Sá de Miranda, Francisco de
Portuguese poet, 1481?-1558
Portuguese poet, 1481?-1558
Portuguese writer, 1890-1916
Buenos Aires street and neighborhood
Fishburn and Hughes: "Probably a descendant of Cornelio de Saavedra, president of the historic Junta which deposed the Spanish Viceroy on 25 May 1810, declared the emancipation of the River Plate Province and established itself as the first criollo government in Argentina. Employment in the Ministry of Finance is considered prestigious and consistent with the status of a member of an old and well-established family." (171)
Parodi: barrio de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, ubicado en el extremo norte.
Spanish political writer and diplomat, 1584-1648, author of Idea de un príncipe político christiano, Corona gótica, castellana y austríaca, Locuras de Europa and other works
Queen of Sheba in the Old Testament
Uruguayan poet, 1887-1982
Argentine novelist and essayist, 1911-2011, author of El túnel, Sobre héroes y tumbas, Tres aproximaciones a la literatura de nuestro tiempo and other works
Fishburn and Hughes: "An Argentine scientist and writer, author of novels, such as The Tunnel (1948) and On Heroes and Tombs (1961), and of critical work such as Uno y el universo (1945) and Heterodoxia (1953). Sábato focuses on the condition of modern man, whose alienation often leads to despair. The psychological and philosophical concerns of his writings do not, however, detract from the depth of characterisation in his fiction. Sábato has always shown respect for Borges and interest in his work. When, at the annual literary competition of 1942, Borges failed to receive the first prize for his collection The Garden of Forking Paths Sábato was one of the twenty-one writers who protested and contributed to 'Reparation to Borges'. In 1968 he published Tres aproximaciones a la literatura de nuestro tiempo (Three Approximations to the Literature of Our Time) in which he wrote on three leading literary figures: Robbe-Grillet, Borges and Sartre." (172)
Uruguayan composer and musician, 1877-41, author of the tango "La Morocha," sometimes mistakenly called José Saborido
Hitchcock film, 1937
Parodi: El sabueso de los Baskerville de César Paladión fue publicado en el período 1911−1919.
Italian-born US anarchist, 1891-1927, executed in Massachusetts after famous trial
German poet, shoemaker and guild master, leading Meistersinger of Nuremberg, 1494-1576
character in Borges story
English writer known as Vita, 1892-1962, author of The Land, The Edwardians and other works, wife of Harold Nicolson and lover of Virginia Woolf
vast collection edited by Max Müller, published by Oxford in the late 19th century
James novel, 1901
Wheeler, 1952
French priest of Port-Royal, theologian and humanist (1613-1684), best known for his translation of the Bible, the most wide-spread French Bible in the 18th century (Bible de Port-Royal)
Egyptian political figure, 1918-81
Donatien Alphonse François, 1740-1814, French writer
British novelist, 1888-1957
Saemund "the Wise," Icelandic historian formerly thought to be the author of the Elder Edda, 1056-1131
author of preface to Bernabé Pérez Ortiz's Haciendo patria
Argentine writer, 1888-1976
Argentine politician and president, 1851-1914
prominent family in 19th century Buenos Aires
Argentine Historian.
Argetinian writer and historian (1892-1970). Author of Equitación gaucha en la pampa y en la Mesopotamia
Sappho, Greek lyric poet, fl. early 6th century B.C.
Parodi: “un fragmento de Safo o una sentencia inagotable de Heráclito”: Safo de Lesbos (c. 650/610 a.C.-580 a.C.) fue una poetisa griega; de su obra sólo se conservan textos fragmentarios, al igual que de la obra del filósofo griego Heráclito de Éfeso (c.535 a.C.-484 a.C.).
Morris and Magnusson collection, 1892
Burns biography, 1925
Icelandic prose narratives
Momigliano, 1952
Sagittarius, centaur with bow and arrow, constellation in zodiac
Gómez de la Serna miscellany, 1918 and 1924
Holy Family, St. Joseph, Virgin Mary and Jesus
Franciscan missionary to Mexico, 1499-1590
desert in northern Africa
Kipling story about the Boer War
Yeats poems in The Tower, 1928
David Garnett, 1925
town in Minnesota, now part of the city of St. Paul
Commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France.
Phillpotts, play, 1919.
church and surrounding neighborhood in Paris
town in Cornwall
Shaw play on Joan of Arc, 1924
St. Louis, city in Missouri
famous jazz song by W. C. Handy first recorded in 1917
character in Bustos Domecq story
Parodi: “Jean Pees y Carlos o Carlota Saint Pe”: Bustos transcribe este dato, aunque admite que los nombres pueden estar “trabucados” o ser apócrifos. El primer nombre ya fue mencionado en Modelo v §59; coincide con el de un personaje real conocido de Bioy. Los dos apellidos mencionados son vascos, de la región francesa de los Pirineos atlánticos; en esta región abundan las localidades cuyo nombre comienza por Saint-Pé, Saint-Pe o Saint-Peé, formas que también se encuentran como apellidos familiares.
hill in Geneva
Max Jacob book, 1911
pseudonym of Paul-Pierre Roux, French symbolist poet, 1861-1940
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, 1675-1755, French diplomat and memoirist
Fishburn and Hughes: "A French soldier, diplomat and writer, the author of posthumously published memoirs of the reign of Louis XV and Louis XIV. Saint-Simon's flair for character-drawing, love of gossip, combination of prejudice and superstition and talent for catching the atmosphere of the historical moment make him unique among French diarists. These qualities, however, are not matched by style and grammar, which hardly make him a suitable candidate for an 'examination of the essential metric laws of French prose'." (172)
French literary historian and critic, 1804-69, author of Portraits littéraires, Volupté and numerous other works
English critic and historian, 1845-1933, author of a Short History of English Literature, a History of Criticism and numerous other works
Rimbaud work, mixture of poetry and prose, 1873
Alain, 1937
Saxony, region of Germany
Hector Hugh Munro, also frequently known as H. H. Munro. British writer (1870-1916).
Gautama Buddha's family
Silvina Ocampo, play.
Chesterton story in The Wisdom of Father Brown
Saladin or Salah ad-Din, Muslim warrior and Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, 1137?-1193
river in province of Buenos Aires
Fishburn and Hughes: "A river in the province of Buenos Aires subject to frequent flooding." (172)
university city in Spain
Parodi: “esas Salamancas”: alusión a la Universidad de Salamanca, la más antigua de España y una de las más antiguas de Europa.
fabulous animal, a little dragon that can live in fire
Battle of Salamis, 480 BC
Flaubert novel about ancient Carthage, 1862
Fishburn and Hughes: "A novel by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), published in 1862, which reconstructs the life and culture of Carthage at the time of the Punic wars. Rich in action and 'local colour', it probably originated during Flaubert's visit to Tunis in 1850. It is the story of the love of Hamilcar's daughter, the priestess Salammbô, for Mathô, a leader of the rebel mercenaries. After Mathô's defeat and execution, Salammbô dies of grief. The allusion to Salammbô should be considered in the light of Borges's comment that, no matter how rich Carthaginian literature may have been, it could never have included a novel like Flaubert's, for 'every writing belongs to its own time' (second prologue to Luna de enfrente, O.P.). Pierre Menard's rewriting of Quixote as a 'document' of Nîmes in the twentieth century reflects that view by way of parody." (172)
Argentine man of letters, 1890-1975, translator of Joyce's Ulysses
Argentine essayist, 1873-1940, author of Tierra argentina and El Poema de la pampa
Argentine historian and politician, 1850-1914, author of Historia de la Confederación Argentina
English Orientalist, c.1697-1736, author of an English translation of the Koran
town in Massachusetts, home of Hawthorne
city and province of Campania, Italy
Italian writer, 1863-1911, author of various travel books and novels of adventure
Spanish physician and criminologist, 1854-1923
city in California
blind musician to whom Fray Luis de León dedicated an ode
character in Bustos Domecq stories
Parodi: un personaje al que se valora por su semejanza con los “vigorosos mestizos”, los compadres orilleros. Es ‘pardo’ −mestizo probablemente de blanco y negra− y posible integrante del grupo de Jugo de Carne. Mantiene una larga relación con Savastano comenzada cuando ambos eran jóvenes pensionistas en el Nuevo Imparcial y frecuentaban el Mercado de Abasto, amistad que se retoma en los Nuevos cuentos (“Salvación”). En otra de las obras en colaboración, El paraíso de los creyentes, reaparece Salivazo como parte del grupo de ruidosos compadres “un poco anacrónicos” que están reunidos en una confitería (cf. OCC 259).
the lines quoted here are: "Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl"
Lugones poem in El libro de los paisajes
Lugones poem in Las montañas de oro
Biblical psalms, sometimes spelled Psalmos by Borges
character in Bullrich novel
Wilde play, written in French, 1893
Solomon, Biblical king of ancient Hebrews, d. c. 932 BC
bishop of Constance, to whom Otfried dedicated his De universo
a night spot in Buenos Aires much frequented by Gervasio Montenegro
city in Macedonia, in northern Greece, now Thessaloniki
Fishburn and Hughes: "A Greek port north west of Athens, once Macedonia's natural outlet to the sea. The Spanish spoken in Salonika was probably Ladino (a mixture of old Spanish and some Hebrew). Salonika's Jewish colony was greatly augmented in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by an influx of Sephardic Jews from Spain." (172-73)
capital of Utah
city and province in northern Argentina
street in Buenos Aires
city and department in Uruguay, sometimes called Salto Oriental
Fishburn and Hughes: "A town on the Uruguayan side of the River Uruguay which Borges used to visit in his youth. There is also a department of the same name. See Amorim." (173)
waterfall that is part of Iguazú Falls
Unamuno sonnet
Poem by Hilario Ascasubi.
