Finder's Guide

Faxian, Chinese Buddhist monk, fl. 399-414

Parodi: “el Faber cachuzo”: un lápiz de la marca alemana Faber-Castell, fundada en 1761. ‘Cachuzo’ (o también ‘cachuso’) se emplea con el significado de deteriorado, cascado, averiado; aplicado a personas equivale a achacoso, envejecido. Conde vincula el origen de este término con el castellano cachar: hacer cachos o pedazos una cosa.

Wiseman historical novel, 1854

Parodi: Fabiola o la Iglesia de las catacumbas, la obra más célebre del sacerdote católico, erudito y crítico inglés, nacido en Sevilla, Nicholas Patrick Stephen (1802-1865), primer Cardenal Arzobispo de Westminster. Fabiola (1854), un clásico del catolicismo, es una novela histórica sobre la vida de los cristianos perseguidos en Roma a comienzos de la cristiandad. La novela tuvo un éxito extraordinario, fue traducida a idiomas europeos y asiáticos y contribuyó al fortalecimiento del catolicismo en Inglaterra en el siglo XIX. La Fabiola de Paladión fue publicada durante el período 1911-1919.

Jules Supervielle book of poems, 1938

Stevenson, 1896.

T. F. Powys, 1929

Lytton book of fables, 1876

Továrna na absolutno, Capek science fiction, 1922

Góngora poem, 1613

Aesop's fables

Parodi: “Las Fábulas de Esopo”: célebre escritor de fábulas griego, probablemente del siglo vi a.C., su existencia real no está probada. Sus fábulas son narraciones alegóricas breves y de contenido moral, protagonizadas por animales.

Spencer, 1902

Poe story

Work, 1936, attributed in the Antología de la literatura fantástica to Holloway Horn.

Excerpt from Antología de poetas líricos castellanos by Menéndez y Pelayo.

Civilizacion i barbarie: Vida de Juan Facundo Quiroga, Sarmiento study of Argentine geography, history and politics, 1845

Argentine painter, 1882-1935

Spenser long poem, 1589 and 1596

Fishburn and Hughes: "The foremost English epic poem of the Renaissance, written by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) in heroic or 'Spenserian' stanzas (rhyming pattern: ababbcbcc). The poem is highly allegorical, in the tradition of Ariosto and Tasso, though based upon English legend. It is set in the land of Fairie (England) ruled by its queen Gloriana (Elizabeth) and tells of the adventures of six of her knights, each representing a different virtue. Spenser uses the example of the mythical world of romance to illustrate the political and ecclesiastical conflict between Protestant England and Catholic Spain. A serious ethical intention underlies the poem, the conceits of the knights' adventures exemplifying a moral quest in which the individual, faced by the mysteries of life, chooses the principal Christian virtues of valour, temperance, friendship, love, justice and courtesy.

dragon in the Volsunga Saga

early Norwegian poem, The Words of the Dragon, Fafnir

Fishburn and Hughes: "'The Lay of Fafnir', one of the Volsung sagas recounted in the Norse Eddas. Sigurd is persuaded by Regin, his guardian and Fafnir's brother, to slay the dragon Fafnir in order to steal his treasure of gold. He goes to Gnitaheidr to lie in wait for Fafnir, whose custom it is to go there in search of water. Fafnir arrives and, realising that he is about to be killed, prophesies his slayer's death: 'The glistening gold, and the glow-red hoard / the rings thy bane will be.' He warns Sigurd that Regin, who 'betrayed me, will betray thee too, / and will be the bane of us both'. Sigurd responds by killing Fafnir and cutting off Regin's head; he also eats Fafnir's heart and drinks the blood of both his victims. Yet the prophecy proves strangely true: Sigurd himself is killed, as are all who subsequently own the gold." (70)

Argentine painter, 1910-1966

Fine Skin, an Icelandic history of the kings of Norway to 1177, written about 1220

French literary historian and critic, 1847-1916

Bradbury science fiction novel, 1953

character in Bustos Domecq and Suárez Lynch stories, also known as el Gran Perfil and el padre Fainberg

Parodi: personaje de “Limardo”, mencionado en “Testigo” y en Nuevos cuentos (“Penumbra”). Compañero de pieza de Savastano en El Nuevo Imparcial; judío, provisto de una nariz de tamaño considerable a la que debe el apodo de ‘Gran Perfil’; Fainberg suele asistir a la Casa del Catequista; en dos ocasiones, Bustos menciona al “P. Fainberg” (cf. “Testigo” §4, “Penumbra” §5). Cf. también “Doce” i §4.

Butler book on Christianity, 1873

witches' line in the first act of Macbeth

pseud. of Erle Stanley Gardner

US film actor, 1883-1939

Parodi: actor y director de cine estadounidense, célebre por su actuación en filmes de acción en la época del cine mudo. Participó en más de cincuenta películas entre 1915 y 1934.

One of the stories of Fables (1896) by R. L. Stevenson.

Silvina Ocampo anthology in French, Gallimard, 1974

book on the Argonauts published in 1474

cosmic serpent mentioned in the Arabian Nights

Uruguayan literary critic and historian, 1892-1941

Argentine sculptor, 1889-1973

Papini pseudonym

town in the sierras of Córdoba

fantastic story by Edgar Allan Poe

Wilkie Collins, 1879.

