Finder's Guide

Capek play about robots, 1921

Egyptian sun god

character in Bustos Domecq story

English abridgement of a German work by Johann Andreas Eisenmenger, with a prefatory study by John Peter Stehelin, 1748

French writer and physician, c. 1490-1533, author of Gargantua and Pantagruel

Prussian spy in Borges story, also known as Viktor Runeberg; perhaps kin to the German satirist Gottlieb Wilhelm Rabener, 1714-1771

Leonhard Frank novel, 1914

owner of Grandes Sastrerías Inglesas Rabuffi, in Bustos Domecq story

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French writer, pseud. of Marguerite Vallette-Eymery, 1860-1953

French dramatist, 1639-99, author of Phèdre, Andromaque and other works

English pirate captain, c. 1682-1720, known as Calico Jack

Argentine poet, critic and editor, author of Hombre callado, editor of Correspondencia and co-editor of anthology La novísima poesía argentina, 1931

Rhadamanthus, in Greek mythology one of the judges in Hades

Indian philosopher, 1888-1975

Martínez Estrada book on Argentine culture, 1933

king of the Angles, mentioned by Venerable Bede

Rafaello Sanzio, Italian painter and architect, 1483-1520

US actor, 1895-1980

French writer, author of Le Métier de vivre and Sens unique

of Aceite Raggio, in Bustos Domecq story

Scandinavian myth of the twilight of the gods

Viking hero of Icelandic saga

Icelandic saga, c. 1100

hotel in Suárez Lynch novella

Gautama Buddha's son

island mentioned in Lane translation of Arabian Nights, perhaps Borneo

French writer, translator of Faulkner

D. H. Lawrence novel, 1915

British character actor, 1889-1967

Antero de Quental poems, 1892

Fernández Moreno

Ralegh, English soldier, explorer, courtier and man of letters, 1552-1618

English scholar, poet and author (1861-1922).

Gernsback science fiction novel, 1950

hero of Ramayana

Hindu religious leader, devoted to Vishnu, 1017-1137

Hindu sacred book

Italian commentator on Dante, d. 1390, author of Comentum super Dantis Aligherii Comediam

the boardwalk in Necochea

composer of waltzes including Vals Boston

character in Borges-Bioy filmscript

friend of Borges, Hugo Rodríguez Moroni in some editions

Argentine caudillo, 1786-1821, governor of Entre Ríos

Argentine general and politician, 1884-1962

João de Deus book of poems, 1869, here called Camino de flores

town in western Buenos Aires

Fishburn and Hughes: A part of Buenos Aires in which the rich had weekend houses containing an English colony It is now an industrial suburb. Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius; The Gospel According to Mark

Argentinian Historian. Author of Historia de la Nación Argentina. 

Argentine historian and psychiatrist, 1849-1914, author of Rosas y su tiempo

Swiss writer, 1878-1947

Icelandic sea goddess

Camba humorous articles, 1920

character in Bustos Domecq story

Silva Valdés poem

Langon, former name of capital of Burma or Myanmar

German editor and translator of Eddas

German historian, 1795-1886

printer mentioned in Bustos Domecq story

character in C. S. Lewis's Perelandra

US poet, critic and editor, 1888-1974

town near Genoa, Italy

Cocteau, 1926.

US film director, 1898-1999, director of The Now Voyager

character in Borges-Bioy filmscript

Rashidu'd-Din Fadlu'llah, Persian vizier and historian, d. 1318, author of the Jami'u't- Tawarikh, a history of the Mongols which also includes summaries of the history of India, China and Europe

Akutagawa story, later adapted as a film by Kurosawa

main character in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

Fishburn and Hughes: The protagonist of Dostoievsky's novel Crime and Punishment (1866): a poor student in love with Sonia, a prostitute, who becomes the means of his spiritual regeneration. The crime of the title is the murder of an old woman, a repulsive money-lender; the punishment is the gradual racking of his conscience. In part 5, chapter 4 Raskolnikov confesses his crime to Sonia, saying that he committed it as a test of his daring because he wanted to become a Napoleon. Deutsches Requiem

section of Sarmiento's Facundo

Work by Ramón Gómez de la Serna, 1915.

Bianco novella, 1944

British playwright

Lenormand play, 1920

Organization founded in the United Kingdon in 1885 by a group of free thinkers. It was originally called the Rationalist Press Association. In 2002 it chaged its name and it currently publishes a bi-monthly magazine, the New Humanist.

Lovecraft story

Argentine poet, 1903-1992, president of the SADE (Sociedad Argentina de Escritores) in the 1970s

character in Wells's The Brothers

German translation of classical Chinese novel

Friedrich Rauch, German soldier and Indian fighter in Argentina, 1790-1829

Abba ben Joseph bar Hama, rabbi, 270-350, mentioned in Talmud

Poe’s collection of poems, 1845.

Poe poem, 1845

Ravenna, city in Italy near Venice

Fishburn and Hughes: A city in northern Italy 100 km south of Venice which in Roman times was a port and is now connected to the Adriatic by a four-mile canal. Ravenna was made the capital of the Western Empire by the Emperor Honorius in 402; it was conquered by Justinian's general Belisarius in 540 and became the seat of the governors of Byzantine Italy. The poet Dante spent a large part of his exile in Ravenna and was buried there. In 728 the Lombard king Luitprand took and destroyed Ravenna's suburb Classis. In 752 his successor Aistulf entered and sacked the city but, overcome by its beauty, spared its monuments. Story of the Warrior and the Captive Maiden

Cortázar, 1963.

