Finder's Guide

famous Zola letter in defence of Dreyfus, 1898

Carroll poem in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Parodi: pequeño municipio del valle de Aragón, en la provincia de Huesca, situado en el centro de los Pirineos aragoneses, junto a la frontera francesa.

US general and president, 1767-1845

Biblical patriarch

Woolf novel, 1923

French writer and painter, 1876-1944, author of Le Cornet a des, La Defense de Tartufe and other works

James I of England and VI of Scotland, 1566-1625

William Wymark Jacobs (1863-1943). English writer. Famous for his horror story The Monkey's Paw.

stock name for a Jew in Bustos Domecq story

George Sand novel, 1833

Diderot novel, 1769

city and province in southern Spain

Japheth, one of Noah's sons in Genesis

Hafez, Persian poet, 1326-1389, known for his ghazals

Fishburn and Hughes: "The jaguar was considered sacred among the Maya: in the Popol Vuh (Book of the Common), the Maya religious text describing the genesis of the world, the word for jaguar, 'balam', conveys the idea of magical power and is used as a title equivalent to 'mighty'. In the same text, among the first men in creation there are three legendary heroes named Jaguar." (100)

Bolivian-Argentine poet, 1868-1933, author of Castalia bárbara

city in India southeast of Delhi

the greatest of the Persian Sufi poets, 1207-1273, author of The Spiritual Mathnawi

al-Khali ibn Ahmed, Arab philologist from Oman, 718-791, author of the first Arabic dictionary, the Kitab-ul-'Ain

Druse character in Bustos Domecq story

Khali or Malik al- Ashraf Salah al-din, leader of the Moslem forces that drove the Franks from Syria and Palestine and took Acre in 1291

Fishburn and Hughes: "(b. c. 720/1). Reputedly the founder of Arab philology and author of the first Arabic dictionary. See Quitab ul ain." (100)

Parodi: “Jalil, el subgerente de La Formal”: muy probablemente, Jalil es subgerente de una empresa dedicada al mantenimiento de cloacas y limpieza de letrinas, ya que este nombre aparece mencionado entre los varios que cataloga Bioy en Jardines 239 de compañías que se encargan de estas tareas. El nombre de Jalil puede relacionarse con el de Jalil ibn Ahmad (c. 718− 791) filólogo de la escuela de Basora, compilador del primer diccionario de la lengua árabe.

country

old Arabic name for Beijing

Iamblichus, Syrian Neoplatonic philosopher, c.250-c.325, author of the Protrepticus, De mysteriis and other works

Belloc, 1928

Gilbert Stuart study, 1930

US novelist and critic, 1843-1916, author of The American, The Ambassadors, The Turn of the Screw, The Figure in the Carpet and many other works, brother of William James

Fishburn and Hughes: "An American novelist and short-story writer regarded as a master of modern fiction. After spending a year in Paris, where he met Flaubert, Zola and Maupassant, James established himself in England. The antithesis between European and New World values is the theme of such novels as Roderick Hudson (1877) and The Europeans (1878), and also of the unfinished and posthumous The Sense of the Past (1917) whose concept of future events determining the existence of the past captured Borges's interest (TL 240). A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain: in fifty-one years of writing James strove progressively towards greater and greater accuracy of language and a more and more thoughtful and exploratory narrative which, transcending the plot, displays a virtuoso precision and elegance of style. The Duel: though most of the characters in James's stories belong to a cosmopolitan and often artistic and socially sophisticated elite, the conflict of cultures is generally presented as a contrast between life in American cities such as Boston, associated with conventional morality but artistic sterility, and the intellectual and stimulating experience of European cities, such as London or Rome, where moral decadence was an underlying threat." (100-01)

US student of religious and social problems, 1811-82, father of William and Henry

US Western writer and artist, 1892-1942, author of Horses I've Known, Lone Cowboy: My Life Story and other works

US philosopher and psychologist, 1842-1910, author of The Principles of Psychology, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Some Problems in Philosophy, A Pluralistic Universe and other works

Fishburn and Hughes: "An American philosopher, the elder brother of Henry James. William James was an exponent of pragmatism, the theory that our conception of reality depends on the practical effects it has, ideas being true only in relation to other aspects of our experience. James applied the pragmatic doctrine to psychology, religion and history, his most influential book being The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). The life of each man is a specific event, and every action affects the course of history. There are no fixed laws or static principles." (101)