Whitman poem, 1856
Bloy, 1892
Lugones poem in Poemas solariegos
Darío poem in Cantos de vida y esperanza
Argentine unitario persecuted by Rosas, mentioned in Mármol's Amalia and the subject of a Borges story
Uruguayan judge involved in the trial of Avelino Arredondo
article that appeared in the Revista Martín Fierro in 1925
Salzburg, city in Austria
German scholar of alchemy and hermetic science, 1669-1728, editor of eight volume edition of Raimon Llull
French poet, 1858-1900, author of Au jardin de l'infante and other works
Spanish fabulist, 1745-1801
Parodi: “Ni la sesuda plana de Samaniego sería poderosa para pintar mi alborozo”: Félix María de Samaniego (1745-1801), escritor español célebre por sus Fábulas en verso castellano para el uso del Real Seminario Bascongado (1781-1784). Podría aludirse aquí a otra obra de Samaniego, El jardín de Venus, una colección de cuentos en verso, cómicos y obscenos, que circuló en forma clandestina hasta su tardía publicación en 1921.
Samarkand, city in Uzbekistan (Samarkanda)
Fishburn and Hughes: "A city in the USSR, the oldest city of Central Asia, whose origin can be dated between 4,000 and 3,000 BC. Occupied by the Arabs and the Persians, Samarkand reached its height in the fifteenth century, as capital of the empire of the Islamic Mongol ruler Tamerlane. Playing chess in Samarkand is plausible: the game, known among both the Arabs and the Persians, was introduced into Islam from Persia and was given patronage at the court of Tamerlane." (173)
ancient city of Palestine
Argentine feminist, born in Chile, 1901-1981
coastal resort on a bay at the mouth of the River Plate in the province of Buenos Aires
Samarang, city in Java, Indonesia
Parodi: posiblemente por ‘Semarang’, una ciudad de Indonesia, situada en el norte de la isla de Java.
Jacobo Samet (1898-1981) was an independent book publisher. His bookshop, which also functioned as a publishing company, was known as “La cripta de Samet” (“Samet´s crypt”). It was placed in a very small alleyway at 1242 Avenida de Mayo. (Mentioned in Bustos Domecq story.)
Parodi: según Bustos, se trata del editor del fascículo de Ginzberg y quien propuso el título de la publicación. El Jacobo Samet real (1898-1981), nacido en Rusia y emigrado a la Argentina, transformó un pequeño negocio de cigarrería y venta de libretos de zarzuelas y operetas ubicado en la Avenida de Mayo, en una librería y editorial, lugar de reunión de los jóvenes escritores y poetas argentinos, conocido como la ‘Sagrada Cripta de Samet’. A partir de enero de 1930 publicó la revista Cartel, de la que en un año aparecieron sus once únicos números. La editorial de Samet funcionó de 1924 a 1932.
archipelago in the South Pacific
ruler of Calicut, character in Os Lusíadas
Samothrace, Greek island in the northern Aegean sea
character in Bustos Domecq story
minor character in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
author of Concise Cambridge History of English Literature
Gunnar's dog in the Njals Saga
the world of appearances in Buddhism
Milton dramatic poem, 1671
two books in Bible, sometimes called Reyes
town in province of Buenos Aires, home of Ricardo Güiraldes
site of a battle in 1872 between Ignacio Rivas and the Indians under Callfucurá
mountain resort in Argentina
beach resort in the province of Buenos Aires
neighborhood in Buenos Aires
Fishburn and Hughes: "A department and city in the province of Santa Fe, founded as a colony on land granted by the government to a London-based banking firm, Murrieta y Cía." (173)
suburb in northern Buenos Aires
Parodi: 1) “sofismas de Ciudadela y de San Fernando”: dos elegantes zonas residenciales, ubicadas respectivamente al oeste y al este de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, que se oponen aquí a la sureña Avellaneda, industrial y popular.
2) zona residencial del norte del Gran Buenos Aires situada a unos 30 km de la capital; en su territorio incluye una sección de islas del Delta del río Paraná; cf. “Goladkin” ii §2.
city in California
ranch in Borges story
Fishburn and Hughes: "A small town in Uruguay where the Haedo family owned a ranch. As a child Borges used to spend his summer vacations there with his family." (173)
St. Gall or St. Gallen, monastery and city in northeast Switzerland
town in the province of Santa Fe, site of battle in 1853
basilica in León, Spain
suburb northwest of Buenos Aires, in province of Buenos Aires
Parodi: San Isidro es una ciudad ubicada en la provincia de Buenos Aires, sobre la costa del Río de la Plata, a unos 30 km al norte de la ciudad de Buenos Aires.
site of battle in 1836 between the Mexican and Texan forces
town in the province of Tucumán
street in Buenos Aires
Parodi: “visité en la calle San Juan”: la mención de esta calle revela que la baronesa Puffendorf−Duvernois también está encarcelada. Sobre la calle San Juan se encontraba la entrada de la Cárcel de Mujeres del Buen Pastor, que funcionaba en el barrio de San Telmo, en un edificio construido en 1760. Siguió ubicada en ese lugar hasta 1978, en que fue trasladada a las afueras de la ciudad. Desde entonces, en el edificio funciona un museo.
Argentine province
town in the province of Buenos Aires
Franciscan church north of Rosario, known as the place where a battle for Argentine independence took place
Argentine province and its capital
street in Buenos Aires
town in Orense, Spain
friend of Borges, sometimes Delia San Marco Porcel
street and plaza in Buenos Aires
Parodi: estación ferroviaria de la ‘Ciudad del Libertador General Don José de San Martín’, conocida como San Martín, situada al centro−norte del Gran Buenos Aires, a unos 20 km de la terminal de Retiro.
church in Buenos Aires
Argentine general and statesman, liberator of Chile and Peru, 1778-1850, sometimes referred to as the Libertador or Protector del Perú
Fishburn and Hughes: "Argentina's greatest military leader, hero of the Wars of Independence and liberator of Chile and Peru.
Guayaquil: Once the Spaniards had been defeated in Argentina, San Martín foresaw that his country's independence would not be won unless the royalist forces were expelled from the sub-continent. He set off from Buenos Aires to enlist soldiers for his famous Army of the Andes, which in 1817 he led into Chile. Here, after the battles of Chacabuco and Cancha Rayada, he finally defeated the Spaniards at Maipú. He then led an expedition into Peru, where the Army of the Andes was joined by Chilean forces. On 9 July 1821, after securing several victories over royalist forces, he entered Lima — not, in his words, as a conqueror but as liberator of the Peruvian people -whereupon he was proclaimed Protector of Peru. Spanish troops remained in the Sierras, and San Martín realised that neither he nor Bolívar was sufficently powerful to defeat the Royalists on his own. Accordingly he sent troops to Bolívar in Quito and arranged a meeting, which finally took place in Guayaquil on 26 July 1822. The conference clearly indicated the clash of personalities between the two men, as Bolívar distrusted both San Martín's military ability and his monarchical leanings. Fully aware of the predicament, San Martín conceded the leadership of his troops in Peru to Bolívar, returned briefly to Argentina and then, leaving the camp to his rival, departed for Europe, where he lived in self-imposed exile in Belgium. When he tried to return to Buenos Aires in 1829, he found Argentina torn by the strife between the Federalists and the Unitarians (respectively represented by Rosas and Lavalle). He refused to take sides and returned to Europe without even landing on Argentine soil. He died in Boulogne. CF 395;the masonic lodge referred to is the Logia Lautaro, of which San Martín was a member and where he exchanged revolutionary ideas.
The Elderly Lady: San Martín remains to this day a sacred name in Argentine history, an example of bravery and abnegation. On this point Borges ironically recalls that when a Venezuelan writer once wrote that San Martín 'tenía un aire avieso' ('had a sly look'), this was solemnly denied by an Argentine writer, who claimed that to say avieso and San Martín together was nonsensical: You may as well speak of a square triangle.'" (173-74)
Octavio González Roura book, 1972
town in the province of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires neighborhood, following old denomination of parishes
São Paulo, largest city in Brazil and capital of state of São Paulo
one of Paul's epistles
street in Buenos Aires
Parodi: “por San Pedrito o por Giribone”: dos calles de Buenos Aires; la primera corre por el barrio de Flores; la segunda, por Villa Ortúzar (cf. “Doce” i §14).
city on the Paraná river between Buenos Aires and Rosario
Russia's second-largest city after Moscow.
Fomer names: Petrogado, Leningrado.
national park in Argentina which Shirley Temple visited in the company of Hortensia Montenegro in Suárez Lynch novella
Parodi: “Parque Nacional de San Remo”: el nombe alude a un inexistente parque nacional de la ciudad de San Remo, situada en el noroeste del litoral mediterráneo italiano.
dog in Borges-Bioy filmscript, reference to a saint who is usually shown in company of a dog
church in Buenos Aires
Fishburn and Hughes: "A street in the district of Palermo." (174)
Xul Solar mystical work
old neighborhood in Buenos Aires, south of the Plaza de Mayo
Fishburn and Hughes: "One of the oldest districts of colonial Buenos Aires, founded by the Jesuits in the early eighteenth century. San Telmo has several fine buildings but is now considered a rough district. During the British invasions of 1806 and 1807 it was the centre of fierce resistance; its fighting spirit is illustrated in the popular song: Soy del barrio de San Telmo / donde llueve y no gotea / a mí no me asustan bultos / ni grupos que se menean ('I come from San Telmo, where it rains and does not drizzle. I am not frightened by bullies nor by gangs which move around'). This song would give an ironic twist to the last sentence of the story, 'Rosendo's Tale'." (174)
suburb in southern Buenos Aires
Parodi: una línea de ómnibus que hacía el recorrido entre Plaza Constitución y el entonces pueblo de San Vicente, ubicado a unos 50 km al sur de la Capital.
fortress in Khorasan where Al-Moqanna held out against the caliph Mahdi
Raúl E. Fitte book, 1936
Italian poet and humanist, 1458-1530, author of Arcadia, written in the 1480s and mentioned in Don Quijote
Argentine intellectual, 1786-1868, famous for her letters
Argentine literary critic, author of De hombres y libros, 1966
Spanish poet, anarchist and feminist, 1895-1970, one of the founders of Mujeres libres
Uruguayan playwright, 1875-1910
Parodi: Florencio Sánchez (1875-1910) fue un periodista y dramaturgo uruguayo. Entre sus obras dramáticas se destacan M’hijo el dotor (1903), La gringa (1904), Barranca abajo (1905).