Francisco Espínola stories, 1933

Silvina Ocampo’s short story published in La Furia (1959).

goddess Reason during French Revolution

Buenos Aires afternoon newspaper

Uruguayan newspaper

character in Conrad's Under Western Eyes

Fishburn and Hughes: The protagonist of Under Western Eyes (1911), a novel by Joseph Conrad. As in Lord Jim, the theme is cowardice and the story centres on the duplicity of the main character, who meets his just deserts. During his students days in St Petersburg Kirylo Sidorovitch Razumov has betrayed to the police the revolutionary Victor Haldin who took refuge in his lodgings. Sent to Geneva as a police agent to check on Haldin's contacts, he is welcomed as a fellowrevolutionary by Haldin's family and friends in exile. He succeeds in keeping up appearances until, weighed down by the guilt of his betrayal and shamed by the innocence of Haldin's sister, Natalia, and the undeserved trust and affection he is receiving, he confesses his treachery. To punish him, one of Haldin's comrades bursts his eardrums; the deaf Razumov is run over by a tram and remains permanently crippled. The Other Death

Uruguayan folk and tango musician, 1887-1960, best known for his work in collaboration with Carlos Gardel

English pirate, c. 1690-c. 1714

Spanish Academy, founded in 1713, which publishes the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española and the Gramática de la Real Academia Española (among other things)

Liddell Hart book, 1930, later republished as A History of the World War (1914-1918)

knife-fighter, character in Borges stories

knife-fighter

Santayana book, part of The Realms of Being, 1927-40

Santayana book, part of The Realms of Being, 1927-40

Santayana book, part of The Realms of Being, 1927-40

scene designer

Santayana, 1903

Santayana, first volume of The Life of Reason

Santayana, third volume of The Life of Reason

Santayana, fifth volume of The Life of Reason, 1906

Santayana, second volume of The Life of Reason, 1905-06

French writer (1619-1692) known for his Historiettes.

Last name of a commission agent of whom one of the characters (Molineros) expected to get some discount (in Spanish: “rebaja”, cf. the play on words). (Mentioned in Bustos Domecq story.)

French writer, author of Un Grand precurseur des romantiques, Ramond, M. Bainville contre l'histoire de France, Notes sur la morale d'une "annonciatrice," and other works

Fishburn and Hughes: Perhaps ar oblique allusion to the writer Jean Reboul (1796-1864) who came from Nîmes, where he was known as 'the baker of Nîmes'. Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote

Bonfanti

Puga y Calsanz

character in Borges story

Clodomiro Ruiz's first book

Balzac philosophical novel, 1834

German publisher, 1807-1896, editor of the Universalbibliothek

cemetery in Buenos Aires, also the name of the surrounding neighborhood

street in central Buenos Aires

old arched building in the center of Buenos Aires, destroyed in the building of the Plaza de Mayo

Reyes essay in Reloj de sol

Horacio Eduardo Rosales book of poems, 1966, written at age nine

Sarmiento autobiography, 1850

Novel by Elena Garro (1963).

Baron de la Roche poem

Baudelaire sonnet, 1861

Crane novel, 1895

river in Michigan

Hammett novel, 1929

character in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass

"repetida viuda," widow of several gangsters

Heinlein science fiction, 1949

Steinbeck short novel, 1937

Phillpotts novel, 1922

river in Louisiana

Fichte nationalist treatise, 1808

Buber, 1910

Excerpt from de Indian Antiquary 1, 1872.

designer

Refr Gestsson, 11th century Icelandic poet, son of Steinunn

Ascasubi poem in Paulino Lucero

Spanish avant garde magazine edited by José de Ciria y Escalante, 1920

Marcus Aurelius autobiography written in Greek, Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν, English title Meditations

Lugones book on Argentine school reform, 1903

Argentine poet and writer, 1899-1957

Lugones poem in Romances del Río Seco

city in Bavaria in Germany, ancient Ratisbona

character in the Volsunga Saga

pseudonym of José Maria dos Reis Pereira, Portuguese writer, 1901-1969

French symbolist poet, 1864-1936

Uruguayan physician, poet and playwright, 1860-1929, author of El gaucho and La tapera

Fishburn and Hughes: A song-writer from the province of Entre Ríos who combined the aggressive spirit of the montoneros with a vein of sweet sentimentality or, to use Borges's words, 'united the ornamental with the heartless - like the tiger' (Ev. Carr. 35). The Encounter

Julien Benda memoirs, 1937

Marcus Atilius Regulus, Roman general in the First Punic War who sacrificed himself to the Carthaginians for the sake of Rome, d. c.250 B.C.