first English settlement in Virginia

French poet, 1868-1938

French painter and art critic, 1863-1939, author of La Peinture en Espagne

stage name of Theodor Emil Janenz, German film actor, 1882-1950

Parodi:nombre artístico de Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz (Rorschach, Suiza, 1884-Strobl, Austria, 1950), actor de cine de gran popularidad en Alemania durante el nazismo, Actuó en las tres películas que se mencionan en el cuento: Alta traición (título original The Patriot) estrenada en 1929 y dirigida por el alemán Ernst Lubitsch; El ángel azul (Der blaue Engel, 1930), la primera película sonora de Josef von Sternberg, basada en la novela Professor Unrat de Heinrich Mann, en la que Jannings trabajó junto a Marlene Dietrich. A partir de 1927 vivió en Hollywood y allí actuó en varias películas mudas; en 1929, el año inicial del premio al Mejor Actor, recibió el Oscar por su actuación en The Last Command (La última orden, 1928), también dirigida por von Sternberg, y en The Way of All Flesh (cf. infra” ii §3). Cuando en 1927 se estrenó The Jazz Singer (El cantante de jazz), la primera película hablada, el fuerte acento alemán de Jannings puso punto final a su carrera en USA y regresó a Alemania; en 1930 tras El ángel azul, la demanda de sus servicios fue declinando hasta que Joseph Göbbels lo contrató para filmar películas de propaganda del régimen. Además, Jannings colaboró en la campaña electoral para Hitler en 1938 y llegó al directorio de la productora internacional Tobis Film. En 1941, tras el gran éxito de la película de propaganda Ohm Krüger, en la que actuó y fue productor, fue nombrado “Artista del Estado” y colmado de honores. Bajo el régimen nazi, siguió filmando películas de propaganda y llegó a la dirección de la UFA (cf. sobre la paroductora UFA cf. Modelo iv §2). Tras la rendición, el comando aliado de Berlín prohibió que volviera a filmar. Se retiró a Austria, país en que murió en 1950. Un año más tarde se publicó su autobiografía, Emil Jannings: Theater, Film. Das Leben und ich. Autobiographie, (traducción al inglés: Life and me). En un artículo publicado en 1929 dice Borges de Jannings: “No puedo transcribir nada de él: su vocabulario vivo de gestos, su directo idioma facial, no me parece traducible a otro alguno. Jannings, además de las agonías de la tragedia, sabe rendir estrictamente lo cotidiano. Sabe no sólo agonizar […] sino vivir. Su estilo, hecho incesantemente de realizaciones minúsculas, es tan sin ostentación y tan eficaz como el de Cervantes o el de Butler.” (“Cinematógrafo” 383). Jannings es mencionado también más adelante, cf. vi §19.

Janus, Roman god of time, often pictured with two faces, sometimes called "e Bifronte"

Fishburn and Hughes: "In Roman mythology the two-faced God of doorways who was able to observe both the exterior and interior of private houses and the entrance and exit of public buildings. He thus became the god of departure and return and of the sun's rising and setting, and so was the special patron of all beginnings. He was honoured on the first day of every month, and on the first month of every year (January)." (101)

German medievalist, author of numerous works on Germanic medieva literatures and translator of Historia Danica

Cartas del Japón, Lafcadio Hearn, 1910

Paul Adler and Michael Revon book, 1926.

Japan

amusement park in Buenos Aires

Parodi: el ‘Parque Japonés’, un parque de atracciones ubicado en la zona de El Bajo (cf. “Tai An” §3) de Buenos Aires, en el barrio de Retiro. Fue inaugurado en 1911 y ocupó un terreno de seis hectáreas siguiendo el modelo de las más modernas ferias de atracciones de Europa y los Estados Unidos. Se caracterizó por ambientar sus instalaciones en el paisaje y la cultura del Japón: una réplica del volcán Fujiyama con un estanque y una gruta en su interior, rodeado por dos lagos artificiales navegables que incluían una ‘isla de las Geishas’; múltiples reproducciones de pagodas, que funcionaban como restaurantes y casas de té, salas de música y salones de baile. Este parque se cerró en 1930, tras un incendio. En 1939 se inauguró el ‘Nuevo Parque Japonés’ (llamado luego ‘Parque Retiro’), ubicado también en El Bajo, frente a la Torre de los Ingleses (actualmente ‘Torre Monumental’) y posteriormente en el mismo predio funcionó el ‘Ital Park’, que fue demolido en 1961.

sugar mill

Parodi: el supuesto ingenio azucarero por el que pasa el Panamericano, podría ubicarse en la provincia de Tucumán, la principal zona azucarera de la república.

botanical garden in Palermo neighborhood in Buenos Aires

unpublished book of short stories by Jorge Guillermo Borges

Borges story and book of the same title, 1941, both later incorporated in Ficciones, 1944

Ts'ui Pen novel

Mme Henri Bachelier book

performance space in central Buenos Aires in the nineteenth century, at the corner of Florida and Paraguay

Lugones

old zoo in Palermo in Buenos Aires

Parodi: “Jardín Zoológico de Palermo”: un parque inaugurado por Sarmiento (cf. “Goliadkin” I §12; “Limardo” I §20; Modelo I §31; Hijo II §64) en 1875 frente a la Plaza Italia y cerrado definitivamente por el gobierno de la ciudad en 2016, con el declarado compromiso de trasladar los animales a lugares más adecuados y transformar esas 18 hectáreas en un parque ecológico.