Italian critic, 1817-1883, author of a Storia della letteratura italiana
Faulkner novel, 1931
pseud. of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, 1804-76, French novelist and feminist
US poet and biographer, 1878-1967, author of Chicago Poems, Good Morning America and other works
French novelist, 1811-83
English actor, 1906-72
La condesa de la arena, Gustav Frenssen, 1896
Argentine actor, 1905-80, known for his work in film comedies
Bloy, 1932
river in central Illinois, tributary of the Illinois River
character in Bustos Domecq story
Parodi: nacido en Calabria, emigró de niño a la Argentina a fines del siglo XIX; hizo fortuna en diversos negocios; recibió del gobierno italiano el título de Commendatore. Vive en la localidad de Pilar, en la Villa Castellammare, ubicada junto a La Moncha. Padre de Ricardo Sangiácomo y de Eliseo Requena.
character in Bustos Domecq story, son of the Commendatore
Excerpt from Los muertos, las muertas y otras fantasmagorías, 1935, by Ramón Gómez de la Serna.
book of the Talmud
Sanin, Artsybashev novel, 1907
Spanish grammarian and literary critic, 1880-1947
Sankara Acharya, Hindu theologian, c. 789-820
Samson, judge of Israel in Bible
Papini’s work, 1931.
Brazilian town on the Uruguayan border where José Hernández wrote part of the Martín Fierro
Fishburn and Hughes: "A town in Livramento, Brazil, near the Argentinian-Uruguayan border, a rough area characterised by fighting and smuggling, mainly of cattle. Borges visited Sant' Anna with Amorim and recalls his shock on seeing the violent shooting of a drunkard by a capanga. The incident was reflected in several of his stories: 'Tlön, ...', 'The Shape of the Sword', 'The Dead Man',' The Other Death' and obliquely in 'The South'." (174)
beach resort in the province of Buenos Aires
character in Hudson's The Purple Land
A military colonel. He was the son-in-law of Justo José Urquiza.
Argentine province
Fishburn and Hughes: "A province north west of Buenos Aires.
The Aleph: 'alfajores', a typical Argentine sweetmeat made of sugared pastry, filled with chocolate, nuts or fudge, and manufactured in Santa Fe, differ from more traditional sweets by being larger, concave and more brittle. Regarded as a regional delicacy, they are difficult to obtain in Buenos Aires." (175)
Parodi: el “Granero de la República”: nombre que se daba a la provincia de Santa Fe, donde está ubicada la ciudad de Rosario. Para Rosario, cf. “H.B.D.” §3
avenue in Buenos Aires
Capdevila book
ranch
Francisco de Sá de Miranda poem about the courtesan and saint St. Mary of Egypt
Sonnet by Luis de Tejeda dedicated to Santa Rosa de Lima.
beach resort in the province of Buenos Aires
Pemán dramatic poem, 1934
finance minister to the Reyes Católicos, d. 1498, a baptized Jew or "marrano"
US philosopher and poet, born Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás in Spain, 1863-1952, author of The Life of Reason, The Realms of Being and other works
policeman, character in Suárez Lynch novella
Parodi: “el comisario Santiago”: un personaje tristemente célebre en los años veinte y treinta, Eduardo Santiago, comisario jefe de la Sección Investigaciones de la Policía, responsable de represiones obreras y paradigma de corrupción. En 1927, año de la ejecución de Sacco y Vanzetti, la casa de Santiago fue objeto de un atentado por parte del grupo anarquista liderado por Severino Di Giovanni (cf. “Doce” i §5).
capital of Chile
city in Galicia in Spain, pilgrimage center
town in Jamaica, now St. James
Groussac study of the viceroy, 1907
oldest city in Argentine, capital of province of same name
street in Buenos Aires
town in Calabria in northern Spain, mentioned in poem by Baldomero Fernández Moreno
port city near São Paulo, Brazil
Fishburn and Hughes: "The busiest port in Brazil, in the south-eastern state of Sao Paulo." (175)
Brazilian aviator, 1873-1932
Parodi: “Para mí que se va a mandar cada mongolfiero que ni Santos Dumont”: la frase modifica la expresión popular ‘mandarse un globo’ que equivale a decir una mentira. En la frase citada, ‘globo’ es remplazado por el nombre que recibió el primer globo aerostático impulsado a aire caliente, creado por los hermanos Joseph-Michel y Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier a fines del siglo XVIII. Frogman sostiene que las mentiras (‘los globos’) son de tal magnitud que ni siquiera podría igualarlas el pionero de la aviación brasileña Alberto Santos Dumont (1873-1932), famoso por sus diseños de globos y dirigibles, muchos de ellos de gran tamaño. Para ‘mandarse’, “Toros” v §9.
gaucho-outlaw, killer of Facundo Quiroga
legendary gaucho in 19th century Argentina only outsung by the Devil, subject of works by Obligado and Ascasubi
Obligado poem
Ascasubi gauchesque poem, 1872
gaucho in Lussich's Los tres gauchos orientales
A pseudonym of Antonio D. Lussich
Italian literary critic and historian, 1901-1990, author of a Compendio di storia della letteratura italiana and of a commentary on Dante
Swedenborg treatise, 1764
character in Bustos Domecq stories
Parodi: el tratamiento de ‘doctor’ permite conjeturar que Saponaro es un abogado. Vuelve a ser mencionado más adelante (cf. vi §18) y en Modelo i §12.
Santiago Fischbein's aunt in Borges story
street in Buenos Aires
Parodi: Sarandí es una localidad del partido de Avellaneda lindante con Villa Domínico.
street in Montevideo
character in Shaw's Arms and the Man
battlefield in upstate New York during the US Revolutionary War, 1777
resort in upstate New York
Ferber novel, 1941
Uruguayan politician, born in Brazil as Aparício Saraiva, 1855-1904
Fishburn and Hughes: "A Uruguayan landowner and caudillo, uncultured and politically unsophisticated, whose magnetic personality secured him a following among the gauchos of the Interior. In 1897 he led the revolt of the Blancos, a nationalist group demanding free elections and representation of all parties in the government, against the dictatorship of Idiarte Borda. Borda was assassinated in 1897 and the armed conflict ended in a peace pact, but the nationalist faction under Saravia was left isolated and on 1 January 1904 Saravia again led his troops against the Government of Batlle in an attempt to prevent elections in which his party was not represented. After a series of battles his side was finally defeated at Masoller. Saravia was wounded and died in Brazil. After his death a legend sprang up that he would return. See Illesca, Tupambaé." (175)
Swiss sculptor, Norah Borges's art teacher in Geneva
street in Buenos Aires
Argentine writer, educator, politician and president, 1811-88, author of the Facundo, Recuerdos de provincia, Campaña del Ejercito Grande and many other works
Fishburn and Hughes: "An Argentine writer, historian and educationalist, and the country's President from 1868 to 1874. Sarmiento was born in the Andean province of San Juan and spent his early years in an atmosphere of growing caudillism - rule by local strong men on horseback - which, for him, epitomised barbarism. Sarmiento was largely self-taught. He admired European values, particularly English, and was influenced by the progressive ideas of liberal political and economic thinkers. He was a Unitarian, fighting for the unification and Europeanisation of Argentina, and as such became an indefatigable opponent of Federalism, which he considered retrograde and barbaric. His opposition to the caudillo Quiroga forced him into exile in Chile. Here he wrote his most famous book, Facundo, in which he launched an outright attack on Federalism, using a 'barbaric hero', Facundo Quiroga. The ultimate target of his attack was Rosas, to whose downfall the book contributed. Borges's admiration for Sarmiento and his ideas can be construed from his prologue to Facundo, where he says that the history of Argentina would have been different and better if, instead of 'canonising' Martín Fierro, they had 'canonised' Facundo. During his exile Sarmiento was sent by the government of Chile to Europe to study school systems. While in Paris, he paid several visits to San Martín in his retreat on the outskirts of the capital. The General confided many details of the meeting at Guayaquil. These conversations were the subject of Sarmiento's inaugural speech when he was elected a member of the Institut Historique de France on 1 July 1847 in the presence of San Martín. A copy of the speech, which shed new light on the Guayaquil controversy, was found in the archives of the Museo Histórico Sarmiento by the historian Antonio Castro, who disclosed his findings on 13 August 1947 in a lecture entitled 'Sarmiento y San Martín'. Sarmiento also wrote a series of articles under the title Escritos sobre San Martín, which includes a short biography of San Martín." (175-76)
Parodi: Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811−1888) político, pedagogo, escritor, periodista y militar, presidente de la República entre 1868 y 1874, destacado por su acción en favor de la educación pública. Durante su gobierno se crearon en todo el país escuelas elementales y superiores e instituciones para la formación de maestros.