C. S. Lewis book, 1939

seat of German government in Berlin

German editor and translator, mentioned here à propos of his edition of Jean Paul's Traumdichtungen

Reykjavik, capital city of Iceland

Mehring treatise on rhyme, 1891

city in northern France

Russian-Argentine physician, friend of Alberto Gerchunoff's

four brothers, Jose Vicente, 1782-1837, Francisco Isidoro, 1796-1840, Jose Antonio, 1798-1837 and Guillermo, 1799-1837, Argentine caudillos in Córdoba in the time of Rosas and Facundo Quiroga

Austrian-born US film director and actor, 1873-1943

underworld

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

author of a book on Anatole France published in Buenos Aires in 1944

Jubilate Agno, Christopher Smart poem used by Benjamin Britten as the text for a festival cantata

Hsi Yu Chi, Wu Ch´eng-en's Journey to the West or Monkey, classical Chinese novel, 1590s

Murena’s book of poetry, 1962.

Defoe, 1706

popular book about Einstein, by author who signed with initials C. W. W., published by the Technical Press in London in 1937

Kafka anthology

Browne work on religion, science and philosophy, 1642

Koeppen, 1857

Vandier study (with Henri-Charles Puech and René Dussaud), 1944

Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Pure Reason, 1793-94

George Bernard Shaw speeches, edited in 1965 by Warren Sylvester Smith

Percy anthology of ballads and other poems, 1765

Eça de Queiroz satirical novel about Catholicism, 1887

Antonio Guevara, 1529

Reyes book of short essays, 1926, the fifth series of Simpatías y diferencias

German novelist, 1897-1970, author of Im Westen nichts Neues

Dutch painter and engraver, 1606-69

Fishburn and Hughes: A Dutch painter, born at Leyden, renowned for his versatile portraiture. In his search for realism, Rembrandt made dramatic use of light and shade to emphasise the shape and movement of the human form and contrasts in the landscape. The Duel

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Remus, in Roman legend, twin brother of Romulus

fabulous fish mentioned by Pliny

Borges poem in Fervor de Buenos Aires, 1923

Borges poem in Luna de enfrente

French philosopher and writer, 1823-1892, author of Averroes et l'Averroisme, Vie de Jesus, Les Origines du Christianisme and numerous other works

Fishburn and Hughes: A French orientalist, famous for his sceptical writings on the history of Christianity. His doctoral thesis, Averroès et l'averroïsme, was published in 1852. The epigraph is a quotation from this essay. Renan asserted that Averroes, in his paraphrase of the Poetics of Aristotle, shows an extensive knowledge of Arab literature but 'the most complete ignorance' of Greek literature, since no representative Greek poetry had been translated into Arabic. According to Renan, Averroes's knowledge was confined to the work of philosophical and scientific writers, and he was incapable of appreciating Greek poetry. Developing the theme of cultural gaps, Renan showed that the Latin version of Averroes's Commentaries, the one most widely used in medieval Europe for the propagation of Aristotelianism, was itself 'barbaric', being a translation of a Hebrew translation of a commentary on an Arab translation of a Syrian translation of a Greek text. Renan states that Averroes's fame was confined mainly to the Jewish and Christian world, where he was acclaimed for introducing and elucidating the work of Aristotle; in the Arab world, however, he was suspected of unorthodoxy and known chiefly for his refutation of Ghazali. This view is disputed by Arab scholars. Regarding the history of ‘Averroës’, Renan discusses the number of changes undergone by Averroes's name from the original Arabic 'Ibn Roschd' and lists sixteen different transcriptions: Ibin Rosdin, Filius Rosedis, Ibn Rusid, Ben Raxid, Ibn Ruschad, Ben Resched, Aban Rassad, Aben Rois, Aben Rasd, Aben Rust, Averrosd, Averryz, Adveroys, Benroist, Averroyth, Avenroysta. Averroës’ Search

French writer, 1864-1910, author of Poil de Carotte, a Journal and other works

Short Story written by Roberto Artl. Early version of "Judas Iscarioti", the fourth part of El juguete rabioso. 

French painter, 1841-1919

French philosopher, 1815-1903, author of Essais de critique générale, Les dilemmes de la métaphysique pure, Histoire et solution des problèmes métaphysiques and other works

soccer player, character in Bustos Domecq story

thug in Buenos Aires

half-owner of the Hotel El Nuevo Imparcial in Bustos Domecq and Suárez Lynch

highway in Bustos Domecq story

“se parecía un poco a Repetto, pero con barba”. This last name evokes an important figure of the period; Nicolás Repetto (1871-1965) was a politician, a doctor and one of the most relevant leaderships of the Socialist Party. He was a representative and a candidate to the Vice-Presidency. In 1946, he was associated with Spruille Braden in the Unión Democrática created against President Perón. (Mentioned in Bustos Domecq story.)

Descanso de la tripulación, Joseph Kessel novel, 1935

Elvira de Alvear book

Lugones, section of Las montañas de oro

Emerson essays on Plato, Swedenborg, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Napoleon and Goethe, 1850

US artist, poet and writer, 1895-1990, author of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones

Plato dialogue on political philosophy

Fishburn and Hughes: Plato's most famous dialogue. Beginning as a discussion of the nature of justice, the Republic develops into a description of the perfect state. It is thus the earliest Utopia. The Platonic model refers to Plato's famous theory of 'forms' discussed in books 5-8, according to which there are two levels of reality, the higher level of 'forms' (or ideas) and the lower level of 'images' (or likenesses). The 'form', made by God, has an absolute existence independent of our minds, whereas its particular appearance or manifestation of it in the world, being an imperfect copy and subject to change, has inferior status. Plato does not say that the appearance is unreal: since it is a copy of a form it can partake of its reality, but it can never be fully identified with it. Differentiating between 'knowledge' and 'opinion', Plato asserts that the philosopher who is in love with truth may have knowledge of a form, since it is changeless and divine, but only 'opinion' of the changing world of appearance and sensation. This distinction gains particular relevance in its application to the Koran. Averroës’ Search

book by Gustavo Thorlichen

Dominican Republic

family in Balvanera neighborhood

character in Bustos Domecq story

grill in Suárez Lynch novella

Stevenson poem that later served as his epitaph

Faulkner, novel, 1951.