zoo in Aberdeen

Peluffo book on gardening, 1909

Parodi: obra de más de mil páginas profusamente ilustrada, publicada en 1886 por el Departamento de Agricultura de la Nación. Estaba dedicada a la descripción, cultivo y multiplicación de las principales plantas útiles y de adorno y su mejor empleo en los parques, jardines y paseos públicos. Sus autores son Vicente Peluffo y Fernando Maudit. Una nueva edición de 1909 ampliaba esta obra con nociones de botánica, química, física, meteorología, geografía y patología vegetal. Peluffo y Maudit son también autores de Arboricultura Argentina (1905) y Apuntes generales sobre arboricultura frutal, forestal y de Adorno (1905).

Spanish novelist, essayist and biographer, 1888-1949

Jaromir Hladik's mother's maiden name in Borges story

city in northwestern England by Newcastle-upon- Tyne

fish in Irish mythology

hero in Greek mythology who travels to Colchis with the Argonauts, obtains the Golden Fleece with the help of Medea, then deserts her

German philosopher, 1883-1969

Beswick, 1956

Buddhist fables

character in Borges story

Spanish poet, 1583-1641, author of Rimas, Discurso poético contra el hablar culto y oscuro, Antídoto contra la pestilente poesía de las Soledades and Orfeo, and translator of Tasso, Lucan and others

character in Borges story

French socialist leader, 1859-1914

island in Indonesia

expression in satirical text

Clemencia Juárez's dog

Magazine edited for a time by Henri Barbusse

verse from George Moore's poem Nuit de septembre

Parodi: referencia al Departamento Central de la Policía Federal Argentina, que ocupa una manzana en el barrio de Montserrat, con entrada por la calle Moreno 1550.

U. S. president, 1743-1826

modern reconstruction of the ineffable Hebrew name of God

doctor in Stevenson novel lThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

university city in Germany, site of battle in 1806 between Napoleon and the Prussian army

Dreiser novel, 1911

Xenophanes of Colophon, Greek philosopher, c.570-c.480, author of some satires that are stil extant

August Ruegg study in 2 vols., 1945

English writer, 1704-1787, author of The Art of Dancing, Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil and View of the Interna Evidence of the Christian Religion

Jeremiah, Biblical prophet

St. Jerome or Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, Christian scholar, Father of the Church, c.347-420?, translator of the Bible into Latin, author of De viris illustribus sive de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis and numerous other works of Christian history, commentaries on the Bible, polemica works, etc.

English dramatist, humorist and man of letters, 1803-1857

poet, character in Borges story, author of "Tse Yang, pintor de tigres" and "Rosencrantz habla con el Angel"

Jerusalem, city in Israel

Fishburn and Hughes: "The capital of Israel and formerly of Palestine, regarded by the Jews as their sacred city and as a holy city by both Christians and Moslems. The Theologians: Jerusalem witnessed the scene of the beginning of Christianity, the first teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and the first martyrs, though it did not become a central focus of Christianity until the Crusades. St Stephen was stoned to death in Jerusalem c. AD 35. The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim : in the sixteenth century, at the time of Isaac Luria, Jerusalem was an important centre of Cabbalism, a tradition which has continued to the present day." (101)

Danish philologist, 1860-1943, author of histories and grammars of the English language

the Christian Messiah, c. 4 B.C.-c. 29 A.D., sometimes called Jesus, Cristo, Redentor, Hijo

Barbusse, 1927

Montherlant novel, 1936

Jean Guehenno study of French culture, 1936

British economist, 1835-1882

Belloc, 1922

Wilkie Collins, 1880.