river in Paraná delta
place in Asia Minor mentioned in Herodotus
Sharon, plain in central Israel
US author, 1908-81, author of My Name is Aram and other works
Carlyle satirical and philosophical narrative, 1833
Faulkner novel, 1929
French philosopher, playwright and novelist, 1905-1980, author of La Nausée, Huis-clos, L'Être et le Néant and other works
province in western Canada, here spelled Saskatchawara
Argentine film director and writer, 1903-1995
author of Psico-zoología pintoresca, 1927
English poet, 1886-1967
Uruguayan writer, 1809-1887
Parodi: escritor, periodista, pintor y educador, Marcos Sastre nació en Montevideo en 1809 (m. 1887). Su obra más conocida es El Tempe argentino (1848), una descripción de la región del delta del río Paraná (cf. supra §2), su flora y su fauna. Los epigramas que menciona Bustos posiblemente son las advertencias y exhortaciones contenidas en los libros que Sastre destinó a la educación de los niños, en especial de Consejos de oro sobre la educación (dirigidos a las madres de familia y a los institutores (1859), sentencias del tipo: “No consintáis […] que una extraña os arrebate las primeras caricias de un ser que os cuesta tantos cuidados y dolores”; “sólo vosotras recibiréis el dulce nombre de madre, y ninguna otra mujer tendrá derecho para llamarlos sus hijos”, etc.
fallen angel, the adversary of man and God in Judeo-Christian tradition
name given to Satan by Bogomil Manichean believers
French composer, 1866-1925
Juvenal satirical poems
Satyricon, Petronius satirical narrative, the adventures of Encolpius and Giton, preserved only in part
Fishburn and Hughes: "An allegory in prose and poetry in nine books, the chief work of the fifth-century Carthaginian Martianus Capella, which was influential in the Middle Ages. Its full title (in English) is 'Satyricon, in which two books describe the marriage of Mercury with philology and the rest are each dedicated to one of the seven liberal arts'. The reference is to Jupiter's sphere in which 'the entire world is reflected as in a shining mirror' where one can see all the 'variety of the earth', its cities and its different living species, and all that 'each and all nations are doing'. In the mirror Jupiter marks 'those he wants to raise and those he wants to repress, those to be born and those to die'." (176)
Capella, see De Nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae
satyrs in classical mythology, half-man, half-goat
Satornil or Saturninus of Antioch, early Christian gnostic leader
Fishburn and Hughes: "A second-century Syrian Gnostic, known also as Saturninus of Antioch, who held that the angels, archangels, powers and dominions were created by the Supreme Unknown, the Father, but that the world and everything in it, including man, was created by seven of the lowest angels. Among these was the God of the Jews, whom the Divine Father sought to destroy by sending the Saviour. Satornilus held that Christ the saviour was a man only in appearance but did not possess a physical body. He also believed that man is not a complete human being until the Father gives him the 'spark of life', which at death returns to the divine fountain of life." (176)
province of Japan
Fishburn and Hughes: "A ferry which plied between Buenos Aires and Montevideo. It had an effigy of Saturn on its prow." (176)
Macrobius philosophical dialogue
Fishburn and Hughes: "More correctly known as Saturnalia: a Latin work by the fifth-century author Macrobius. It consists of seven books. The first describes the origin and history of Roman festivals and tries to prove that all pagan theology, whether Roman, Greek, Egyptian or Assyrian, leads to the cult of the sun. Heliopolis is mentioned in this context. Books 2 and 3 comment on various Roman writers, especially Virgil. The remaining four books deal with assorted topics, from table conversation and the digestibility of foods to vertigo, whitening of the hair, blushing and the voice of eunuchs." (176)
Saturn, in Roman religion, the god of harvests, later identified with the Greek god Cronos
the planet Saturn
Argentinian Illustrator and writer (1891-1955). Author of Vocabulario y refranero criollo.
town in France, site of battle in 881
town in Minnesota
San Pablo or St. Paul, apostle to the gentiles
character in Bustos Domecq story
Anglo-French scholar, 1890-1957
character in Bustos Domecq and Suárez Lynch stories
Parodi: 1) señalado aquí como prototipo de los ‘compadritos’ (cf. “Limardo” i §1) que, con la inmigración y la modernización de la ciudad, fueron desplazando al compadre, el originario habitante de las orillas. Tulio Savastano es el narrador y personaje principal de “Limardo”. Su lugar de trabajo parece ser el Mercado de Abasto (cf. “Doce” i §29), aunque pasa largos períodos escondido en el Hotel El Nuevo Imparcial tratando de eludir todo encuentro con otro compadrito, Jugo de Carne. Savastano es un individuo servil, temeroso, amigo de difundir chismes. Por Bustos sabemos que, cuando eran jóvenes, él y Savastano fueron “compinches” (“Esse” §1) y en una ocasión lo identifica como “colega” (“Salvación” §1); en una de las Crónicas, “Los inmortales”, Savastano es uno de los pacientes del doctor Narbondo y en “Esse”, presidente de un club de fútbol; hacia mediados de los años cuarenta, se desempeña como secretario del Subsecretario de Cultura y es candidato a embajador (cf. “Salvación”).
2) protagonista y narrador de “Limardo” (cf. “Palabra” §11). En este nuevo cuento, ha pasado a llevarle los libros al Baulito y a ser “colega” de Bustos Domecq.
Bustos Domecq character, Argentine literary critic, author of a 1971 Harvard dissertation on Clodomiro Ruiz, evidently the son of Tulio Savastano
Story from Chinese Ghouls and Goblins by G. Willoughby-Meade.
Praetorius culinary treatise, 1891
German jurist and legal historian, 1779-1861
Parodi: el apellido de este abogado coincide con el del jurista y catedrático alemán Friedrich Karl von Savigny (1779-1861), uno de los iniciadores de la jurisprudencia moderna y fundador de la Escuela Histórica del Derecho.
Romanized version of the name of George Bernard Shaw
Fishburn and Hughes: "As is made clear in the English translation of Borges's story, the term refers to Xavier de Maistre (1763-1852), born in Savoy and author of Voyage autour de ma chambre (1795), which he wrote at the age of 27 while confined to his bed through injuries sustained in a duel. The Voyage is a light work in which each object perceived by the author in his bedroom prompts humorous reminiscences and small confidences." (177)
Saxo Grammaticus, Danish historian, c.1150- c.1220, author of the Gesta Danorum or Historia Danica
line from Tennyson's Welcome to Alexandra, 1863, slightly misquoted here
English writer, 1893-1957, author of numerous detective stories and polemical writings, translator of Dante, editor of anthologies of detective stories, etc.
Fishburn and Hughes: "An English author, remembered chiefly for her detective novels featuring the character Lord Peter Wimsey. She regarded the detective story as a useful exercise of pure analysis which demanded no commitment to its subject matter. She is also known for her translation of Dante's Divine Comedy." (177)
Spanish priest and scholar, 1834-1910, author of a Diccionario de refranes, Ambigú literario and many other works
Argentine intellectual, 1898-1959, associated with the FORJA group and author of El hombre que está solo y espera
pharmacy in downtown Buenos Aires
Parodi: “la farmacia Scannapieco”: una farmacia de Buenos Aires que estuvo ubicada en la esquina de Esmeralda y Tucumán.
Van Dine novel, 1929
Hawks film, 1932
film gangster based on Al Capone
Sternberg film, 1934
Hawthorne novel, 1850
Santayana, 1923
character in Bustos Domecq story, sometimes Sevola
Parodi: en “Penumbra y Pompa” aparece un Lucio Scevola, a quien Bustos califica de “ese compañero de todo momento” (cf. §5), un homónimo, con el apellido escrito según la ortografía italiana.
Kafka story, 1917
gangster, character in Borges story
Fishburn and Hughes: "The master-criminal in 'Death and the Compass'; in German the name means both 'scarlet' and 'scarlet fever'." (177)
Journal to which Feuchtwanger contributed
German philosopher, 1775-1854, author of Philosophie der Kunst, System des transzendentalen Idealismus, Ideen zur Philosophie der Natur and other works
German translator of Strindberg, here the supposed German translator of Runeberg's Den hemlige Frälsaren
Fishburn and Hughes: "From the Italian, meaning 'joke': the third movement of a symphony, quartet or sonata in which one or more of the motifs reappears in a lighter tone and at a faster tempo." (177)
Argentine artist and intellectual, 1858-1935, founder of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
Argentine pianist and musicologist
Italian astronomer, discoverer of the so-called canals on Mars, 1835-1910
librarian who worked with Borges in library in Almagro Sur
German dramatist, poet and historian, 1759-1805, author of Wallenstein, Über das Pathetische, Über naive und sentimentalische Dichtung and numerous other works
character in The Last Command
Nazi youth leader, 1907-74
Batalla de la Marne, poem by Wilhelm Klemm, 1914
German writer, 1862-1941
German philosopher, critic and writer, 1772-1829, author of numerous plays, the novel Lucinde, and critical works on classical and Indian literatures and on Goethe
character in Bustos Domecq story
region of West Germany on Danish border
German priest, 1831-1912, inventor of the artificial language Volapük, author of numerous grammars and other works about the language
German businessman and archeologist, 1822-1890
Kafka unfinished novel, published posthumously in 1926
French writer, 1877-1968
Sudermann play, 1895
German soldier, c. 1510-c. 1579, who spent many years in the River Plate in the employ of a German bank, author of a detailed diary of the conquest of the River Plate region from 1534 to 1554
German poet and writer, 1862-1926, author of Nietzsche der falsche Prophet, 1914, often called just Otto Ernst
German scholar of Buddhism
He was a chemist, and conducted experiments with Embden and Baldes on Lactic Acid.