Leon Feuchtwanger novel, 1936

allegorical female figure in Gracián's Criticón

character in Shakespeare's Henry IV, parts I and II, and The Merry Wives of Windsor

nickname for Antonio Ruiz, a black Argentine soldier in the wars of independence, d. 1824

Parodi: “informe sobre el Estatuto del Negro Falucho”: referencia a un soldado que durante las guerras de independencia formó parte del ejército del General San Martín. La Historia oficial quiere que Antonio Ruiz, ‘el negro Falucho’, fuera fusilado en 1824, durante la reconquista de la fortaleza del Callao, al negarse a rendir honores a la bandera española que iba a ser izada en el Torreón del Real Felipe. Finalmente, la bandera flameó en lo alto de la fortaleza, pero los españoles tuvieron que pasar sobre el cadáver de Falucho, caído en las escaleras. La veracidad histórica del dato es muy debatida, de ahí que Suárez Lynch elaborara un informe sobre “el estatuto” de este héroe.

personification of Fame, also called Escandalo and Rumor

Julio Diniz novel, 1868

Fishburn and Hughes: "A form of eighteenth-century Chinese porcelain." (70)

Eliot verse drama, 1939

Hambre, Liam O'Flaherty novel about the Irish famine, 1937

character in Ts'ui Pen's novel

character in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi: chino nacido en Yunnan y radicado en Buenos Aires; vive en el taller de Nemirovsky

Ferber, 1917

Shaw, 1911

cycle of Quevedo's satires

Parodi: “el calzado marca Fantasio”: la supuesta marca sugiere un calzado ‘de fantasía’, de forma y gusto no corrientes.

autobiography of the English Romani writer Petulengro, 1938

Hudson memoir of Argentina, 1918

western United States

character in Borges story

Hemingway novel, 1929

character in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi: Farfarello es el nombre de uno de los demonios mencionados por Dante en la Divina Comedia, Infierno xxi (cf. “Fiesta” §12).

Brand of truck. (Mentioned in Bustos Domecq story)

Parodi: un camión fabricado por la empresa Chrysler en Chicago y posteriormente montado en el país. A partir de 1960, los camiones Fargo fueron enteramente fabricados en Argentina.

Portuguese historian and poet, 1590-1649, also known as Faría y Sousa due to his writings in Spanish

Sephardic surname

Abu Talib, Persian poet and mystic, c. 1150-1230, author of the Mantiq al-Tayr or Coloquio de los pájaros and numerous other works

Fishburn and Hughes: "One of the greatest Muslim mystical poets, born in Nishapur, the famous centre of Sufi mysticism. As his name indicates (attar is Persian for 'scent') he probably dealt in perfumes or drugs, but the details of his life remain obscure. He is said to have received 'the call' from a passing Sufi beggar who challenged him to renounce his worldly goods and lead a life of poverty and contentment, after which the beggar dropped dead before him. Inspired to become a mystic, Attar set out on travels through the Middle East and central Asia and eventually returned to his native town, where he was killed during the Mongol invasion of c. 1220. Margaret Smith, relating the legendary account of his death, describes how, when he was taken captive by a Mongol, another Mongol offered a ransom of a thousand pieces of silver to save his life. His captor was on the verge of accepting, but Attar advised him that he was worth much more. Later a third Mongol arrived offering a ransom of a sack of straw, whereupon Attar said, 'Take it, that's what I'm worth.' His captor, furious, beheaded him.

Manenti degli Uberti, Ghibelline leader, 1212-1264, mentioned in the Divina Commedia

Heinlein science fiction book, 1950

Eden Phillpotts, play, 1926.

newspaper of Ballobar, town near Lerida, Spain

Parodi: el supuesto periódico estaría editado en ese municipio, ubicado a unos 100 km de la ciudad de Huesca.

character in Bustos Domecq stories, author of La línea Paladion-Pound-Eliot and studies of Loomis

Parodi: supuesto crítico literario, mencionado en “Paladión” §5.

US novelist, 1904-1979, author of Studs Lonigan and other works

Jáuregui translation

poem by Pablo Della Costa ?

whale in Old English bestiary

Ovid's Fasti, a poetical calendar of the Roman year

Morgan le Fay, half-sister of King Arthur, a sorceress

Parodi: obra en verso, que Badoglio califica de “obrilla de circunstancias”; este juicio y el título de la obra sugieren que habría sido escrita como expresión del desencanto de Bustos ante el éxito ruidoso pero efímero de su “Oda”, cuatro años antes. 

Darío poem in Cantos de vida y esperanza, 1905

Lugones poem in Romancero

Murena’s novel, 1955.

Wells, 1939

Old English poem

Edmund Gosse biography of his father, Philip Gosse, and autobiography, 1907

Chesterton's five volumes of detective stories about Father Brown, The Innocence of Father Brown, The Incredulity of Father Brown, The Secret of Father Brown, The Wisdom of Father Brown and The Scandal of Father Brown

George Baker, 1879-1965, charismatic African-American religious leader

early Christian theologians

Argentine philosopher, 1903-62, author of El Budhismo nihilista, 1962

Rodolfo Wilcock’s work, 1961.

Simenon novel, 1937

Maria Lidia Lloveras, princess through marriage to Bertrand de Faucigny-Lucinge, friend of Borges

US novelist, 1897-1964, author of The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom!, As I Lay Dying, The Wild Palms and other works

fauns, wood sprites associated with Pan

British critic, 1895-1965, author of numerous studies of Donne, Cowper and other British poets

Goethe drama, 1808 and 1832

Charles Gounod's Opera inspired by the legend of Faust, 1859

character in Borges-Bioy filmscript

Faust, German conjurer, c.1488-1541, who according to later legend sold his soul to the devil, subject of literary works by Marlowe, Goethe, Mann and del Campo

Charles Gounod's Opera inspired by the legend of Faust.