childhood friend of Borges in Geneva, later a physician in Switzerland

Phillpotts novel, 1926, also known as The Marylebone Miser

Argentine folklorist and poet, d. 1979, author of Achalay, 1928

character in Chaplin film

fugitive slave, character in Huckleberry Finn

mentioned in Alfonso Reyes's Reloj de Sol

character in Borges-Levinson story

Spanish poet and essayist, 1881-1958

Parodi: poeta español y Premio Nobel de Literatura en 1956, Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958), autor entre 1900 y 1949 de varios volúmenes de poesía y de una célebre narración lírica Platero y yo, publicada en 1914 (cf. Modelo iv §15). En 1957, escribía Borges sobre la poesía de Jiménez: “Verjas, fuentes, jardines, oros de otoños y de ocasos decoran ese mundo sentimental. En su obra no hay ideas; Jiménez es demasiado inteligente para ignorar que las ideas son novelerías que se marchitan pronto y que la función del poeta es representar ciertas eternidades o constancias del alma humana.” (TR3: 41). No obstante los elogios, Jiménez era una figura literaria sólo medianamente apreciada por Borges y Bioy; en Borges 232, comentan en 1956: [Borges] “Le dieron el premio Nobel a Juan Ramón Jiménez”. Bioy: “Qué vergüenza…”. Borges: “… para Estocolmo. Primero a Gabriela [Mistral], ahora a Juan Ramón. Son mejores para inventar la dinamita, que para dar premios.” No obstante, en 1957, en un número de la revista La Torre de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, de homenaje a Jiménez, Borges elogia sus “melodiosos volúmenes”, su “delicada y vasta labor”, su “mundo sentimental” en el que no expone ideas, sino que representa ciertas eternidades o constancias del alma humana (“Juan Ramón Jiménez” TR3: 41-42). En Jardines 127, recuerda Bioy: “Decíamos con Borges que habría que publicar en un diario un artículo sobre Juan Ramón Jiménez y deslizar una errata, de modo que el nombre apareciera así: ‘Juan Jabón Jiménez’. Después, publicar en otro diario o revista otro artículo y que el nombre del poeta apareciera alguna vez cambiado, por ejemplo: ‘Juan Jarrón Jiménez’. Etc., etc. Publicar finalmente en otra parte un artículo desenmascarando el complot; en el último párrafo el nombre del desagraviado poeta aparecería así: ‘Juan Jamón Jiménez’”; (sobre el mismo tema, cf. Borges 232).

Japanese monster, "Escarabajo de los Terremotos"

Japanese monster, "Pez de los Terremotos"

German literary scholar, 1867-1941, author of Deutsche Heldensage as wel as works on Victorian poetry, Wagner and so on

Hissarlik, place in Turkey escavated by Schliemann in his search for Homer's Troy

British philosopher, 1891-1953, author of Guide to Philosophy and numerous other works

H. G. Wells novel, 1918

Arturo Capdevila, 1935

Sackville-West, 1937

Milton treatise, written about 1650, published in 1825

Argentine writer

book in Bible

Fishburn and Hughes: "One of the late books of the Old Testament, whose exact meaning has been debated through the centuries. The story illustrates steadfastness of belief in the face of disaster and divine injustice, and raises the question of the individual's place in the scheme of the universe. Maimonides, in his Guide to the Perplexed (ch. 3, lines 22/3) attributes Job's defiant questioning of God's justice to his defective knowledge of God, limited to 'report and hearsay' as in 'most adherents of revealed religions'. After the theophany of the whirlwind, however, when he attained true philosophical knowledge of God, Job realised that no misfortune, however grave, can trouble a man. A more radical interpretation, and one which accords better with much of Borges's writings, is that there is no principle of divine retribution because 'justice is not woven into the stuff of the universe nor is God occupied with its administration'. The main theme of Job appears to be the perennial problem of innocent suffering; like the character Zur Linde, Job has no doubt of his innocence. The quotation from Job which serves as epigraph to 'Deutsches Requiem' can be taken as an ironic reflection on the power of blind belief, irrespective of its cause." (101-02)

in Bible, just man who suffers

Pilar de Lusarreta, 1928.

elite club in Buenos Aires

Parodi: “la Biblioteca del Jockey Club”: el Jockey Club es una asociación creada en 1882 con el objetivo inicial de promover el desarrollo de la raza equina en el país y que sigue siendo un sólido signo de poder económico y prestigio social. Su primera sede estuvo ubicada en la calle Florida, en un edificio destacado por su arquitectura, por el lujo de sus salones y muebles, y por las obras de arte europeo. Entre sus instalaciones, contaba con una biblioteca y la sala de esgrima más grande de la ciudad (cf. infra §10); en Bustos también se mencionan el fumoir del Jockey y “los sillones británicos del club” (cf. Modelo i §39). Esta primera sede del Jockey Club fue incendiada en 1953, durante el gobierno de Juan Domingo Perón; desde 1960, la asociación tiene su sede en el Palacio Unzué de Casares, en la Avenida Alvear. En Borges, en diversas ocasiones Bioy señala que va a comer al restaurante del Jockey; fue durante varios años miembro de la Comisión directiva de esa institución.

father of Harold, Saxon king of England

Frenssen novel, 1901

German travel writer, 1901-1996, author of Känguruhs, Kopra und Korallen

Shaw play, 1909

Ramalho Ortigão travel book, 1887

Ramalho Ortigão travel book, 1887

Hugh Walpole novel, 1937

Fishburn and Hughes: (c.675-c.749). "A Greek monk and theologian, declared a 'Doctor of the Church', who was the author of many books against heresy. John wrote extensively on the doctrine of Mariology, or the divine maternity of Mary, her exemption from original sin and her assumption into heaven. His antiheretical writings deal mainly with the nature of God and human free will, which he relates to reason and describes as a manifestation of man's choice of good. The term 'forms' said to have been used by John in connection with the 'Histriones' is an allusion to his staunch defence of images in the Iconoclastic Controversy. This dispute, which agitated the Greek Church in the eighth and ninth centuries, was about the veneration of icons and its conflict with the ancient Mosaic prohibition against the use of images. John defended images on the basis of the theological significance of the incarnation of God, and the importance that this assumption of human nature in the body of Jesus had upon Christian dogma." (102)

Fishburn and Hughes: "A possible allusion to the Spanish mystic poet John of the Cross (1542-1591). The quoted lines have not been found in his poetry." (103)

in Baltimore

US boxer, 1878-1946

Parodi: (1878-1946) fue el primer boxeador negro que en 1905 ganó el campeonato mundial de pesos pesados.