German-Jewish scholar, 1897-1982, author of Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism and other works
character in Conrad's Victory, hotelkeeper in Sourabaya
Argentine journalist born in Berlin, 1932-1989
Ludwig Goldscheider, 1934
Walter Pater study, 1877, added to the third edition of Studies of the Renaissance, 1888
Escuela de la Noche, underground school that taught atheism and the infinity of space associated with Sir Walter Raleigh, mentioned in the late sixteenth century
medieval scholastics
German philosopher, 1788-1860, author of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung and Parerga und Paralipomena
Fishburn and Hughes: "A German philosopher of the post-Kantian school, whose best-known books are The World as Will and Idea (1818; 2nd edn. 1844) and two volumes of essays entitled Parerga und Paralipomena (1851). Schopenhauer is the philosopher most quoted by Borges (about fifty times) in his stories and criticism. Solitary and retiring, Schopenhauer was relatively unnoticed until the publication of his essays, which brought him worldwide recognition. His philosophy is based on the principle that all that exists is a manifestation of the Will and is comprehensible only through the constructs of man's intellect engendered by the Will itself, such as time, space and causality. The Garden of Forking Paths, CF 127 : the reference to Schopenhauer's belief in a uniform absolute time follows: time, being like the rest of experience a representation of the Will, is not subject to variations connected with individual and particular states. Schopenhauer insists that through the constructs of our mind only the appearances of the world are revealed to us, and not its reality. Guayaquil, CF 393: with reference to Schopenauer's 'disbelief of history', it follows that history, resting on the category of time, belongs also to the world of phenomena. On this point Borges adds that, since for Schopenhauer 'the universe is a projection of our soul', 'universal history lies within each man' (Other Inq. 58). Outside the world of phenomena, only the reality of the self is knowable to man, as being part of the primary essence of all things, the Will. The Shape of the Sword, CF 141: this last point, however, eliminates the concept of individuality, as suggested in 'I am all other men': all individuals are but a form or manifestation of the Will which moves and organises everything from the blind impulses of inorganic nature to the 'rationally' guided actions of man. Deutsches Requiem, CF 230; Guayaquil, CF 395: yet, because man is the Will's prime manifestation, it can be said paradoxically that no human action is involuntary (since it is also a manifestation of the Will). Man can escape from the control of the Will, partially through the uplifting effect of the arts and, totally, by complete abnegation of the self through asceticism. For Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, CF 76 and Deutsches Requiem, CF 231see Parerga und Paralipomena. For A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain, CF 109, see Kantian categories." (177-78)
German Orientalist, 1836-1908, author of numerous works on Biblical, Assyrian and Ethiopian studies
German poet, 1886-1966
the real name of Borges's friend the Argentine poet and painter Xul Solar, here the supposed author of Die Vernichtung der Rose
German anthropologist, 1881-1936, author of Dokumente der Gnosis as well as works on the Popol Vuh, myth and Nazi ideology
police detective, character in Whealey's Murder off Miami
US poet and literary critic, 1913-66
Kafka’s short story, first published in 1931.
Alsatian theologian, musican, philosopher and physician, 1875-1965
French writer, 1867-1905, author of Mimes, Le Roi au masque d'or, Vies imaginaires, La Croisades des enfants, Monelle and other works
Whitehead, 1925
Julian Huxley and G. P. Wells work in three volumes, 1929-30, edited by H. G. Wells
Spanish translator and Biblical scholar, 1738-1796
Work by Rabelais, 1549.
Scottish novelist, 1771-1832, author of Waverley, Ivanhoe, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft and numerous other works
Argetinian historian (1874-1928). Author of Notas biográficas
Antonio Galardi book on Cogorno with Borges preface, 1984
Danish king in Beowulf
Barón de la Roche book of poems, 1933
Tango title, by Enrique Saborido.
Bustos Domecq film
Peyrou, novel, 1966.
H. M. Tomlinson book on travel by tramp steamer from Swansea to Brazil, 1912
Collection of short stories by W. W. Jacobs, published in 1926.
Jack London, novel, 1904.
Old English poem in the Exeter Book
Dickson Carr, novel, 1942.
old Norse name for Saxony
character in Shakespeare's Tempest
character in Bullrich novel
king of Portugal, killed at Alcaçarquivir in Morocco, 1554-78
Russian city on the Black Sea, sometimes called Sevastopol
Chesterton poem
Anthony Berkeley crime novel, 1930
Conrad novel on anarchism, 1907
Ciudad secreta, Walpole, 1919
Robert Kirk, 1691
Antoine Adam book on George Sand and Alfred de Musset, 1938
Work by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, 1888.
Quain play
Wells novel, 1922
Cocteau autobiography, 1922
Phillpotts, play, 1914.
Musset novel, 1834
Borges story in El libro de arena
Borges story, 1952, included in later editions of Ficciones
Excerpt from Chinesische Volksmärchen (1924) by Richard Wilhelm.
Elmer Rice play, 1929
the Book of Creation, sometimes spelled Sefer Yezira or Sepher Yezirah, which together with the Zohar forms the Kabbalah
Spanish linguist and scholar, 1873-1938, translator of Homer
character in Calderón's La vida es sueño
Argentine lexicographer, 1842-1923, author of Diccionario de argentinismos, neologismos y barbarismos, 1911, and works on law
Parodi: En 1911 apareció el Diccionario de argentinismos, neologismos y barbarismos: con un apéndice sobre voces extranjeras interesantes, de Lisandro Segovia (1842-1923), un jurisconsulto de renombre por sus comentarios y notas a los códigos civil, penal y comercial. En más de mil páginas, el diccionario registra frases y términos americanos y argentinismos de uso corriente en el Río de la Plata, en el resto de Argentina y en Chile. En “Idioma”, Borges se refiere a esta obra como el “atropellado Diccionario” del “jurista Segovia”.
Bustos Domecq detective stories, 1942
Emecé´s series of contemporary works.
movie theater in Buenos Aires
Parodi: ubicado sobre la calle Buen Orden (posteriormente, Bernardo de Irigoyen) muy próximo a la Estación Plaza Constitución, el cine Select Buen Orden (o Cine Buen Orden) fue uno de los primeros instalados en esa zona. Fue demolido en 1972, cuando se prolongó la Avenida 9 de Julio.
Dodds, 1923
T. S. Eliot collection, 1932
inhabitants of the moon in Lucian's True History
Scottish sailor, 1676-1721, on whose life Defoe based his Robinson Crusoe
Schwartzwald, Black Forest, region in southern Germany
Ferreira de Castro novel about Brazil, 1930
editor of the magazine Obra
Shem Tov Ardutiel, Spanish rabbi and poet, c. 1290-c. 1369
Girondo poem in Calcomanías
Luis Melián Lafinur, 1915
Parodi: un vino blanco suave, originario de Burdeos; puede ser seco o dulce.
Seine river in France
Portuguese poet, 1919-1978
book of poems by Julio Molina Vedia, 1928
Pérez Zelaschi, short story.
French writer, 1770-1846
French scholar of India, 1847-1928, author of Essai sur la légende su Bouddha, 1873-75
Fishburn and Hughes: "In ancient Rome the Senate was the supreme council of state. Its prestige and authority, which grew during the Republican period, was threatened by the concentration of power in the hands of Julius Caesar and gradually diminished after the establishment of the Empire." (178)
city in Japan, north of Tokyo, on Sendai Bay
Pérez de Ayala collection of poems, 1916
Lucius Annaeus Seneca or Seneca the younger, Roman philosopher, dramatist and statesman, born in Spain, c. 3 B. C.-65 A. D., author of Naturales quaestiones, Epistulae Morales and numerous tragedies and philosophical treatises
Fishburn and Hughes: "A Roman writer, born in Spain, often referred to as Seneca the Elder to distinguish him from his son, the Stoic philosopher appointed by Agrippina as tutor to her son Nero. Seneca the Elder was the author of a work on rhetoric, Oratorum sententiae divisiones colores, in which he rejected the artificial, often decadent language of some of his contemporaries in favour of the disciplined classical style of Cicero and Livy. The argument is presented through examples taken from famous rhetorical teachers, which are divided into ten books of Controversiae (some only preserved in fragments) and at least one (surviving) book of Suasoriae. The sketches of the people described form an interesting comment on the literary life of the early Empire. Seneca's sharp observations and sarcastic judgments give his writings an epigrammatic quality which makes them eminently quotable. See Ben Jonson." (178)
West African country
Argentine novelist and critic, 1872-1938, author of Evolución y educación, 1901, La derrota del genio, 1914, La psicología gauchesca en el Martín Fierro, 1927, and other works
town in northern France
Short story by Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927), sometimes called Agutagawa.
anonymous early milonga, 1880, later transformed into a tango by Francisco Canaro
in Tibetan Buddhism, the judge of the dead
Lugones poem in Romances del Río Seco
Gaston Rageot, 1926
James novel, 1917
Wilhelm Klemm poem
Unamuno philosophical essay, 1913
Dramatic monologue written by Bartolomé Hidalgo.
Borges prose meditation, first published in El idioma de los argentinos, 1928
Galician painter active in Buenos Aires, known for his murals
Fishburn and Hughes: "From the Hebrew sepher, 'book' and yezirah 'creation': a speculative text dating from between the third and the sixth centuries which seeks to explain the act of creation as a process involving the transition of the universe from its infinite state to its finite manifestation. It is concerned with the changes that took place in the deity as it existed before the Creation - that is, as an ineffable and unfathomable being - to a more personalised presence in the biblical story of creation. Creation is related as a process involving the combination of ten divine emanations, or primordial numbers with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Together they form the 'thirty-two secret paths of wisdom' through which everything that is and will be exists. This belief illustrates the concept of the creative power of letters underlining the primordial function of language in the history of creation. It is said that 'the letters hover, as it were, on the boundary line between the spiritual and the physical world'. It should be pointed out that in Hebrew each letter is also a specific number, and in this sense a similarity may be detected between aspects of the Sepher Yezirah and Pythagoras' theories of creation. See Shem Hamephorash." (179)
ten divine emanations in the Kabbalah
Simenon novel, 1938
Los siete pecados capitales, Max Jacob anthology, 1926, with texts by Jean Giraudoux, Paul Morand, Pierre Mac Orlan, André Salmon, Max Jacob, Jacques de Lacretelle, Joseph Kessel
Series of detective novels created by Emecé in 1945, selected by Borges and Bioy Casares.