Campo gauchesque poem, 1866

Gide novel, 1925

Italian scholar, 1847-1922, editor of numerous works of Galileo

character in Gongora sonnet

Cotton Mather work written in Spanish, 1699

Tango by Horacio Pettorossi and Alfredo Navarrete (1925).

El temor de la muerte, Walpole story, 1938

Frazer, 1933

Browning poem in Pacchiarotto, 1876

Cox, 1910

Phoebus Apollo, sun god in classical mythology

Wentscher study of the two philosophers, 1924

German scientist and philosopher, 1801-1887, author of Zend-Avesta oder über die Dinge des Himmels und des Jenseits, Elemente der Psychophysik and other works

German critic, 1880-1958

Zola novel, 1899

anti-Stalinist group

Fishburn and Hughes: "After the Wars of Independence (1810-24) the two major opposing parties in Argentina were the Federalists and the Unitarians, whose differences plunged the country into civil war for nearly six decades. Federalism stood for the autonomy and equality of all the provinces and their traditional Hispanic and criollo values, as opposed to the growing ascendancy of cosmopolitan Buenos Aires. Its leaders were self-elected caudillos with a popular following among the local gauchos, the most notable being Facundo in the interior (see Sarmiento) and Rosas in the littoral. This division reflected a difference in economic policy within Federalism itself, the isolated interior wishing to preserve its outmoded factories, while the littoral wished to pursue the more Unitarian policy of an export-oriented international economy, selling off its agricultural produce in return for cheap manufactured goods from Europe. The Federalists wished to restrict the high revenues that such a policy would produce to the littoral, while the Unitarians proposed to share them with the rest of the nation. The last important Federalist leader, Rosas, gradually disposed of all opposition until he became dictator: Unitarian policies were thus achieved under a Federalist banner. Rosas was brought down in 1852 by one of his generals, Urquiza, but the constitution remained Federalist in name and Unitarian in character. Between 1852 and 1880 the struggle continued between the newly formed Federation of Provinces and the province of Buenos Aires, which remained outside it. In many ways it was a struggle between the old criollo values of the patrician families and the cosmopolitan values of the new land-owning and commercial bourgeoisie. This struggle underpins many of the stories in Doctor Brodie's Report." (71)

Friedrich II , der Grosse, Prussian king, 1712-86

Friedrich I , first king of Prussia, 1657-1713

Kaiser Friedrich II , Holy Roman emperor, 1194-1250

Sardou drama, 1882, originally starring Sarah Bernhardt

Parodi: “en Rigoletto y en Fedora”: dos óperas que fueron parte del repertorio de Caruso. La primera, basada en Le Roi s’amuse, de Víctor Hugo, lleva música de Giuseppe Verdi y libreto de Francesco Maria Piave. Fue estrenada en 1851 en Venecia; Caruso la cantó ese mismo año en Nápoles. Fedora, con música de Umberto Giordano y libreto de Arturo Colautti, fue estrenada en el Teatro Lírico de Milán en 1898. En el estreno, Caruso cantó el papel del Conde Loris Ipanoff, una soberbia interpretación que dio comienzo a su gran carrera artística.

António Joaquim de Castro Feijó, Portuguese poet, 1859-1917

Spanish scholar and monk, 1676-1764; the second instance also refers to the Argentine poet Bernardo Canal Feijoo

Parodi: “El P. Feijóo (¿Canal?)”: la interrogación que Bustos coloca entre paréntesis insinúa su duda de si el autor de Epíteto en la Cuenca del Plata es Fray Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro (1676-1764) o el poeta y ensayista argentino Bernardo Canal Feijóo (1897-1982). Fray Feijóo fue un erudito, ensayista y polígrafo español de la Ilustración, autor de cientos de opúsculos polémicos que versan sobre temas varios. También autor de obras menores como Apología del escepticismo médico (1725), Satisfacción al Escrupuloso (1727), Respuesta al discurso fisiológico−médico (1727), Ilustración apologética (1729). Por su parte, Bernardo Canal Feijóo fue historiador, jurista, sociólogo, folclorista y dramaturgo, miembro y presidente de la Academia de Letras; participó en el movimiento ultraísta, en los grupos de Florida y de Boedo (cf. “Vestuario I” §8) y colaboró en la revista Martín Fierro. Fue premiado en varias ocasiones. Autor de ensayos sobre la realidad argentina, de poemas y de obras teatrales. Los comentarios de Borges y de Bioy sobre Canal Feijóo expresan el poco aprecio que sentían por él: en Borges 375, refiriéndose a Canal, dice Borges: “Ha de escribir como una persona que quiere decir algo, no encuentra la palabra justa, pone otra, sigue buscando, pone otra, pone otra y así sucesivamente: ‘Se abrochó el cuello, se anudó la cincha, quiero decir el cinturón, quiero decir la corbata.’ O: ‘Para salir a la calle ponte las pantuflas, las herraduras, los patines, las botas de potro, el calzado’”. En Borges 384, dice Bioy: “yo pienso, sin embargo, que sólo podría uno decir que Canal Feijóo es señor en oposición a ser escritor: es señor como un señor comisario o un señor vicepresidente de comité político de pueblo de campo”. También en Descanso 201, Bioy recurre al nombre de Canal para ejemplificar una entrada: “Idiomáticas. Pajarón: presuntuoso, persona de más prestigio que valía, como Battistessa o Canal Feijóo.”