English poet and critic, 1867-1902, author of Postliminium and other works

U. S. president, 1908-1973

English scholar, critic, poet and lexicographer, 1709-1784, editor and writer for the Rambler, author of the famous Dictionary, Lives of the Poets and countless other works

Fishburn and Hughes: "An English critic and lexicographer whose reputation rests mainly on his Dictionary of the English Language (1755), his studies of Shakespeare, and his Lives of the English Poets (1779). A brilliant talker at all times, much of Johnson's wit would have been lost but for his friend James Boswell (1740-1795) who, from 1763, collected material for his Life of Samuel Johnson, which was published in 1791. It is generally regarded as the best biography in the English language. Borges liked to believe that Johnson the man was greater than Johnson the writer and recorded many of his sayings in his Introd. Eng. Lit. In "Deutsches Requiem", CF 230, we read: A certain eighteenth-century author observes that no man want to own anything to his contemporaries' : the writer to whom these words are attributed is Dr Johnson, and they are repeated in Other Inq. 61, and in Leop. Lug. 87. No direct quotation for this saying has been found, but the sentiment is not ‘unJohnsonian’. Borges may be basing his remark on a passage from The Rambler, No. 23, 5th July 1759, in which Johnson writes: That every man should regulate his actions by his own conscience, without any regard to the opinions of the rest of the world, is one of the first precepts of moral prudence.... I know not whether, for the same reason, it is not necessary for an author to place some confidence in his own skill, and to satisfy himself in the knowledge that he has not deviated from the established laws of composition, without submitting his works to frequent examinations before he gives them to the publick, or endeavouring to secure success by a solicitous conformity to advice and criticism." (103-04)

US journalist and biographer, 1888-1950, author of The Great Goldwyn

Poem by Apollinaire

French scholar of old Germanic literatures

James story

French general, 1779-1869, writer on the Napoleonic art of war

Wolin, ancient town in Pomerania, Germany

Icelandic saga in which Saemund is a character

Biblical prophet

New York gangster

British poet, 1895-1974, author of In Parenthesis

US actress, born Phylis Lee Isley, 1919-2009

US theater designer, 1887-1954

English dramatist and poet, 1572-1637, author of Every Man in his Humour, The Poetaster, Sejanus and numerous other works

Fishburn and Hughes: "An English dramatist, contemporary with Shakespeare, whose best-known plays were Every Man in his Humour (1601), Volpone (1606) and The Alchemist (1610). The assertion that Ben Jonson defined his contemporaries 'with bits of Seneca' is an allusion to Timber; or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter (1640), a posthumous collection of essays whose text is derived in part from Seneca the Elder, Pliny and Quintilian. Seneca's inspiration is to be observed particularly in essay 63 on poets, 69 on style, 70 on famous orators, and 72 on other writers, including Bacon. In 63, for example, referring to the undeserved applause bestowed on the poetry of John Taylor (1578-1653), Jonson comments sarcastically: 'Not that the better have left to write or speak better but that they that heare them judge worse', an echo of Seneca's 'non illi peius dicunt sed hi corruptius judicant' (Controversiae 3, praef.). Writing of Shakespeare and the claim that 'he never blotted a line', Jonson commented: 'Would he had blotted a thousand.' Shakespeare, he explains, flowed with such facility that at times 'he should have been stopped': 'sufflaminandus erat', an allusion to the emperor Augustus' remark about the orator Atevius (Seneca, Controversiae 4.7)." (103-04)

Carl Sandburg's father

abbot of Thingeyrar in Iceland, author of the Sverrissaga

town in Missouri

Khorasan, province of Iran, but also an ancient kingdom comprising parts of present-day Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Fishburn and Hughes: "Persian for 'land of the sun': a province in north-east Persia from which it has been frequently separated by political unrest. The Zahir: the veiled prophet of Jorasán is Al Moqanna, who ruled the region for fourteen years (c.765-79) in defiance of the armies of the Mahdi. Because he had only one eye he veiled his face in green silk, claiming that he was God incarnate and that he wore the mask to spare his followers 'the dazzling and insupportable effulgence of his countenance'. When he was eventually besieged by the Mahdi's armies, he burned himself in order to destroy his remains, to confirm to his followers that he was God and would rise again. But his body was found and his deformity and deceit exposed. Borges gives a version of this story in 'The Masked Dyer Hakim of Merv'." (107)

river in Israel and Jordan

Parodi: río que nace en el Líbano y desemboca en el Mar de Galilea, en el que según el Evangelio de Marcos fue bautizado Jesús; constituye la frontera entre Israel y Jordania.

