muslim territory, which fluctuated according to the vicissitudes of the Reconquest. During the Middle Ages it applied to almost the whole of the Iberian peninsula, but the application was progressively confined to areas still under Arab control, so that eventually it referred only to the small principality of Granada, the last Arab stronghold in the peninsula." (5)

Allah, name of God in Islam.

Fishburn and Hughes:"Arabic al-ilah, meaning God: the Moslem appellation for 'The Only God'. There are ninetynine other names for God in Islam, but Allah is the foremost." (8)

poem by Pedro Miguel Obligado

state in United States

character in the Arabian Nights

story in the Arabian Nights

pseud. of Emile-Auguste Chartier, French philosopher and essayist, 1868-1951, author of Propos sur l'Esthetique, Propos de littérature, Histoire de mes pensées and other works

French theologian, poet and Latinist, c. 1128-1202.

Fishburn and Hughes: "A French theologian and poet, whose extensive learning won him the title Doctor Universalis. He combined mysticism with rationality. Assuming that the principles of faith were axiomatic, he sought to refute heterodoxy on rational grounds. In a discussion of metaphors of the Universe, Borges quotes Alanus' famous formula: 'God is an intelligible sphere, whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere'. (6)

town in Egypt west of Alexandria

building in San Antonio, Texas, site of battle in 1836

John Wayne film, 1960

ranch in Borges story

Alaric I , Gothic king, c. 370-410

Lugones, section of El libro de los paisajes

state in United States

story from Eduardo González Lanuza´s Aquelarre

here, patroness of Torres Villarroel

capital of state of New York

anthology edited by Sonia Hambourgh and R. H. Boothroyd, 1937

Argentine political theorist, 1810-84, author of Bases para la organización política de la República Argentina

Forster story in The Life to Come, 1972

Friar Alberigo, d. c. 1307, Guelph Manfredi family member placed by Dante in the ninth circle of the Inferno

Italian-born Argentine philosopher, 1886-1960

town in northern France near Amiens.

Fishburn and Hughes: "A town in northern France: it played a significant role during WWI, particularly with regard to the battle of the Somme." (6)

auditorium in London

Francis Charles Augustus Albert Emmanuel, husband of Queen Victoria, prince consort of England, 1819-61

Sinologist, character in Borges story

author of Gli Eleati, 1939

character in Herrera's Hágase hizo, also known as Ruperto

Albertus Magnus of Cologne, German theologian, philosopher and scientist, c.1200-80

town in Spain

al-Biruni, Arabic writer, d. 1048, author of books on India, on comparative history and on astronomy and astrology

Saint Albinus of Angers, French abbot and bishop, c. 470-550

old name for the island of Great Britain

Buenos Aires thug

character in Gutiérrez

Zorrilla, 1866.

Collection of narrative fragments and poems by different authors, 1850.

magical mare in Islamic legend

Ksar el Kebir, city in northern Morocco where the Portuguese king Sebastião died in battle in 1578

Portuguese town near Setúbal

university city near Madrid

Zorrilla, 1844.

market in Toledo where Cervantes acquired the manuscript of Cide Hamete Benengeli

book of poems by Francisco Luis Bernárdez, 1925

Alcaeus of Messene, Greek poet of the second or third century BC, some of whose epigrams are preserved in the Greek Anthology

monastery in central Portugal founded in 1153, known for the tombs of Pedro the First and Inés de Castro

Portuguese nun, 1640-1723, known for her letters to a French officer, the Lettres portugaises, though these may have been written by Gabriel-Joseph de La Vergne as an epistolary fiction

poem by Ricardo Güiraldes

the sacred book of Islam, revealed by God to the Prophet Muhammad, also called Coran, Quran, Al Kitab, Koran

Argentine public official and writer, 1842-1902, author of Espinas de un amor, Tratado de derecho internacional, Instrucción secundaria and other works

Argentine writer, b. 1915 in Bayona, Spain, author of En la casa muerta, El hotel de la luna and other works

Alcuin or Albinus Flaccus, English scholar and ecclesiastic, 732-804, author of Versus de patribus, regibus et sanctis Eboracensis ecclesiae, De Fide Trinitatis and other works

Argentine caudillo and priest, 1785-1845, subject of a biography by Sarmiento

early Borges poem

book of poems by Baldomero Fernández Moreno, 1925

Aldebaran, the constellation

Fishburn and Hughes: "A name of Teutonic origin translated into Italian as Aldighiero (later Alighiero). Dante's great-great-grandfather, the warrior Cacciaguida, had married a woman from the Aldighieri family, as he explains to the poet in the Divine Comedy: 'My wife came from the vale of Po; / whence was derived the surname thou dost bear' (Paradiso, Canto XV, 137/8)." (6)

English writer, 1892-1962

Italian naturalist, 1522-1605

Francisco Luis Bernárdez poem

poem by Ildefonso Pereda Valdés

Peruvian novelist, 1909-67

Alexandria, port city in Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great.

Fishburn and Hughes: "The principal port of Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great in 332/1 BC. The Immortal : refers to the war of the Romans against Egypt whose capital Alexandria became. In 30 BC Octavian (later Augustus) overthrew the last of the Ptolemies. The city and the rest of the country fell under Roman rule, and many rebellions were put down. Three Versions of Judas: by the second century AD Alexandria had become a focus of Hellenistic and Jewish learning. Heretical doctrines, such as those of the Gnostics and of Origen spread within its walls. Averroës’ Search: the assertion that 'the only persons incapable of a sin are those who have already committed it and repented; to be free of an error.. .it is well to have professed it' is an allusion to Carpocrates' interpretation of the Gnostics' libertarian attitude to sinning as a positive obligation to perform every kind of immoral act in order to curb the power of nature. For Carpocrates sinning was part of a programme that had to be completed, making amoralism the means by which freedom could be attained and making sin the way to salvation." (7)