resident of Rio Grande do Sul who communicates to Emma Zunz the news of her father's death, perhaps Fain

Uruguayan judge who condemned Avelino Arredondo

Saborido tango, c. 1910

Spanish king, 1527-98

Fishburn and Hughes: "A king of Spain, son of the Emperor Charles V and Isabel of Portugal, who married in 1554 as his second wife Mary Tudor, Queen of England. Philip II dedicated his rule to unifying the Iberian peninsula and furthering the Spanish conquest of America. His religious fervour, which caused him to reactivate the Inquisition, affected the culture and art of Spain; a strong mystical note is evident both in the literature and the plastic arts of the time. Philip II conducted a successful campaign against the Turks, who were defeated by his younger brother Don John of Austria at Lepanto in 1571. His policies in Europe, and in particular in the Low Countries in revolt against Spanish rule, brought him into conflict with Queen Elizabeth. In 1588 his Armada was defeated by the English navy." (152)

Spanish king, 1578-1621

Spanish king, 1605-65

king of Spain, here mentioned as a charcter in Francisco Ayala's El hechizado

Philippe IV, the Fair, French king, 1285-1314

character in Borges story

Felipe Camino Galicia de la Rosa, Spanish poet 1884-1968

Marcus Minucius Felix, 150-270, author of the Latin apology Octavius

assassin of the first duke of Buckingham, c.1595-1628

Léon Bloy, 1897

French writer and archbishop, 1651-1715, author of Traité de l'éducation des filles, Les Aventures de Télémaque and other works

Horvendil's brother and Amlodi's uncle in Saxo Grammaticus's version of the Hamlet story

phoenix, mythological bird

Fishburn and Hughes: "A mythical bird of red and gold plumage worshipped in ancient Egypt, a symbol of immortality associated with the cult of the sun. The phoenix lived for 500 years and then burned its own nest; a new phoenix emerged from the flames and took the ashes of its dead father to Heliopolis (Herodotus 2.73). The burning phoenix became a Christian allegory of the resurrection of the body and the eternal life of the soul. The phoenix also appears in the mythologies of Islam and in the sacred books of China. In Imaginary Beings Borges devotes two entries to this fantastic bird (p.45, on the Chinese Phoenix, and p. 117). In the second he quotes from Herodotus' account and from Tacitus, who speculates on 'the intervals of the phoenix's visits' (Annals 6.28). He also refers to a myth recalled by Pliny (10.2) according to which the phoenix lives a whole Platonic year, after which the history of the world repeats itself. From this, Borges adds, it was concluded in antiquity that the phoenix is 'a mirror or an image of this process'." (152-53)

Pellicer poem, 1630

Old English poem, see Phoenix

Scandinavian mythological wolf

town in Staffordshire, England, now part of Stoke-on-Trent

US writer, 1885-1968, author of Show Boat, American Beauty and many other works

German poet, 1892-1915

French mathematician, c. 1601-65

Fishburn and Hughes: "A distinguished French mathematician, in his day second only to René Descartes, some of whose ideas he disputed. Fermat was considered by some the discoverer of differential calculus and is credited as the founder of the modern theory of numbers.
The story is told that, while reading an edition of the Arithmetica of Diophantus, Fermat discovered an important theory of higher mathematics which he noted on the margin of his copy but did not bother to set out fully. It has never been reconstructed. Fermat was reluctant to give demonstrations of his results, and it was often left to others to provide the proofs of his theories." (71)

Shand book of poems, 1950

minor character in Borges-Bioy filmscript

Ipuche narrative

character in Borges story

19th century Argentine poet

Spanish scholar and politician, 1816-94

character in Borges story, sometimes Irala

Argentine writer, 1898-1972, friend of Macedonio Fernández

Argentine poet, 1886-1950, proponent of sencillismo

Spanish painter

Uruguayan critic, author of a Diccionario uruguayo de biografías, 1945

Parodi: José María Fernández Saldaña (1879-1961), escritor, historiador, abogado y periodista uruguayo, autor del Diccionario uruguayo de biografías, 1810-1940, publicado en 1945. Nació en Salto Oriental, ciudad a la que dedicó una Historia General de la Ciudad y el Departamento de Salto. También en esa ciudad participó en las reuniones de “Consistorio del Gay Saber”, creado por su primo, el escritor Horacio Quiroga (1878-1937) –ambién nacido en Salto−, al que lo unió una larga amistad.

Argentine philosopher, poet and novelist, 1874-1952, author of Papeles de recienvenido, No toda es vigilia la de los ojos abiertos, Museo de la novela de la eterna, Adriana Buenosayres and other works

French writer of Mexican origin, 1894-1944, author of works on Molière, Gide, Proust, Balzac, Barrès, Newman

character in Shakespeare's The Tempest

radio announcer in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi: supuesto locutor radial en las transmisiones de fútbol. Su nombre resulta de la combinación de las sílabas iniciales de los apellidos de un locutor de Radio El Mundo, Juan Ferreyra Basso (1910-1984), muy popular por sus programas “¿O me equivoco?” y en especial, “El otro lado de las cosas”, en los que, con voz inconfundible −que Bustos califica de “pastosa”− comentaba la realidad del momento. Fue también escritor y publicó varios libros de poesía; colaboró con artículos en revistas y periódicos (Nosotros, Sur, El Hogar, La Nación, etc.).