Argentine writer, 1883-1933, author of La tunica de sol, 1909, Cavalcanti, 1907, and other works

Parodi: “La Bambina y La mula de Luis María Jordán”: el escritor argentino Luis María Jordán (1883-1933) es autor de La Bambina, una novela ambientada en la ciudad de Mar del Plata y publicada inicialmente como folletín en el diario La Razón, en 1926. En la cuantiosa obra de Jordán, que registra novelas, cuentos y poemas, no se ha encontrado La mula. Sobre este escritor comenta Borges en uno de sus diálogos con Osvaldo Ferrari (En diálogo 144): “Y hay un poeta, a quien sólo se recuerda cuando se habla de Lugones −no sé si habrá muerto o no−, Luis María Jordán, autor de una pieza de teatro que no conozco, titulada La Bambina y, según Mallea, Jordán iba todos los días a conversar con Lugones. Y es lo único que yo sé de él, y he leído y he olvidado debidamente algunos versos suyos en alguna antología.” En Borges 1371, dice Bioy: “Comento que tenemos una insólita erudición acerca de escritores oscuros. Borges: “El mejor amigo, o el más próximo, de Lugones fue Luis María Jordán, el autor de La Bambina”.

6th century historian of the Ostrogoths, author of De rebus Geticis

St. George, prince of Capadocia, legendary saint who killed a dragon.

Scandinavian mythological serpent

old English name for York

character in legend of Barlaam and Josafat, a Christianized version of the Buddha legend

Joseph of Arimathaea, wealthy man who buried Jesus

from the anthology Cuentistas de la Alemania libre, excerpt from Mann's Joseph und seine Brüder

St. Joseph, in New Testament, husband of Mary

Short story by Franz Kafka, written in 1922 and published in 1924 in the book Ein Hungerkünstler.

Joseph, in Bible the successor of Moses as leader of Israel

district of Norway

French moralist, 1754-1824, author of Pensées, essais, maximes et correspondance

French philosopher, 1796-1842

French writer, 1888-1979, author of Algèbre des valeurs morales, 1935, amongst many others.

character in Molière's Le bourgeois gentilhomme who asked for something written in neither verse nor prose

Gide diary, published 1939-1950

Geneva newspaper that was published from 1826 to 1998

Darwin, Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. 'Beagle' round the world, under the command of Capt. Fitzroy, usually known as Voyage of the Beagle

Viaje alrededor de mi cráneo, Frigyes Karinthy, translated into English in 1939

Graham Greene, 1936.

Fin del viaje, R. C. Sherriff play about the Battle of Saint-Quentin, 1928

John Dos Passos travel book, 1938

Spanish statesman and polymath, 1744-1811, author of El delincuente honrado and other works

Parodi: Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (1744-1811) escritor, jurista y político ilustrado español; asturiano de origen.

Lugones poem in El libro fiel

Irish writer, 1882-1941, author of Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Pomes Penyeach, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake

Fishburn and Hughes: "An Irish novelist, author of Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). These two works, which mark a complete break with the traditional concept and structure of the novel, inaugurated a school of admirers, and innumerable controversies. The style of Joyce's innovative prose, based on the frequent use of neologisms and the iconoclastic attitudes of his characters has made him one of the most challenging writers in modern literature." (104)

in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi: supuesta joyería que lleva el mismo nombre que la aristocrática familia Guermantes, personajes de la novela de Marcel Proust (1871-1922) À la recherche du temps perdu, 1913-1927.

in Bible, the Gospel of John

king don Juan, in the Romancero

reference to the spirit, should be John 3:8: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit"

character in Isaacs's Maria

St. John the Baptist

Fishburn and Hughes: "One of the twelve apostles, traditionally regarded as the author of the fourth Gospel. This differs from the other three (synoptic) Gospels by not setting out to give an account of Jesus's life and teaching, but being rather a meditative exposition of Christian doctrine. Three Versions of Judas, CF 165 : the quotation from John 12:6 mentioned twice on this page as proof of Judas's greed and betrayal reads as follows: 'This he said.. ‘because he was a thief and had a bag and bare what was put therein.' CF 166): John 1:10 refers to the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word whose divinity was unrecognised by men. The use of this quotation as a 'perfidious epigraph' to the final version of Runeberg's text on Judas is a veiled insinuation that Judas's divinity was unrecognised throughout history. The Theologians: this verse (10:10) is an extract from the parable of the Good Shepherd in which Jesus claims that the only means of access to the fold is through him, all other ways being those of thieves and robbers. The narrator suggests that the allegorical meaning of 'having life more abundantly' was misunderstood and taken to mean that life should include all forms of evil as well as good." (102)

king of Spain

Zorrilla, 1833.

stock character in saying

Parodi: un desconocido, un Perico de los palotes.