Excerpt from Tusculanae Disputationes by Cicero.
Menén Desleal story
Santiago Dabove story in La muerte y su traje
Formento translation of La Soirée avec Monsieur Teste
Parodi: título de la traducción popular de La soirée avec M. Teste, de Valéry que prepara Formento. La palabra francesa soirée es traducida por la italiana serata, que en lenguaje coloquial y popular porteño, se emplea con el significado de reunión, velada. En Bustos y Suárez Lynch, ‘serata’ aparece en: “Signo”, Modelo, “Hijo”, “Toros”. Formento traduce ‘Teste’ por ‘cacumen’, equivalente a ‘cabeza’ en lengua popular. En Bustos Domecq y Suárez Lynch también aparecen diversas variantes lunfardas, populares o vulgares con el mismo significado de ‘cabeza’: la pensadora, el cacumen; la testoni; “debajo de la peluca”; el mate; el marote; la caja craneana; el coco; la encefálica; entre la caspa y el cogote; el testuz; la piojosa; los sesos; la razón social A. Cabezas, y otras. Con el mismo significado, se emplea ‘mate’ en las expresiones ‘romperse el mate’ (Modelo ii §20); ‘no caber en el mate’ (vi §13); ‘calentar el mate’ (“Fiesta” §2).
country in the former Yugoslavia
previous inhabitants of earth according to Rudolf Steiner
Portuguese writer, 1883-1969, born in Damão, India
Dunne, 1934
Argentine writer, author of El médico nuevo en la aldea, 1963
old Norse name meaning Land of Saracens, perhaps Spain or Algeria or Asia Minor
Buddha sermon on suffering and the middle way
Buddha sermon to the hermits at Uruvela
Fishburn and Hughes: "A symbol present in most mythologies and religions with varying meanings. In Christianity it is both an emblem of Christ and of saints and the disguise of Lucifer as the tempter in the Garden of Eden. The serpent is also a symbol of re-embodiment and multiplicity of lives. According to Origen, it belongs to Gnostic imagery, as the 'earth-encircling dragon' (Contra Celsum 6.25.351). The cult of the serpent occupies an important place in Gnostic mysticism, some of whose sects derive their name from it, such as the Ophites (from the Greek ophis, 'snake') and the Nassenes (from the Hebrew nahas, 'snake'). H. Jonas, The Gnostic Religion (1958), states that in the oppositional vein characteristic of Gnosticism, according to which symbols are interpreted against their traditional acceptance, the biblical God is seen as a symbol of cosmic oppression and the serpent, through its action in the Garden of Eden, as the symbol of redemption. The serpent's deed in inducing Adam and Eve to disobey their creator and taste the fruit of knowledge marks the beginning of all gnôsis (knowledge) on earth. One sect, the Peratae, regarded Jesus as a particular incarnation of the serpent since he brought lightness to a world of darkness. In Syrian-Egyptian gnôsis the serpent is seen more conventionally as a corrupter, taking the form of an earth-encircling dragon: an allegory of the evil spirit who rules the world." (179)
Fishburn and Hughes: "A kenning in the Norse Eddas, meaning gold. See Sword-water." (179)
Aldrovandi, 1640
Chinese monster, a serpent with four wings
street in Palermo neighborhood in Buenos Aires where Borges lived for part of his childhood, part of which is now Calle Jorge Luis Borges
Fishburn and Hughes: "A street in Palermo where Borges spent his early childhood. He describes his house on Serrano Street as having 'two patios, a garden with a tall windmill pump and, on the other side of the garden, an empty lot'. This is in accordance with his definition of the Palermo of his day as 'the shabby northern outskirt of town'." (180)
Argentine poet, teacher and playwright, author of Poemas de los cuatro vientos and Conciencia de la educación
river in northern France
Fishburn and Hughes: "A river in the Ardennes and Aisne departments in the north of France." (180)
Maeterlinck, 1889
dry scrubland of Brazilian northeast
Euclides da Cunha's classic account of the Brazilian army campaign against the religious community at Canudos, published in 1905
Michael Servetus, Spanish theologian and physician, 1511-1553, burned as a heretic
Belloc, 1912
character in Borges story
Marcus Servius Honoratus, 4th century Latin grammarian and critic, author of a commentary on Virgil
character in Bustos Domecq stories
Parodi: personaje en “Sangiácomo”, en Modelo y en Crónicas (“Lo que falta” y “Vestuario I”). De origen alemán, presidía la supuesta asociación Socorro Antihebreo (cf. Modelo “A manera de Prólogo” §8); destacada figura del remo; en los medios artísticos, marcó un nuevo rumbo en la polémica sobre la indumentaria a pincel (cf. “Vestuario I”); supuestamente, de su labor proceden las escuelas de Florida y Boedo.
cave in the Arabian Nights
Argentine photographer, b. 1949
in Egyptian religion, god of evil
city in southern France, home town of Paul Valéry
Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible
the seventy Hellenistic Jews who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek
in Bible, third son of Adam and Eve, father of Enos
character in Bustos Domecq story
Richard Aldington novel, 1938
Ruskin, 1849
Parodi: "Las siete lámparas de la arquitectura de Ruskin”: según Bustos, el folleto de Adam Quincey arremete también contra esta obra de John Ruskin (cf. supra §2), el escritor británico que introdujo la estética neogótica en Inglaterra. En el ensayo Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) Ruskin expone sus principios de arquitectura, muy marcados por sus preocupaciones éticas y religiosas, que amplía en Piedras de Venecia (1851-1853). Construyó el Museo de Historia Natural de Oxford, uno de los más finos ejemplos del estilo de Renacimiento Victoriano Gótico en Gran Bretaña. En el comienzo mismo de Seven Lamps pone: “Architecture is the art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by man for whatsoever uses, that the sight of them contributes to his mental health, power and pleasure.” (Cap. I, 15).
Collection of Short Stories by English writer and caricaturist Max Beerbohm (1872-1956) first published in 1919.
T. E. Lawrence memoir of war in the Arabian peninsula, 1926 and 1935
Fishburn and Hughes: see T.E. Lawrence.
Kipling poems, 1896
Italian cubist and futurist painter, 1883-1966
river in Wales and England
Seville, city in Spain
Boehme theological work
Czepko series of poetic epigrams
Rodolfo Wilcock’s work, 1953.
Sextus Empiricus, Greek physician and sceptical philosopher, c. 160-210, author of Adversus Mathematicos, Adversus Logicos and Outlines of Pyrrhonism
Henry Miller novel, 1949, part of the Rosy Crucifixion
Jack London story, 1903
Phillpotts, 1918.
Phillpotts, play, 1914.
Conrad novella, 1917
Book of Kings, Firdusi's 10th century Persian history
Sheherazade, queen of Shahriar in the Arabian Nights
Fishburn and Hughes: "The teller of the tales in the Thousand and One Nights, daughter of the vizier of King Shahriyar, who became her husband. It was the king's custom to kill his wives after the marriage had been consummated, but Scheherazade escaped by telling him stories and ending each night at the most gripping moment, so that he begged her to resume the narration the following night. By the time all the tales were told, she was able to present the king with his child, thus making her presence indispensable and dear to him. Borges expressed his fascination for Scheherazade's 'wondrous tales', describing her as 'more inventive than Allah' (Borges mem. 11). For Scheherazade’s ‘magic night’, see Night of Nights." (177)
Parodi: “Nuestro moderno Shahrazade”: la legendaria reina Scheherazade es la incansable narradora de los cuentos de Las mil y una noches; aquí se la equipara a Tulio Savastano, de quien Bioy dice: “para relatar historias largas […] nadie como Savastano.” (Borges 699).
Schariar or Sharyar, legendary king of Samarkand, character in the Arabian Nights
Pascal study, 1937
Hughes book of poems, 1942
work by Lewis Theobald published by 1726
Gundolf study, 1911
Dramas históricos, poemas y sonetos, edited by Ernest Rhys, 1908
Samuel Butler study of Shakespeare's sonnets that argues that they concern a homosexual relationship, 1899
Shakespeare's son, 1585-1796
William Shakespeare's father, c. 1531-1601, a glover
Shakespeare's daughter
English playwright and poet, 1564-1616, author of Hamlet, Macbeth, The Tempest, Julius Caesar and some thirty other plays, as well as sonnets and narrative poems
Fishburn and Hughes: "England's greatest poet and playwright, author of more than 35 plays; also, an actor. The Shape of the Sword; CF 141: Borges tends to use Shakespeare's name as a symbol of all humanity, the creator whose identity (not unlike that of God himself) is dispersed in his multiple creation. He quotes Coleridge, for whom Shakespeare is a 'literary variation of Spinoza's infinite God'; Hazlitt, who said that Shakespeare resembled all men but in himself was nobody; and Hugo, who compared the poet to the ocean, the seed bed of all forms of life (Other Inq. 148). He later repeats this concept in an essay entitled 'Everything and nothing' (CF 319 ). Deutsches Requiem: Borges's reference to 'the immense Germanic name' of Shakespeare stems from the fact that, with the interpretative work of Lessing in the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth-century translations of August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Shakespeare became one of the most influential forces in the forging of the new German aesthetics of the anti-classicist and anti-rationalist Sturm und Drang literary movement. He was admired for the individuality and restlessness of his characters and the grandeur of their ambitions and uncontrollable passions. One of the last fictions by Borges (1980/1983) is called ‘Shakespeare’s Memory’." (180)
Emerson essay in Representative Men
A. C. Bradley study, 1904
Anglo-Argentine poet, author of Ferment
dynasty of China which ruled from c. 1766 B.C. to c. 1122 B.C.
legendary Chinese bird that brings rain
Chengdu, capital of Szechwan or Sichuan province, China
city in China, also spelled Shangai
English writer, known for war poetry and science fiction, 1892-1953
Wells novel, 1933
Fishburn and Hughes: "An unpublished collection of literary and political essays by Borges written in Spain in 1919 and showing the influence of Pío Baroja's biting realism and ironic pessimism." (180)
Irish playwright and critic, 1856-1950, author of Major Barbara, Saint Joan, Arms and the Man, Man and Superman, Back to Methusaleh, Man and Superman and many other works
pseudonym used by T. E. Lawrence for his translation of the Odyssey: see also Lawrence, Thomas Edward
1933 film directed by Lowell Sherman, starring Mae West
Byron poem
Canadian film actress, 1900-1983
Parodi: estrella de cine, de origen canadiense (1900−1983), famosa en el cine de Hollywood en los años veinte y treinta.