French scholar of Baudelaire

city in Italy

character in Borges-Levinson story

character in Borges-Levinson story

character in Borges story

character in Borges-Levinson story

character in Borges-Levinson story

Argentine writer, author of La humilde altivez

character in Bustos Domecq story

Uruguayan writer, 1899-1959

character in Gorboduc, one of the earliest of English tragedies, by Norton and Sackville, first performed in 1561

character in Borges story

Parodi: Ferrocarril Oeste es un club de fútbol fundado en 1904 en el barrio porteño de Caballito. Para ‘hincha’, cf. “Doce” i §9.

port in Galicia in northern Spain

town in France between Chartres and Le Mans

Borges's first book, poems, 1923

Festus, a favorite of the emperor Domitian

Barbusse novel about the First World War, 1916

Jewish-German novelist and playwright, 1884-1958

Nierenstein Souza, 1919

Parodi: supuesta novela histórica de Souza. El apellido Gomensoro aparece también en Nuevos cuentos, “Enemigo” §1.

city in Morocco

Bianco compilation of essays and fiction, 1977

Borges book of stories, 1944

German philosopher, 1762-1814, author of Versuch einer Kritik aller Offenbarung, Uber den Begriff der Wissenschaftslehre and other works

Italian philosopher and scholar, 1433-99

Julio Diniz novel, 1871

Phidias, Greek sculptor, d. c. 431 B. C.

Un episodio de la fiebre amarilla en Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel Blanes painting, 1871

Horacio Rega Molina poem

Campo con cinco árboles, Walpole story

English novelist and playwright, 1707-54, author of Tom Jones, Joseph Andrews, Shamela and other works

tango

main character in Hernandez poem

Alain epigrams

Historia de cincuenta años de desgobierno. Avellanos work, published posthumously in 1939

Uruguayan painter and lawyer, 1861-1938

Parodi: “un Figari, que era un verdadero candombe”: Pedro Figari (1861-1938) fue un pintor, abogado, político, poeta y periodista uruguayo. Colaboró en la revista Martín Fierro. Su pintura se destaca por la recuperación de la cultura popular rioplatense, del pasado colonial, de la vida de los gauchos y por la representación de escenas de la vida y costumbres de la población de origen africano. Pintó varias escenas de ‘candombes’, las ceremonias de danza al ritmo de los tambores celebradas por los negros libertos. Su obra “Candombe” es de 1921. La afirmación “que era un verdadero candombe’ juega con la ambivalencia de este término que, por un lado, designa la mencionada ceremonia y por otro, en lenguaje popular, la expresión ‘ser un candombe’ se emplea con el significado de ser un desorden, un lío, un alboroto. Cf. también Modelo iv §10. En Borges 1101, Borges −irritado por la negativa de unos coleccionistas de ceder a un empleado un cuadro de Figari− exclama: “¿Y para qué quieren tantos cuadros de Figari […] que no son tan buenos, que los pintaba en diez minutos? Un pintor que no sabía dibujar. No: que no sabía pintar.”

Portuguese historian and literary critic, 1889-1967

doctor, character in Borges story

minor character in Borges story La señora mayor, probably to be identified with Clara Glencairn de Figueroa in El duelo

Gerchunoff collection, 1979

James story, 1896

Lugones poem in Romancero

The Index, composed by ad-Nadim in Baghdad in 988, a treatise on the various languages and literatures of Islam, with sections also on foreign religions and alchemy

periodical

Parodi: revista que informa sobre carreras hípicas, incluyendo la genealogía de los caballos, la trayectoria de los jinetes y los pronósticos sobre probables ganadores. En lenguaje popular, una ‘fija’ es una información confidencial sobre el resultado de una carrera, el dato infalible que garantiza el triunfo. Según Conde (Diccionario) el término proviene de la expresión castellana de fijo, con el significado de seguramente, sin duda. Ver también Modelo v §1.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Argentine musician and historian of the tango, 1885-1964

the Philippica of Theopompus, a world history centering on Philip of Macedon

Nicoll study, 1935

Cancela, 1933.

two Borges film reviews, included in Discusion

Philo, Alexandrian philosopher, 20 B. C.-54 A. D.

Croce, 1909

Lugones book of short prose and poems, 1924

Milward Kennedy.

Forster novel: see Howards End

Borges story on a final encounter of Fierro and the Moreno, 1960

tale from Eduardo González Lanuza´s book Aquelarre

A poem by Marcelo del Mazo

Cortázar, 1956.

Excerpt from Visitations (1919) work attributed in the Antología de la literatura fantástica to I. A. Ireland. 

Dreiser novel, 1912

Langston Hughes, 1926

Ema Risso Platero story in Arquitecturas del insomnio

Tale by Kipling first published in the Contemporary Review in 1891 and in 1893 in Many Inventions.

Mejor historia del mundo, Kipling story about reincarnation

character in Jacques Violette novel

hero of Macpherson's Ossianic poems

title of Macpherson's major Ossianic poem, 1762

character in Suárez Lynch novella

Parodi: 1) Ema Fingermann, hermana de Kuno; casada en Alemania con Tonio Le Fanu, que la abandonó. Aparece mencionada como la Fritza y “Ribecas” (infra v §2); “una hebraica desorejada” (infra vi §8).