Ritter Johann von Österreich, illegitimate son of Charles V, 1547-1578, military leader in the service of Philip the Second

Spanish poet, mystic and doctor of the Church, 1542-1591

Janus Pannonius, Hungarian-Croatian humanist, Latinist poet and bishop (1434-1472), also character in Borges story

Fishburn and Hughes: "A possible rerence to the Hungarian poet Ivan Cesmicki (1434-1473), bishop of Croatia, who wrote in Latin and adopted the name Janus Pannonius. Ancient Pannonia corresponded to areas of present-day Hungary, Croatia and Austria and was finally subdued by Augustus in 9 BC." (102-03)

famous sorceror

Fishburn and Hughes: "An Italian Dominican, commonly referred to as Annius of Viterbo, who edited seventeen treatises of Antiquitatum Variarum, a collection of fragments by various ancient writers, and used astrology to predict the fall of the Turkish Empire. Though honoured in his lifetime, he later fell into disrepute. No reference has been found for the story that John of Viterbo was a sorcerer and went mad at the sight of the Trinity." (103)

St. John the Divine or John of Patmos, author of the Apocalypse or Book of Revelation

Pacific island belonging to Chile

João II , Portuguese king, 1455-1495

João III , Portuguese king, 1521-1557

Two possibilities: see Rosas and Juan Manuel, infante don

Spanish prose writer, 1282-1348, author of the Conde Lucanor or Libro de Patronio and other works

Gutierrez novel, first published serially in 1879-1880

Borges poem, 1970 and Borges story

Etchebarne book

John the First, known as John Lackland or Softsword, 1166-1216, crowned in 1199

Ernesto Poncio tango

heartless libertine of legend and literature, sometimes surnamed Tenorio

St. John the Evangelist

Jeanne d'Arc or Jeanneton Darc, French saint and national heroine, 1412?-31, referred to also as "la Doncella" or "la Doncella de Francia"

stock figure in saying

soldier in Indian wars, see Suárez

Werfel play, 1925

street in Mexico City

Mexican political leader, 1807-1872, character in Werfel’s Juárez und Maximilian

character in Borges-Bioy filmscript

character in Borges story

character in Borges story

Jorge Amado novel, 1935

Christopher Smart poem

Ipuche book of poems

El judío Suess, Feuchtwanger novel, 1925

kingdom of Judah in the Bible

Judah Loew ben Bezalel, rabbi in 16th century Prague, creator of Golem

disciple who betrayed Jesus

Fishburn and Hughes: "One of the twelve apostles. The name Iscariot probably indicates that he came from Kerioth, in southern Palestine. The Shape of the Sword: according to the accepted tradition, Judas betrayed Jesus to the Roman authories for thirty pieces of silver, causing him to be arrested and executed. The episode is recounted in Matthew 26:14-16 and 47-49. Three Versions of Judas: the motive of the betrayal is uncertain. St John's hint at Judas's avarice (John 12:6) is not supported by the other three evangelists. Though his actions were viewed with abhorrence in the Christian Church, an apocryphal gospel of the second century rehabilitated him and he was venerated by the Gnostic sect of the Cainites. According to a Muslim belief, Judas defended Jesus and saved him from crucifixion. In the fourteenth century ad-Dimashqi mantained that Judas took on Jesus's appearance and was crucified in his stead. See 'Not one but all the things...'" (104)

St. Jude, one of twelve disciples, perhaps brother of St. James the Less

Carter Dickson, novel, 1938.

Judaea, southern part of Palestine

Borges poem

Wandering Jew of legend

Old English poem

Jewish widow in Bible who kills Holofernes, the subject of an Anglo-Saxon poem

book of Judges in Bible

Girondo poem in Calcomanias

in Buddhist theology

Murena’s play, 1953.

El beso del juglar, Manuel Komroff novel, 1927

bar in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi: grupo de conocidos de Savastano que frecuentan el Mercado de Abasto; se agrupan alrededor de la figura de Jugo de Carne (cf. supra i §8), un enemigo de Savastano.

Roberto Arlt novel, 1926

province in northern Argentina

street in Buenos Aires

Fishburn and Hughes: "A street in Buenos Aires in the Once district." (105)

Parodi: “Rivadavia y Jujuy”: esquina del barrio de Once en que estaba ubicada la Confitería La Perla (cf. “Limardo” i §26).

character in brief Borges story

character in Borges story

martyred in 439

Cynewulf poem in Exeter Book

character in Borges story

heroine in Shakespeare

Peyrou´s short story.