Georges Simenon novel, 1938

Carriego poem in Las misas herejes

city on the Paraná River in northern Argentina, capital of Chaco province

González Lanuza poem

Darío poem in Prosas profanas, 1896

According to Cuentos breves y extraordinarios excerpt from chapter XXIX from the Ta'anit. 

Fernando Namora memoir, 1949 and 1963

train station in Buenos Aires and the surrounding neighborhood

Fishburn and Hughes: A district in the centre of Buenos Aires, made up partly of the fashionable Barrio Norte and partly, in the low-lying areas near the docks, of the rougher Bajo. The Encounter

ranch

Aristotle's Rhetoric

Fishburn and Hughes: A treatise by Aristotle dealing with the various aspects of oratory and setting out its functions and methods. In the Rhetoric Aristotle compares the activity of a good speaker to a theatrical performance, using terms such as 'acting' and 'stage' as well as 'tragedy' and 'comedy', whose meaning eludes Averroes. Book 3, referred to by Borges, deals specifically with delivery. In chapter 1, 'The Parts of Rhetoric', Aristotle states that 'even writers of tragedy... have abandoned all those terms which are foreign to the style of conversation' (1404a, 30-5). In the same chapter, referring to the art of delivery, he writes that it 'was long before it found a place in tragic drama', adding that at first poets 'acted their own tragedies' (1403a, 20-5). Chapter 3, 'Frigidity of Style', points to the use of inappropriate metaphors by 'writers of comedy, because they are ridiculous' (1406b,5-10). Finally, chapter 14, 'Exordia', advises that the start of a speech should be 'equivalent to the opening scenes of plays' where 'the commencement is an intimation of the subject' (1415a, 5-10), and concludes by addressing the orator in theatrical terms: 'Bring yourself on the stage from the first in the right character...' (1417b,7). Averroës’ Search

Gerchunoff essay on Cervantes, 1951

López Velarde poem

Jean François Paul de Gondi, 1613-1679, archbishop of Paris

Baudelaire poem

Revelation of St. John in the Bible, sometimes called Apocalipsis

Baldomero Fernández Moreno poem

French poet, 1889-1960, associated with cubism and surrealism

periodical published in Buenos Aires, 1868-1872, 1880-1882

Mexican literary magazine of the modernist movement, 1894-1896, edited by Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera

Journal published by Universidad de Buenos Aires

Spanish literary review, founded by Ortega y Gasset in 1923

magazine edited by Hilario Ascasubi and José Arenales

Buenos Aires periodical, 1871-1877, to which José Hernández was a contributor

Play by Villiers de l'Isle Adam, 1870.

Fishburn and Hughes: A rebellion against President Juárez Celman in July and August 1890. The rebels, mainly lawyers, students and recent immigrants, were protesting against the oligarchy of landowners who controlled the government and its inflationary policies. The rebellion was planned by the 'Unión Cívica' under Leandro Alem and supported by Mitre and the clergy. After two days the rebels ran out of ammunition and asked for an armistice and a general amnesty, which were granted. After a few days Celman resigned; his successor, however, was from his own party and followed the same policies. The Elderly Lady

French scholar of Japanese literature, 1867-1947

periodical published in Paris, 1922-1932, previously Le Bulletin de l'Amérique Latine, 1910-1922

French literary magazine published in Montpellier since 1870 in which Pierre Menard published several articles in 1909

Fishburn and Hughes: A literary review published from 1870 to 1945 in Montpellier, and, at intervals, in Paris, by the Société pour l'Etude des Langues Romanes. Borges refers to two separate issues, one of October and one of December 1909, but there seems to have been only one issue that year, covering May to December; it contained specialist articles such as 'Notes sur Ie vocabulaire de Maupassant et de Merimée' by A. Schiuz, but no debate on the 'metric laws of French prose'. Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote

French periodical in the 1920s and 1930s

Geneva periodical in the early twentieth century, often cited for an Ernest Ansermet article on jazz in 1919

periodical edited by Lugones in Paris, 1911-1914

king of the dead in Buddhism

Ecuadorean historian, author of Campaña del Ecuador

Farid ud-din Attar

in the Bible, the two books of Kings, sometimes also the two books of Samuel

Fernando II de Aragon, 1452-1516, and Isabel I de Castilla, 1451-1504

Mexican man of letters and diplomat, 1889-1959, author of Reloj de sol, Visión de Anáhuac, Capítulos de literatura española, Simpatías y diferencias, El suicida and numerous other works

Fishburn and Hughes: A Mexican poet and essayist who was ambassador to Buenos Aires 1927-30 and 1936-7. Reyes was a long-standing friend of Borges, who considered him his master in matters of style and often paid tribute to him. As a poet he participated in the 1920s modernist movement in Latin America. Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

Cortázar, poetry, 1949.