2) “la Fritza”: mote de Ema Fingermann está creado a partir de un inexistente femenino del nombre alemán Fritz.

3) “una hebraica desorejada”: mote de Ema Fingermann, cf. supra ii §41.

character in Bustos Domecq and Suárez Lynch stories

Parodi: 1) personaje de Bustos Domecq retomado por Suárez Lynch. Aparece en Modelo, Crónicas (“Vestuario I”) y Nuevos cuentos (“Salvación”). Además de presidir una supuesta sociedad anti hebrea (cf. “Sangiácomo” iv §4), es secretario del doctor Tonio Le Fanu (cf supra I §15), tesorero de la Asociación Aborigenista Argentina y promueve el Bureau de Relaciones Públicas del Centro de Productores de Lana. Sólo en una ocasión se menciona que es escritor y ha publicado La esencia de la ropa es el abrigo y ¡Arropémonos! Alemán, judío, abogado, es uno de los personajes de Suárez Lynch que acumula más motes: el Bube Fingermann; Jambonneau; Bube Jambonneau; Nulo Fingermann; Jacoibos; el ruso; Chancho Rosillo Fingermann; quimicointas; el Sinagoga; el Jamoncito; el delikatessen de importación Jambonneau; Marsopa Fingermann; Cada Lechón; don Varsovia; Rusómano; De las Aves que Vuelan; el Moisés; tesorieri; el ruso senza caperuzza; el deglute-kosher; el pobre semita, y otros.

2) “el doctor Kuno Fingermann, alias Bube Fingermann, alias Jamboneau”: cf. supra “A manera de Prólogo” §8. El apodo ‘Bube’, del alemán Bube (muchacho, chiquilín), se emplea en yiddish como término cariñoso; ‘Jambonneau’ es el término francés para el codillo de cerdo; al igual que otros apodos que recibe Fingermann, también este alude a la tradición judía de no comer cerdo.

3) el “quimicointas Jamboneau”: Jambonneau, otro de los motes de Fingermann que alude a que no come cerdo (cf. supra “A manera de Prólogo” §8); ‘quimicointas’, un término de uso popular, remeda la presunta dicción de un hablante de yiddish al enunciar en castellano la frase ‘¿qué me cuentas?’, con el sentido de ‘¿qué tal?’.

4) “el delikatessen de importación Jamboneau”: otro mote de Fingermann, en el que se alude a su origen alemán y judío. En alemán, Delikatessen designa colectivamente los productos que se venden en una tienda de especialidades gastronómicas.

5) el “doctor Kuno Fingermann, alias De las Aves que Vuelan”: otro mote de Fingermann, que también alude a la tradición judía de no comer cerdo. El Cancionero popular rioplatense de Jorge M. Furt (1902-1971), publicado en 1923, reúne varias versiones de coplas campesinas y gauchescas, de tono jocoso, que comienzan con el verso “De las aves que vuelan”. De esa multiplicidad de versiones, el mote de Fingermann alude a una copla popular de la provincia de Buenos Aires: “De las aves que vuelan / me gusta el chancho / porque es petizo, gordo/rechoncho y ancho” o a una de sus variantes: “De las aves que vuelan / me gusta el chancho / porque vuela bajito / como el carancho.”

Guerra Junqueiro, 1912

Finland

Frisian king mentioned in the Finnsburh

main character in novel by Mark Twain

character in Borges story, doubtless related to the Finnegan of Finnegans Wake

Joyce prose work, 1939

Old English poetic fragment on Finn and Hildeburh

site of battle recorded in old English poem

Argentine painter and sculptor, 1894-1970

Buenos Aires neighborhood

Parodi: “en camiones idénticos procedían de Fiorito y de Villa Domínico, de Ciudadela, de Villa Luro, de La Paternal”: Villa Fiorito y Villa Domínico, dos localidades ubicadas al sur de la ciudad de Buenos Aires; Ciudadela, al oeste; Villa Luro, al norte; La Paternal y Villa Crespo, dos barrios de la zona central de la ciudad.

Abu'l Kasim Mansur, Persian poet, c.935-c.1020, author of the Shahnama or Book of Kings, sometimes Firdausi or Firdousi

Fishburn and Hughes: "The name by which the Persian poet Abul Kasim Mansu is commonly known. Firdusi was the author of the Book of Kings (Shahnamah), the Persian national epic which recounts the history and legends of Persia until the fall of the Sassanid empire. According to tradition, Mahmud of Ghazni, the Sultan to whom the Shahnamah was dedicated, promised to pay Firdusi a piece of gold for every verse. When he sent silver instead, Firdusi was so offended by the deceit that he gave it away to his attendants. The Sultan repented and sent the promised gold pieces, but it was too late: the messenger arrived in time to meet the poet's funeral train." (72)

Conan Doyle, play, 1909.

character in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi: “le dio Firestone a Le Fanu”: si bien ‘dar Firestone’ (con alusión a la fábrica de neumáticos) no es un enunciado usual, podría arriesgarse que aquí es una variante de la expresión coloquial ‘dar el olivo’ (y también ‘dar el olivetti’), que se emplea con el significad de echar a alguien, expulsar o, popularmente, ‘dar el raje’. Tal vez haya surgido por asociación de ideas con el verbo inglés fire, de igual significado. Cf. infra §2: ‘dar el puro de oliva’.