Abigal Way, d. 1793, friend and patron of Gibbon, along with her husband, John Baker-Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield
English poet, 1792-1822, author of Adonais, Prometheus Unbound, Defence of Poetry, The Revolt of Islam and other works
Fishburn and Hughes: "From the Hebrew shem, 'name', and mephorash, 'pre-eminent': the pre-eminent name of God, which differs from all his other names by virtue of its significance. It is the Hebrew equivalent of the Tetragrammaton, both words being periphrastic allusions, rather than direct references, to God." (181)
beginning of Hebrew prayer
Chinese disciple of Bodhidharma
notorious English thief, 1702-1724, whose "Narrative" may have been ghostwritten by Daniel Defoe
English writer and critic, 1861-1943, biographer of Oscar Wilde
tiger, character in Kipling's Jungle Books
Union general during the U. S. Civil War, 1820-91
British playwright, screenwriter and novelist, 1896-1975, author of Journey's End
Shaw play
Shi Jing, Chinese collection of ancient songs, translated by Arthur Waley as The Book of Songs
Chinese writer, 1296-1372, said to be the first compiler of the Water Margin
British writer born on the island of Montserrat, 1865-1947, author of crime fiction featuring Prince Zaleski
Parodi: el “principesco M. P. Shiel”: el escritor inglés Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865−1947) fue autor de ensayos, poemas, obras de teatro, más de veinte novelas y varios libros de cuentos policiales, fantásticos y de ciencia ficción. El atributo de “principesco” puede explicarse al menos por dos razones: por una parte, Shiel obtuvo renombre por su primer libro de relatos, Prince Zaleski (1895), un detective aristocrático, decadente y extravagante, que pasa el tiempo fumando opio y que, sin abandonar su palacio, resuelve los enigmas londinenses en forma preminentemente lógica. Por otra parte, Shiel era “Príncipe de la Isla de Redonda”, título obtenido en 1880 por iniciativa de su padre, que en 1865 había adquirido esta minúscula isla caribeña, desde entonces simbólicamente gobernada por escritores.
Shi Hwang-ti, first universal emperor of China, 246-210 B.C.
Machen, 1895
city in Iran
town in England
Hindu god, sometimes Siva
Hemingway short story that appeared in The Fifth Column, 1938
Fung Yu-Lan, 1948
J. M. Robertson, 1902
Jack Lindsay, 1939
Chesterton, 1917.
Saintsbury, 1898
Waterhouse, 1943
Breve historia del porvenir, John Langdon-Davies, 1936
shorter version of the OED, first published in 1933
character in Shaw's Heartbreak House
Ferber novel, 1926, later turned into a musical and film
Sternberg film
character in Bustos Domecq story
Danish king
Schultz, Xul-Solar's family
legendary early emperor of China, 2255-2205
Capote novel, 1948
pseud. of Nevil Shute Norway, 1899-1960, popular novelist, author of On the Beach
main character in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice
Fishburn and Hughes: "The Jewish usurer in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, a character who has been interpreted in many different ways. The history of Shylock as set out in the fictional Rosencrantz Speaks with the Angel is obviously apocryphal. There is, however, a long list of speculations about Shylock’s origins. Among these figure an early ballad entitled Ser Gernutus the Jew, an English version of the Italian play Il Pecorone, the Persian story of the 'Seven Wise Masters of Rome' from the Sinbad series, an English version of the Gesta Romanorum (c.1472) and the state trial of Rodrigo Lopez, Queen Elizabeth's Jewish physician." (181)
Xi Jiang, river in China that empties into the sea at Macau
Ellery Queen mystery, 1933
Fishburn and Hughes: "A detective novel by Ellery Queen (the pseudonym of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee), first published in 1933. The action takes place in the rich house of an eccentric doctor where murderer, victims, Inspector Queen and his son Ellery, together with other guests, are confined by a forest fire which has cut off all possible escape and finally destroys the house. The Inspector, diverted from the identity of the murderer which he had initially guessed, finally reverts to his original hypothesis." (181)
vast area of eastern Russia
character in the eddas
character in Virgil's Aeneid
Erythraean sibyl in Greco-Roman mythology
Milward Kennedy crime novel, 1936, also known as The Scornful Corpse
Argentine physician and novelist, 1854-1927, author of the five volume Libro extraño
Sicily, large island in southern Italy
tango
Sicilia and Naples under Spanish rule
Nepalese prince, given name of Buddha
Hesse novel, 1922
English poet, author and courtier, 1554-86, author of Astrophil and Stella, Arcadia and other works
US film actress, 1910-1999
ancient Phoenician port city, now in Lebanon
Parodi: una marca de sidra muy popular que desde hace más de cien años produce la empresa de ese nombre en Mendoza.
Polish novelist, 1846-1916, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905, author of 1895 novel Quo Vadis?
location of a prison in the province of Buenos Aires in Olavarría
Parodi: una localidad del Partido de Olavarría, en la provincia de Buenos Aires donde funcionó la Unidad Penal 2, una cárcel inaugurada en 1882. En 1890 comenzó a explotarse en Sierra Chica una cantera; la piedra que se extraía se destinaba a la producción de adoquines, bordes de acera y bloques de granito. Desde 1911 a 1959 los encargados de la extracción de piedra fueron los reclusos del penal.
mountain region in the Sierras de Córdoba, Argentina
mountain region in the Sierras de Córdoba, Argentina
mountain region in Córdoba, Argentina, here misnamed Guasampa
mountain region in the Sierras de Córdoba, Argentina
mountain range in Córdoba
mountain range in Córdoba
Hepta epi Thebas, Aeschylus tragedy, 467 BCE
Book on Jorge Luis Borges' lectures given at Teatro Coliseo in the city of Buenos Aires in 1977. The book was published in 1980.
early tango attributed to Prudencio Aragón, also known as "Siete pulgadas"
Title of a tango.
Norse goddess mentioned in Prose Edda, wife of Thor
Anglo-Saxon name for Sigurd or Sigfrido
mermaid in the Nibelungenlied
French theologian, head of Latin Averroism, fl. 1260-1277
Siegfried, hero of the Nibelungenlied, called Sigurd in the Volsunga Saga
in Volsunga Saga, Sigurd's father
Agatha Christie, short story, published in the collection The Mysterious Mr Quin (1930).
Cecil B. DeMille film, 1932
Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes´s novel, 1890.
in Volsunga Saga, Sigmund's sister and wife
character in Volsunga Saga, identified with Brynhild
hero of Volsunga Saga, called Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied
Fishburn and Hughes: "In the Volsunga Saga the last of the Volsungs, who 'brings the Fáfnismál to an abrupt end' by slaying the dragon Fafnir. He is known as Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied. See Nibelungs." (181)
Sigurd the Pilgrim, who fought the Moslems in Jerusalem
Morris-Magnusson version of the Volsunga Saga, 1876
Fishburn and Hughes: "Believers in a monotheistic religion which originated in the late fifteenth century in the Punjab combining Hindu and Islamic elements. The Sikhs practise under the leadership of a Guru. They took up arms when persecuted by the Mongols in the late seventeenth century, and by the early nineteenth century they were dominant in the Punjab and remained so until its annexation to India in 1849. Though they were loyal to British rule and fought for the British in World War I, they joined Gandhi's movement during the unrest caused by the subsequent economic depression. Many Sikhs were killed in the massacre of Amritsar (1919). At the time of the Mongol persecutions the Guru baptized five leading members of the sect, giving them a common surname, Singh (which means 'lion'), and thus turning the nation into a family. The surname is now spread throughout the Sikh population. See Mutiny." (181-82)
Lucius Cornelius Sila or Sulla, Roman dictator, 138-78
Parodi: “figuro bajo el nombre supuesto de Aquiles Silberman”: el alias elegido por Bustos combina el nombre de un personaje de “Las doce figuras del mundo”, Aquiles Molinari (cf. i §1), con el de Santiago Silberman, dos de los ‘inmortales’ del doctor Narbondo.
character in Bustos Domecq story
Poe story, 1838
historical region of Central Europe now mostly in Poland
spirits of the air according to Paracelsus
Silius Italicus, Latin epic poet, c. 26-c. 101
criminal in Buenos Aires
US film star of the silent era, 1882-1930
Fishburn and Hughes: "A stage actor and film star who made his debut in 1915. A precursor of John Barrymore, Sills played romantic roles and was popular with female audiences." (182)
town in southeastern Switzerland where Nietzsche spent summers in the 1880s
Uruguayan poet and short-story writer, 1887-1975
Uruguayan poet
Portuguese poet, 1731-99, author of O Hissope
Colombian poet, 1865-1896, author of several Nocturnos and of the novel De sobremesa
Fernando Gilardi, 1938
Roman name for satyrs
town in southeastern Switzerland near Sils-Maria
character in Borges-Bioy filmscript
character in Borges story
character in Bustos Domecq story
Parodi: supuesto ex policía capturó a Bradford en 1931.