Chilean writer, 1889-1970, who participated in the first Proa; mentioned in Inquisiciones for his 1923 book of poems Barco ebrio

place in Iceland, residence of Snorri Sturluson

Uruguayan novelist, 1868-1936, author of El embrujo de Sevilla and numerous other works

Fishburn and Hughes: A Uruguyan writer interested in rural life. Reyles was influenced by contemporary scientific and psychological theories and his books often dwelt on the effects of human and animal inbreeding in isolated environments. The assertion that Reyles's son told Borges the story upon which he based 'The Other Duel' is correct. The Other Duel

son of the novelist

English progressive writer, 1905-1958, co-editor of Prison Anthology, 1938

town in Calabria in northern Spain, mentioned in poem by Baldomero Fernández Moreno

a poultry farmer in a Bustos Domecq story

António Benedito de Castro, Portuguese nobleman, friend of Eça de Queiroz

Rhine River

state in United States

pseudonym of Cecil Street, British officer and writer of crime fiction, 1884-1965

British scholar, 1843-1922, author of Buddhist India and Dialogues of the Buddha

British author, 1859-1946, the founding editor of Everyman's Library

small river which flows into the River Plate at Buenos Aires, at La Boca

Fishburn and Hughes: A shallow stream marking the southern boundary between the city of Buenos Aires and Greater Buenos Aires. It was the site of the first foundation of the city in 1536 before the early Spanish settlers moved up-river to Paraguay. For many years the mouth of the Riachuelo served as a second port, attracting nascent industries and a large immigrant population, which lived in crowded and unsanitary conditions. Juan Muraña

Nickname of Fingermann´s sister. Fingermann is the Jewish character of the story. The sound of the name plays with the Jewish pronunciation of the name “Rebeca”. (Character mentioned in Suárez Lynch novella.)

Portuguese writer, 1885-1963, author of Terras do Demo

Portuguese writer, 1482-1552, author of Menina e moça

Tomás Antonio Ribeiro Ferreira, Portuguese poet, politician and journalist, 1831-1901

street in Buenos Aires near the River Plate, perhaps the present street 25 de mayo

doctor in Borges story

Spanish painter, 1591-1652, here mistakenly spelled Riera

British soldier mentioned in Chesterton's poem Lepanto

study by Giovanni Previtali, 1963

Richard the Third, king of England, 1452-1485, subject of a Shakespeare play

Richard the First, the Lion-Hearted, king of England, 1157-99

British political economist, 1772-1823

Italian publisher, b. 1931, publisher of FMR

Italian Jesuit missionary to China, 1552-1610, author of theological and polemical works in Chinese

US playwright, pseud. of Elmer L. Reizenstein, 1892-1967

Arnold Bennett, 1923

Baptist minister and translator from the Chinese, 1845-1919

friend of T. E. Lawrence from university days, 1886-1968, author of Portrait of T. E. Lawrence

English actor, 1902-83

English novelist, 1689-1761, author of Pamela, Clarissa and The History of Sir Charles Grandison

Belloc, 1929

Armand Jean du Plessie de Richelieu, French clergyman and political figure, 1585-1642

French poet, novelist and dramatist, 1849-1926

park in London

German physician who argued for extraterrestrial origin of life, the panspermia theory, author of Der Darwinische Lehre, 1865

German novelist usually called Jean Paul, 1763-1825, author of Hesperus and other works

British critic, 1866-1931, author of Oscar Wilde, Recollections, 1932

Synge short play, 1904

US writer, 1901-91

German mathematician, 1826-66

Roman popular leader, c. 1313-1354

soldier in the Trojan War, character in the Aeneid and Paradiso

mountains where the hippogriff comes from

one of the four sacred Vedic books of the Hindus

character in Bustos Domecq, "el hombre torpedo"

actor

Verdi opera, 1851

character in Verdi opera of the same name

the Lay of Rig, in a manuscript of the Prose Edda

Maurice Betz collection and translation, 1937

Austrian poet and novelist, born in Prague, 1875-1926, author of Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge, Duineser Elegien, Sonette an Orpheus and other works

a long didactic poem by Pedro López de Ayala, c. 1380

Roland de Renéville, 1929

French poet, 1854-91, author of Une Saison en enfer, Les Illuminations, Le Bateau Ivre and other works

town in Italy

ranch belonging to Adolfo Bioy Casares in Pardo, Partido de Las Flores, Province of Buenos Aires

Cervantes exemplary novel

Browning long poem, 1868-69

Wagner cycle of operas, 1848-74

former capital of Brazil

Cunninghame Graham stories in Spanish translation, 1914

the Rajatarangini or River of Kings, a Sanskrit chronicle of the kings of Kashmir by Kalana, 1148 A.D.

one of the marvels of the realm of Prester John

verse in Cansinos-Asséns poem Crepúsculo

state in southern Brazil

Fishburn and Hughes: The southernmost state of Brazil bordering Argentina and Uruguay. An area characterised by smuggling and contacts with neighbouring countries, its prosperity was largely due to the progressive agricultural methods introduced by European immigrants. Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius; The Shape of the Sword

hot springs area in Santiago del Estero

Fishburn and Hughes: A river in Uruguay which crosses the country from north east to south west; also the name of a department in western Uruguay on the river, on the opposite side of the Argentinian province of Entre Ríos, the capital of which is Fray Bentos. Funes, His Memory: the reference is to the uprising of Quebracho in 1886. The Other Death; before the fighting between the Blancos and Colorados in 1904 Saravia was south of Río Negro, keeping watch over a government battalion which had been posted there. Funes, His Memory; The Other Death

port town near La Plata in the province of Buenos Aires

Department of the Province of Córdoba, Argentina.

town in Argentina near Córdoba

street in Buenos Aires, named for city in Ecuador

Argentine province

a knife-fighter in Buenos Aires

Argentine painter, 1874-1968

Spanish conquistador (s. XVI)

Garfias haiku

Saki’s work, 1900.