Argentine boxer, c. 1894-1960, nicknamed the Wild Bull of the Pampas

Argentinian tango composer and director, 1884-1969. Author of "Alma de bohemio".

forty vols., the last published in 1914; the eleventh volume, Hlaer to Jangr, has 1001 pages

Wells novel, 1901

Spencer philosophical work, 1867

German writer and satirist, c. 1546-90, translator of Rabelais

character in Borges story

editor of El correo de Ultramar, periodical published in Rosario

Parodi: “El correo de Ultramar de Fisherton”: supuesto periódico del barrio de Fisherton, ubicado al noroeste de la ciudad de Rosario (cf. “H.B.D.” §3). En sus orígenes (1888) fue un suburbio residencial, con parques y lujosas mansiones destinadas al personal jerárquico del Ferrocarril Central Argentino, entonces administrado por los ingleses. El nombre del barrio evoca al Ingeniero Henry Fisher, principal representante por largos años de los intereses de ese ferrocarril en la ciudad de Rosario.

gardens near Rosario

Argentine architect, 1892-1945

US poet and translator, 1903-1968

English writer, 1809-83, translator of Calderón, Omar Khayyam and others

Fishburn and Hughes: "An English poet and translator, most famous for his version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam, first published anonymously by Quaritch in 1859. FitzGerald maintained that to be readable a translation must be a paraphrase and wrote: 'It is an amusement to me to take what liberty I like with these Persians, who as I think are not poets enough to frighten me from such excursions, and who really do want a little care to shape them.'

CF 87: FitzGerald's translation of the Mantig al-Tayr, or Parliament of Birds, is extremely free. The original is a lengthy poem, which FitzGerald condenses into a few pages, selecting particularly apologues, or little stories with obvious morals. See 'The Enigma of Edward FitzGerald', TL TL,Other Inq. 366." (72)

Kipling's poetry book, 1903.

Cinco Hermanas, window in York Minster

name for Odin in the Grimnismal and other sagas

US film director, 1884-1951, maker of Man of Aran

French astronomer, 1842-1925

Parodi: el astrónomo francés Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) es autor de Études et lectures sur l'astronomie, (1866-1880) en nueve volúmenes; Cartes de la Lune et de la planète Mars (1878), Astronomie populaire (1880), obra premiada por su aporte a la popularización del tema. Fue un autor muy difundido en los años veinte, publicado incluso en el popular diario Crítica. (Sarlo “Imaginación” 139).

Flanders, now part of Belgium

Book of Flatey, Icelandic collection of legendary and historical sagas

French novelist, 1821-80, author of Madame Bovary, Salammbô, Bouvard et Pécuchet and other works

Fishburn and Hughes: "A French novelist best remembered for Madame Bovary (1857), the story of a provincial doctor's wife constrained by the social and intellectual codes of the bourgeoisie.
A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain: Flaubert, like Henry James, is renowned for the painstaking documentation of his novels and the care with which he sought stylistic perfection. Borges, arguing against what he terms 'the vanity of perfection', points out that, paradoxically, the totally correct or perfect text, such as Flaubert was at pains to achieve because he thought it unassailable, is, by the very nature of its perfection, the most precarious and the least able to withstand the changes to which language is subject. But he adds that Flaubert was happily saved from the excesses of his doctrine (Disc. 47).

Flavius Josephus, b. c. 37 A. D., rabbi and author of Antiquitates Judaicae

Fishburn and Hughes: "The name adopted by the first-century Jewish historian Joseph ben Matthias, one of the leaders of the Jewish revolt against the Romans in AD 66. Escaping death, he was taken prisoner by Vespasian, who later released him when his prophecy that Vespasian would become emperor was fulfilled. Josephus opted for Roman citizenship and assumed the name of Flavius, Vespasian's patronymic. His main historical works are The Jewish War (77/8 AD), a largely personal account of the war written from a Jewish point of view but with a regard for Roman susceptibilities, and Antiquities of the Jews, a history of the Jews from the creation of the world. The latter makes allusion to Christ, suggesting that it may be improper to refer to him simply as a man, but the passage is disputed (18.3.3)." (104)

Montherlant, 1937

English poet, 1884-1915

Meyrink collection of stories, 1916

US film director, 1883-1949

Scottish politician and writer, 1655-1716, author of An Account of a Conversation concerning a right regulation of Governments for the common good of Mankind and other works

British writer of crime fiction, 1863-1933

Greco tango

Baudelaire poems, 1857

character in Jacques Spitz's L'Agonie du globe

Quevedo poem

character in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi: nieta de don Alejandro Meinong.

figure in Gongora sonnet

Florence or Firenze, Italy

character in Borges story, Emilio Trepani's aunt

neighborhood in Buenos Aires, formerly a separate town called San José de Flores

Parodi: “el artista hubo de patearla hasta la zona residencial de la Plaza de Flores”: el verbo ‘patear’ se emplea coloquialmente con el significado de ‘ir a pie’ o en su versión popular, ‘ir a pata’. En “Signo” §11 aparece la variante ‘ir a patacón por cuadra’, con igual significado. La Plaza Flores está ubicada en el barrio de Flores, lindante con el de Caballito.

Argentine soldier, ancestor of Juan Dahlmann in Borges story

town in the province of Buenos Aires

knife-fighter in Buenos Aires, sometimes called el Petizo

Buenos Aires neighborhood next to Flores

Hauptmann play, 1896

town in Missouri where Samuel Clemens was born

shopping street in central Buenos Aires

Parodi: 1) “calle Florida”: hacia la época de publicación de Seis problemas, Florida era la calle más célebre de la ciudad, un paseo habitual de los porteños, elogiado por su elegancia. Mencionada también en “Goliadkin”, “Toros”, “Sangiácomo”, “Tai An”, Modelo I, “Gradus”, “Ojo”, “Tafas”, “Vestuario I”, “Hijo”.