Shakespeare play, c.1599

Fishburn and Hughes: (100-44 BC). "A Roman general, politician and man of letters, who defeated Pompey at the battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, was appointed Dictator by the Senate and was murdered four years later. The events of his campaigns in Gaul (58-52 BC) are related in the seven books of his Commentaries (De Bello Gallico). Funes, his Memory: these reports, sent to the Roman Senate, aimed at justifying Caesar's policy and constitutional position. Despatched from his winter quarters, their lucidity and objectivity make them not only a reliable historical document but a literary masterpiece. The Commentaries on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey (De Bello Civili), published unrevised after Caesar's death, are not held in the same esteem. The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero: during his dictatorship Caesar held total power in the city and the provinces. On 15 March 44 BC a group of republicans, including sixteen senators, knifed him to death in the Senate, before the statue of Pompey. Most but not all of the historical data given in Borges's story tally with the details of Shakespeare's play, based mainly on Plutarch. In Julius Caesar, on the morning of Caesar's death his wife Calpurnia entreats him not to go into the Senate because of ominous rumours she has heard of graves opening to release the bodies of dead warriors. She has dreamed of his statue spouting blood like a fountain, and of the Romans washing their hands in it. Caesar is at first persuaded, but Decius Brutus mocks him and spurs him on to going, and Calpurnia's warnings go unheeded. Equally the petition presented by Artemidorus which denounces the members of the plot remains unread." (105)

street in Buenos Aires

Parodi: “Juncal y Esmeralda”: una intersección de calles en la zona residencial del barrio de Retiro, que corresponde a la ubicación del Palacio Estrugamou, aristocrático conjunto de cuatro edificios de estilo academicista francés que rodean un patio; fue inaugurado en 1929.

Swiss psychiatrist and writer, 1875-1961, author of Psychologie und Alchemie and many other works

Czech-German writer, 1886-1942, translator of tales of Turkestan from Russian to German

German writer, 1895-1998, author of In Stahlgewittern and Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis

German edition of the Prose Edda

Middle High German poem about the conflict between Hildebrand and his son Hadubrand, resolved happily here, unlike in the Hildebrandslied

Kipling stories, 1894, followed by The Second Jungle Book, 1895

Rudyard Kipling book of stories for children, 1894. Expanded later in The Second Jungle Book, 1895. 

Borges poem on the battle of Junin

department of Peru, site of decisive battle in 1824 against the Spanish forces

town in the province of Buenos Aires

Fishburn and Hughes: "A modest rural town in the province of Buenos Aires." (105)

street in Buenos Aires

Fishburn and Hughes: "A street in the centre of Buenos Aires which in the early part of the twentieth century was full of brothels. It runs from the now lower-middle-class area surrounding Once to the wealthy Barrio Norte." (105)

Parodi: “los rusos de la calle Junín”: alusión a la comunidad judía del barrio de Once y a una de sus calles; cf. “Goliadkin” i §10; “Limardo” i §11.

Roman goddess, associated with Greek goddess Hera

Roman supreme god, sometimes Jove

Fishburn and Hughes: "The greatest of the Roman gods, later identified with the Greek Zeus. See Satyricon." (105)

planet

mountain range on border between France and Switzerland

Argentine writer, b. 1915

Excerpt from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.

Phillpotts, 1927

Kipling stories for children, 1902

line from Browning poem "Bishop Blougram's Apology," 1855

god of justice

Roman historian, 3rd century A.D., author of an abridgement of Pompeius Trogus's Historia Philippicae

Argentine political figure, 1865-1928, leader in the Argentine socialist party

a Spanish child martyr, beheaded with St. Pastor in 304

Parodi: “San Justo, en la fábrica de Pistones Ubalde”: supuesta fábrica situada en la provincia de Buenos Aires. San Justo es la ciudad capital del partido de La Matanza, ubicado al suroeste de la ciudad de Buenos Aires.

Fishburn and Hughes: "A German publishing house founded by Justus Johann Georg Perthes in Gotha in 1785. Its geographical section became internationally famous. In 1863 it first published the Almanach de Gotha (in French), a 'statistical, historical and genealogical annual of the various countries of the world'." (105-06)

Jutland, region of Denmark

Decimus Junius Juvenalis, Roman satirica poet, c.50-c.130

Fishburn and Hughes: "A Roman satirist who attacked the corruption and depravity of Roman imperial society in particular and human weakness in general. Reputedly resentful and embittered through lack of promotion within the Roman civil service, Juvenal denounced favouritism at court and in the army and was probably banished by the Emperor Domitian to Egypt. His verses are distinguished for their epigrammatic wit and the ruthless portrayal of brutal and disturbing scenes. See 'Ultra Auroram et Gangen'." (106)

Parodi: obra de Anglada, aparentemente de corte político−sindical.