Uruguayan writer and diplomat, 1904-1981, author of Arquitecturas del insomnio: cuentos fantásticos

projected book of Borges's ultraísta poems, never published, also called Himnos rojos or Salmos rojos

German Protestant theologian, 1822-1889

German philosopher, 1791-1869, co-author with Ludwig Preller of Historia philosophiae graecae et romanae ex fontium locis contexta

German geographer, 1779-1859, author of Die Erdkunde

Fishburn and Hughes: A German geographer and professor of history at the University of Frankfurt, author of Die Erdkunde im Verhältnis zur Natur und Geschichte des Menschen (Geography and the Study of Nature and History of Mankind). Ritter is regarded as the father of modern geography. There are two editions of his monumental work (1817-18, revised 1822), which has remained incomplete. The book presents the topography of a country as a leading element in its historic development. Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

Dürer engraving

Spanish publisher, 1805-1872, founder and editor of the Biblioteca de Autores Españoles

street in Buenos Aires that marks the division between the northern and southern parts of the city

Fishburn and Hughes: Named after the nation’s first president, the longest street in Buenos Aires, dividing the city into north and south. All the intersecting streets change their name as they cross it. The Writing of the God

tomb of and monument to Bernardino Rivadavia in the Plaza Miserere, by the Once train station in Buenos Aires

hospital in Buenos Aires

gambler mentioned in Bustos Domecq story

character in Borges story

Spanish poet and critic, 1893-1960, brother of José Rivas Panedas

Spanish poet, 1898-1944

city in Uruguay on the Brazilian border, adjoining Sant'Anna do Livramento

street in Buenos Aires, now called Córdoba

Argentine poet and political writer, 1814-1844, author of Tablas de sangre

Mexican painter, 1886-1957

Uruguayan general and politician, 1788-1854

Mediterranean coast of France and Italy

neighborhood in New York City, site of a gang battle involving Monk Eastman

character in Radclyffe Hall's The Sixth Beatitude

Whale film, 1937

Frost poem

Agatha Christie, poetry, 1925.

Padraic Colum, 1926

Ellis study of death in Old Norse literature, 1943

Camino a Mandalay, Kipling poem

Lowes book on Coleridge's Kubla Khan, 1927

Aldington stories, 1930

the Lost Colony founded by Sir Walter Raleigh in North Carolina

Untermeyer poems, 1923

Chesterton study, 1905

Walter Raleigh essay, 1895.

Chesterton study, 1927

character in Bustos Domecq story

English writer, 1892-1976, author of Twenty-Six Poems, 1917, here the author of a review of The Approach to Al-Mutasim

Fishburn and Hughes: An English writer, author of poems, plays and novels set largely in the 1920s. He was reputed for his 'special gift for easy-going, light-hearted romance'. The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim

English divine, 1816-1853, author of five volumes of sermons and an Analysis of Tennyson's In Memoriam

Fishburn and Hughes: Probably an allusion to the theologian Frederick William Robertson (1816-1853). After his ordination Robertson developed a form of asceticism so severe that it endangered his life. Haunted by innumerable doubts, he clung devoutly to the one principle of the 'unequalled nobleness of the humanity of the Son of God'. Three Versions of Judas

British journalist and politician, 1856-1933

British merchant, traveller and writer on Argentina and Paraguay, 1792-1843

Scottish churchman and historian, 1721-1793, author of histories of Scotland and the English colonies in America

US actor and singer, 1898-1976

Belloc, 1928

French revolutionary leader, 1758-1794

legendary hero of 12th century England

Defoe romance, 1719

Fishburn and Hughes: The protagonist of Defoe's adventure story Robinson Crusoe (1719). The allusion to the footprint refers to the horror and fear felt by Crusoe as he realises that the island on which he has been shipwrecked is inhabited. Fear shatters his faith in God. At first he thinks the footsteps may be Satan's; then that they belong to someone even more dangerous, such as a savage; and ultimately that they may be his own. In the end his faith prevails and he prays to God and 'was no more sad - at least, not on that occasion'. The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim

US poet, 1869-1935

fabulous bird in the Arabian Nights and other texts

Lugones biography of Julio A. Roca, 1938

here, a mistake that Borges notices in a French dictionary which meant to refer to Julio A. Roca

Argentine general and president, 1843-1914, leader of the "Conquest of the Desert"

Spanish chemist (1873-1941)

Argentine politician and writer, 1838-1921

Don Quijote's horse

Eliot verse play, 1934

here a reference to the Rockefeller Foundation

Rhone river

island of Rhodes in the Aegean

French sculptor, 1840-1917

Conan Doyle, novel, 1896.