2) “Dos escuelas proceden de la baronesa de Servus […] La primera es la escuela de Florida; la otra, de tufillo más popular, la de Boedo”: dos calles de Buenos Aires, la elegante y aristocrática calle Florida (cf. “Palabra” §8) y la popular calle Boedo (cf. “Signo” §5) dieron nombre a los grupos antagónicos. Dice Borges en “La inútil discusión de Boedo y Florida”: “La disputación de Boedo y Florida fue motivo de sorna para los más, de traviesa o malhumorada belicosidad para los empeñados en ella, y de tranquila consideración póstuma para alguno, que esta vez soy yo. / Rememoro el caso. Básteme señalar, en socorro del olvidadizo o desentendido lector, que allá por los inverosímiles días de la nueva sensibilidad guerrearon dos facciones literarias en Buenos Aires, y que la primera se dijo ser de Boedo y que a la segunda le dijeron ser de Florida.” (TR1: 365). No obstante este comentario de 1928, en repetidas ocasiones, Borges negó la existencia de esos grupos y de esa polémica. Hacia la época de la escritura de Crónicas, Bioy registra en Borges 1132 (correspondiente a al año 1966): “Dice [Borges]: “Un día van a aplazar en un examen a un muchacho porque no supo qué fue la polémica de Florida y Boedo. No hubo tal polémica: todo fue una broma inventada por Ernesto Palacio y Roberto Mariani. La gente que vivió entonces, ¿no recuerda que nunca existió la polémica? ¿Inventa recuerdos?” [Ernesto Palacio (1900-1979) fue escritor, historiador y periodista; alistado en el nacionalismo local. Roberto Mariani (1893-1946) escritor que participó en el grupo de Boedo].

neighborhood in Buenos Aires

state in southeastern United States

English linguist and lexicographer (1553-1625). Famous for being a translator of Montaigne into English.

character in Stevenson's New Arabian Nights and Prince Otto

Film

Brooks study, 1936

Roy Campbell book of poems, 1936

Robertus de Fluctibus, English mystical philosopher and physician, 1574-1637, here often misspelled Flood

Fishburn and Hughes: "An English physician and mystical philosopher, who combined medicine with faith-healing. As a philosopher Fludd was attracted to Cabbalistic thought and argued for the identity of physical and spiritual truth. His system, which may be termed 'materialist pantheism', held that the universe and all things created proceed from God and return to him. The universe consists of three worlds - the archetypal (God), the macrocosm (the world), and the microcosm (man) - which interrelate and act sympathetically on each other. Fludd was involved with the secret society of the Rosae Crucis (Rosicrucians) and was thought by De Quincey to have been influential in the resurgence of Freemasonry." (73)

von Unruh travel book about London and Paris, 1925

Woolf, 1933

Tasmanian film star, 1909-59

Parodi: “como Errol Flynn y Olivia de Havilland en Vamos a Méjico que en inglés se llama Sombrero”: Errol Flynn (1909−1959) y Olivia de Havilland (1916−?), entre 1935 y 1941 fueron la pareja cinematográfica más célebre de Hollywood; filmaron juntos en siete ocasiones y al menos tres de esos films están ambientados en el Lejano Oeste, como la supuesta película que menciona Mariana. Los títulos que señala Mariana dan pie a una broma sobre las caprichosas titulaciones de películas extranjeras en su traducción al castellano.

story by Kipling

French military theorist and writer, 1851-1929

Arthur Miller novel, 1945

First Folio of Shakespeare's works, 1622-23

Lal Behari Dey, 1883.

Campos, 1928

Arthur Palmer Hudson, 1936

Rossi, 1939-1945

US stage and film actor, 1905-1982

National Endowment for the Arts. Cultural public organization created in Buenos Aires on 3 February 1958. It awards different prizes related to the arts. 

character in Bustos Domecq story

sergeant, character in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi: el “sargento Fonseca”: la designación de un suboficial de rango inferior para que se haga cargo de las áreas de cultura en el país es una alusión irónica a un hecho no infrecuente en la historia nacional, en especial en las diversas dictaduras militares.

Portuguese writer, 1905-1974

street in Paris where Langston Hughes worked

forest and palace south of Paris

Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire, family home of William Beckford

17th century publisher in Brussels

Cromwell film, 1930

Hemingway novel, 1940

English novelist, critic, editor, 1873-1939, born Ford Madox Hueffer

periodical published in London from 1828 to 1830

Eden Phillotts, novel, 1912.

Work attributed to George Loring Frost (1909).

scholar of Chinese philosophy

character in Bustos Domecq story

German theologian, 1799-1846, an ancestor of Otto Dietrich zur Linde in Borges story, perhaps based on the German musician of the same name, 1749-1818.

Fishburn and Hughes: "A fictional character in Borges's 'Deutsches Requiem', said to have lived from 1799 to 1846. The name recalls Johann Nicolaus Forkel, the first biographer of J.S. Bach, who lived from 1749 to 1818. Its use in the story’s first footnote introduces the theme of bifurcation." (74)

ancestor of Otto Dietrich zur Linde, d. 1870