Uruguayan essayist, 1871-1917, author of Ariel and Motivos de Proteo

place mentioned in the Orlando Furioso

Visigothic king of Spain at the time of the Moorish invasion in 711

Spanish literary scholar, 1855-1943

Uruguayan scholar, 1921-1985, author of Jorge Luis Borges: A Literary Biography and many other works

Fishburn and Hughes: A Uruguayan literary critic, a friend of Borges and the author of Jorge Luis Borges: A Literary Biography of Borges (1978), the best biography to date. Between 1966 and 1968 Monegal edited the journal Mundo Nuevo in Paris. He also edited the two-volume Borzoi Anthology of Latin American Literature. The Other Death

Spanish writer, 1848-1922, author of a Diccionario completo de la lengua española, Cría de gansos, Estudio de tecnología, Pedagogía social and other works

street in Buenos Aires

Greco tango celebrating the dance hall "Salón San Martín" on Rodríguez Peña street

knife-fighter in Buenos Aires

baron, character in Jaromir Hladík's Los enemigos, name based on that of town in the Czech Republic now known as Rymarov

"Beautiful Cigar Girl," murder victim, 1820-1841, model for Poe's Marie Rogêt

English poet, 1763-1855, author of a volume of Recollections

character in Poe story

seems to refer to Ari Thorgilsson, Icelandic writer, b. 1067, co-author with Hallr Thorarinsson of the Hattalykill or Aettartala

Hugh Walpole novel, 1930, a chronicle of the Herries family, first of a four volume series that culminates in Vanessa, 1933

Wilkie Collins

Argentine writer, 1893-?

German author, author of Argentinien, 1937, and of Die La Plata Länder: Argentinien, Paraguay, Uruguay, 1963

German literary scholar, 1885-?, responsible for lamentable second edition of Vilmar's history of German literature

town in the province of Buenos Aires near Pergamino

Fishburn and Hughes: A small town in the southern province of Buenos Aires south of Pergamino. The incident alluded to figures obliquely in Martín Fierro (pt 1, canto VIII, 11.1265-1318). A Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz (1829-1874)

Argentine poet and essayist, 1896-1956, author of La metáfora y el mundo, El perfil de nuestra expresión and other works

Argentine poet, at some point a director of propaganda for the Argentine army

character in Borges-Bioy filmscript

character in Borges-Bioy filmscript

Spanish writer, c. 1465-1541, author of the Celestina

Argentine literary historian, critic and poet, 1882-1957, author of Historia de la literatura argentina and numerous other works

Red Sea

Konrad's Middle High German translation of the Chanson de Roland

Argentine poet, dramatist and orator, 1873-1922

leader of Norse invaders of Normandy

French poet and essayist, 1903-1962

French writer, 1866-1955, known for writings on pacifism and Indian philosophy

Rome, capital of Italy, here sometimes "la Ciudad de los Césares," "Romeburg" and so on

Fishburn and Hughes: The saying 'All roads lead to Rome', based on the transport system of the Roman Empire, can be taken to mean that all avenues of thought eventually lead back to their original source. In its literary sense the saying later became true of the Catholic world, whose centre is the Vatican. Death and the Compass

French poet and writer, pseudonym of Louis Henri Jean Farigoule, 1885-1972

French allegorical romance in two parts: first part, c.1240, by Guillaume de Lorris; second part, c.1280, by Jean de Meung

Queen mystery, 1930

Laurence Echard, 1696

Argentine writer and journalist, 1908-1981

Maurice Abramowicz prose piece

Alonso Lopez e Bayão, 15th century

Lugones poem in Romancero

Book written by Vicente Rossi in 1944 

Lugones poem in Romancero

traditional Spanish ballads

Lugones book of poems, 1924

Spanish ballads

Spanish ballads about the Cid

Spanish ballads with Moorish themes

Lugones posthumous book of poems, 1938

Jacques Chardonne, 1937

perhaps refers to Pliny's Naturalis historia

Paul's Epistle to the Romans in the New Testament

Mowat, 1935

Lugones poem in Los crepúsculos del jardín

Lugones series of poems in Las horas doradas

Heine book of poems, 1851

Argentine police officer and historian, co-author of the Diccionario histórico argentino, author of histories of Chascomús, Monserrat and of the Argentine police

Anglo-Saxon name for Rome. See Roma

character in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare tragedy, c. 1595

author of article on Mach in Proa

Argentine historian, 1909-77

a gunfighter mentioned in popular verses

Romulus, in Roman legend, the founder of Rome and twin brother of Remus

town in northern Spain in which Charlemagne was defeated and Roland lost his life

co-editor of El tema del tango en la la literatura argentina, 1969

town in southern Spain

Argentine general and politician, 1773-1844

French poet, 1524?-1585

Virginia Woolf essay on women's intellectual work, translated by Borges

Forster novel set in Florence, 1908

US political leader, 1884-1962

U. S. president, 1882-1945

U. S. president, 1858-1919

Emil Ludwig, 1938

fabulous animal of North America

Argentine merchant ship on which Ascasubi worked in 1819

Hauptmann play, 1903

Zorrilla, 1857.

Gerardo Diego poem

the canonical book of Hakim, "al-Moqanna," the Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Borges book of poetry, 1975.

Borges poem in El otro, el mismo

Portuguese writer and painter, b. 1924, here surnamed Roa by mistake

Fishburn and Hughes: A secret society, named after the emblems of the rose and the cross, which were taken to be symbols of Jesus's resurrection and redemption. Its practices were based on ancient occult beliefs. In the seventeenth century two anonymous books in Germany told the story of a fictitious Christian, Rosencrutz, and of the society he founded. Now generally believed to be by Johannes Valentinus Andreä, they aroused the curiosity of many eminent men, such as Spinoza and Descartes, who tried to meet members of the society. In time societies were actually founded and Rosicrucianism spread to London and later to Vienna, Russia and Poland. Its history seems to provide a perfect example of a Tlönian hrön - an idea which, when believed, materialises. Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

Argentine poet whose book Los recuerdos de la tierra, published at age nine, had a preface by Borges

Spanish poet and literary critic, 1910-1992

character in Borges-Bioy filmscript

Rosalind, character in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

second city of Argentina, in province of Santa Fe

Unamuno sonnet sequence

Book written by the general officer Tomás de Iriarte

Ramos Mejía historical study, 1907

Juan Pablo Echagüe historical play

Argentine general and politician, governor of Buenos Aires and dictator of the Argentine confederation, 1793-1877, sometimes spelled Rozas, also known as "Héroe del Desierto" and "Restaurador de las Leyes"

Fishburn and Hughes: The governor of the province of Buenos Aires from 1829 to 1831 and dictator of Argentina for almost two decades (1835-52). Although he fought as champion of the Federalist cause, presenting himself as a self-styled gaucho and drawing much of his popularity from the gauchos, Rosas came from an old-established Spanish family whose fortune he multiplied to become the richest landowner in the country. As such, his interest was to pacify and eventually to unify Argentina in order to establish an export-oriented, land-based economy. To this end he began a reign of terror. He killed or exiled most prominent members of the Unitarian party and ruled at home with the help of his private army, the Mazorca. Having silenced opposition from the Unitarians, he systematically attacked other Federalist caudillos, until he was left to rule supreme. Eventually he was brought down by his staunchest supporter, the Federalist general Urquiza, who, in alliance with Brazilian and Uruguayan forces, defeated him at the battle of Caseros (1852). At his downfall his arch-opponent Sarmiento dubbed him the 'Unitarian' Rosas, meaning that through his ruthless campaign of dictatorial self-aggrandisement he had achieved the Unitarian aim of putting an end to civil war and uniting the country under one banner. Rosas was exiled to England and died in Southampton. Borges, who shared an ancestor with Rosas through his great-greatgrandfather, wrote a poem on him recalling the ferocity of his rule and setting it against the annihilating effect of forgetfulness (Sel. Poems 15). In accordance with a decree of 1840, Rosas confiscated all property and goods belonging to the Unitarians and their families in order to finance his army and popular support. The Elderly Lady

Fernández Moreno poem

Roscellinus, French scholastic philosopher, c. 1045-c. 1120

county in Ireland

Fishburn and Hughes: A county and town in central Ireland. A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain

Quain story in Statements, 1939, a source of "Las ruinas circulares"

Williams play, 1950

French Catholic magazine of the early twentieth century

rose garden in Palermo Park, Buenos Aires

German Nazi leader, 1893-1946

character in Bustos Domecq story

here given as an example of a German-Jewish surname

character in Shakespeare's Hamlet

David Jerusalem poem

US journalist and music critic, 1890-1946, one of the editors of The American Caravan in 1927

character in Nazi children's book

Fishburn and Hughes: see Christian Knorr, Baron von Rosenroth

character in Borges story

pianist, character in Borges story

Fishburn and Hughes: A fictional Jewish character in a footnote in "Deutsches Requiem". The name coincides with that of the founder of a school for girls, established in Beirut in 1878. Deutsches Requiem

street in Buenos Aires

Joseph Henri Honoré Boex, 1856-1940, Belgian-born writer of science fiction, here misspelled Rosney

Scottish divine, one of the chaplains of Charles I , author of Virgilius Evangelizans, 1634

Fishburn and Hughes: A Scottish divine, author of poetical, philosophical and theological works in Latin and English. His most ambitious book, A History of the World, was intended as a continuation of the work begun by Sir Walter Raleigh. In his preface Ross claimed to be more conversant with the dead than with the living, a fact that Borges may well have had in mind when quoting him in the context of 'The Immortal'. Among Ross's Latin books are the eight volumes of Virgilius Evangelizans (1634), which presents the life of Jesus in the words of Virgil. The first five books refer to biblical episodes and their allusion to the figure of Christ. Book 6 describes Christ's birth; book 7 the prophecies of his life and miracles; book 8 to 12 the life, death and resurrection; book 13 his ascension to Heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Each passage is referred to the Aeneid, Eclogues or Georgics by book and line number. Composed of phrases from the writings of another author, Virgilius Evangelizans is an example of a 'patchwork' text alluded to in Nahum Cordovero's Coat of Many Colours. The Inmortal

Another pseudonym of Frederic Dannay (Daniel Nathan, 1905-1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (Manford Lepofsky, 1905-1971), creators of Ellery Queen. 

Canadian journalist and art critic, 1869-1918, Wilde's literary executor

English poet, sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1830-1894