character in Borges-Bioy filmscript
Spanish politician, 1830-92
Stevenson travel book, 1883
owner of soap factory in Bustos Domecq story
Sinbad the Sailor, character in the Arabian Nights, sometimes Sindibad
Fishburn and Hughes: "One of the characters of the Thousand and One Nights whose numerous sea journeys and adventures are spread over many nights. The tales of 'Sinbad the Sailor' are part of a group of independent stories later added to the original nucleus. Borges often draws a comparison between the seafaring Sinbad and Ulysses (e.g. Siete noches 70)." (183)
Nierenstein Souza, 1914
Parodi: Balzac, uno de los mayores representantes del realismo francés del siglo XIX, publicó la primera versión reducida de la novela La Recherche de l’Absolu en 1834, en las Scènes de la vie privée; finalmente, en 1845, La Recherche quedó incorporada a los Études philosophiques de La Comédie humaine. La novela narra la pasión descontrolada del protagonista, Balthazar Claës, por descubrir el principio absoluto de la materia a partir de la descomposición de los cuerpos simples, una pasión que provoca sucesivos derrumbes afectivos y económicos de su familia y, por último, lo lleva a la muerte. El título del estudio de Nierenstein Souza no oculta la ironía de buscar simbolismos literarios en una novela de puro corte realista en la que los símbolos son los de la Química y le fueron proporcionados a Balzac por especialistas de la Academia de las Ciencias.
Belgian writer, 1903-89, known for his crime fiction
2nd century rabbi, collaborator of Akiba in the Merkabah studies
Fishburn and Hughes: "An early second-century Jewish scholar from Tiberias, a teacher of the oral law (or Mishnah), renowned for his saintliness. Tradition held that only a sage was allowed to 'enter the Garden' (the euphemism used for theosophical speculations), but Ben Azai's piety was such that he could devote himself to theosophical speculation without injury to the soul. It was said that 'he who has seen Ben Azai in his dreams is himself on the way to piety'. According to a story in the Talmud, Ben Azai 'beheld the mysteries of the Garden and died; God granted him the death of the saints' (Talmud, Hagigah 14b). It is difficult to decide whether Borges's use of the term 'rabbi' in connection with Ben Azai is a mark of respect or irony for, though Ben Azai's learning was great, he never achieved the status of rabbi." (182)
hill town in northern India
Simon Magus, Samaritan sorceror who attempted to buy spiritual power from the apostles
in the New Testament, the disciple Peter
Greek lyric and elegiac poet, inventor of a memory technique, c. 556-468
Fishburn and Hughes: "A leading Greek lyric and elegiac poet, few of whose poems survive. Pliny (7.24.1) says that Simonides invented a memory technique (perfected by Metrododorus) which enabled him to repeat anything he heard verbatim. Pliny probably derived this from Cicero who attributed to Simonides the saying that, since vision is the sharpest of our senses, 'by an act of sight we keep hold of things that we can scarcely embrace by an act of thought' (De Oratore 2.357)." (182)
Lenormand play, 1920
Guerra Junqueiro poems, 1892
Alberto Hidalgo manifesto/poems, 1925
Line in All's Well that Ends Well (IV.3.333-334)
Duchess of Windsor, 1896-1986, US wife of King Edward VIII , who had to abdicate when he married her
German poet, 1802-1876, translator of the Nibelungenlied in 1827
bird in Persian mythology and literature, a bird that is all birds, a symbol of the divinity
Fishburn and Hughes: "From the Persian si, 'thirty', and murg, 'bird' (also Sen-murgh, 'the Great Bird'): the bird in the Hindu Mahabharata, where it is also called Garida. Borges quotes the legend of the Simurgh in a series of illustrations of the pantheistic belief that God is 'several contradictory or (even better) miscellaneous things' (Other Inq. 69). The Simurgh is the bird referred to as 'a bird that somehow is all birds'. See Parliament of Birds." (182)
Lomuto tango, 1921
alleged street name
film, see All Quiet on the Western Front
Cambaceres novel, 1885
Fishburn and Hughes: "The Islamic name for China. Sin Kalan (Sin-i Kalal) Literally 'Great China': the Arabic and Persian name for the seaport of Canton during the Mongol period. After contact with Hindu and Arab seamen and traders in the tenth century the city grew enormously. It was the first Chinese port to be visited regularly by European merchants." (183)
peninsula in Egypt
pseud. of Mary Amelia St. Clair, 1862-1946, popular British writer and suffragist, known for introducing elements from psychoanalysis into her fiction, as well as the supernatural
US novelist and socialist leader, 1878-1968, author of The Jungle and other works
Indus, river in India, see also Indo
prison in Ossining, New York
US inventor of sewing machine, 1811-75
Parodi: “la primera Singer”: alusión a la máquina de coser de uso doméstico, perfeccionada hacia 1850 por el mecánico, inventor y actor estadounidense Isaac Merritt Singer (1811-1875).
El barco que se hunde, one of Stevenson's Fables
Nordau book on philosophy of history, 1909
Edwards sermon, 1741
Argentine magazine
Zion, Biblical name for part of Jerusalem where Solomon's Temple stood
Middle English poem
nickname for Falstaff, here applied to Sir John Mandeville
ancient city of Syracuse in Sicily
Work by Abu Bakr Mohammad At-Tortushí (1059-1126).
name of store
mermaids
Syria
Berkeley scientific and philosophical miscellany, 1744
Persian word for Mogul supreme authority in India
Fishburn and Hughes: "From Urdu and Persian: the Anglo-Indian word for the state or government." (183)
French scholar and Jesuit, 1559-1651
French Protestant accused of murdering his daughter to prevent her from converting to Catholicism, defended by Voltaire, 1709-1777
Sisyphus, founder and king of Corinth, condemned to perpetual toil in Tartarus
Fishburn and Hughes: "In Greek mythology the son of Aeolus, punished for telling Asopus where Zeus had hidden his daughter Aegina. In Hades he was condemned to an endlessly repetitive task: rolling a stone uphill. 'Struggling with hands and feet alike, he would try to push it upward...but when it was on the point of going over the top... the pitiless stone rolled back down to the level' (Odyssey 11.593 ff)." (183)
Dreiser novel, 1900
Dante Gabriel Rossetti poem
British poet and critic, 1887-1964
Earl of Northumbria, a Danish warrior who probably came to Britain with King Canute, d. 1055
Radclyffe Hall novel, 1936
Swedish symbolist magazine (whose name means "seven seals") in which Runeberg published El agua secreta
Speech of Poetry, Snorri Sturluson treatise on skaldic poetry and on the kenningar in the Prose Edda
Njal's son in the Njals Saga
English philologist, 1835-1912
English anthropologist (1866-1953), son of the philologist Walter William Skeat (1835-1912), and author of Malay Magic (1900).
Campbell and Robinson study, 1944
British weekly magazine, 1893-1959
Fishburn and Hughes: "A 'weekly journal of art and actuality' published in London from February 1803 to June 1959. Like the Tatler, though perhaps not aiming at quite such an exclusive readership, the Sketch contained glossy photographs of fashionable society." (183)
Thornton Wilder play, 1943
Novel by W. W. Jacobs.
Words of Skirnis, a lay of love on the god Freyr and the woman Gerdr, in the Elder Edda
Skjolunda-saga, Norse historical book on the legendary Danish dynasty of the Skjöldungs, family that also appears in Beowulf
Old Norse name for the Eskimos or Inuit
Charles Gordon/Ralph Connor novel, 1899
author of The Man Who Wouldn't Go to Heaven
Van Vogt science fiction, 1946
Austrian adventurer in British and Egyptian service, 1857-1932
Fishburn and Hughes: "An Austrian explorer and administrator in the Sudan. In1892 he was Governor-General of Darfur, and he surrendered to the Mahdi the following year. He escaped in 1895." (183)
childhood friend of Borges in Geneva
Odin's eight-legged horse in Norse mythology
boar in Norse mythology who draws the chariot of the god Freyr
US magazine, 1890-1930
English poet, 1722-71
character in Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov
Fishburn and Hughes: "A Persian prince, the son of Cyrus and younger brother of Cambyses. He was murdered by his brother who was afraid he might usurp the throne during his absence in Egypt. Gaumata, an impostor claiming to be Smerdis, usurped the throne between 522 and 521 BC. He was deposed and killed by Darius I." (184)
American-born (though later British) essayist and critic (1865-1946).
British scholar, 1884-1970, author of The Persian Mystics: Attar, 1932
Fishburn and Hughes: "An English orientalist. Her Persian Mystic: Attar (1932) consists of a short introduction and selected translations of the poetry of Farid Edin Attar." (184)
Scottish philosopher, 1872-1958, author of works on Hume, Descartes, Kant and others
British lexicographer, 1813-1893, author of an 1870 classical encyclopedia of which A Smaller Classical Dictionary is an abridged version
British publisher, 1861-1907, editor of Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights, known for publishing erotica
Faulkner, short story, 1932.
Sandburg poems, 1920
Fishburn and Hughes: "A city on the west coast of Asia Minor. CF 183: In 'The Immortal' the mention of Smyrna establishes an early link with Homer, one of whose reputed (and disputed) birth-places it was." (184)
reference to a witticism of Dr. Johnson's (recorded by Boswell) a propos of Horrebow's Natural History of Iceland, 1758
saga about the life of Snorri Sturluson
Icelandic chieftain, historian, critic and saga teller, 1178-1241, author of the Prose Edda
Hawthorne collection of short stories, 1851
Whittier poem, 1866
Hemingway short story which appeared in The Fifth Column, 1938
Antonio Nobre book of poems, 1892
Ferber, 1924
Portuguese poet, 1826-1860
Borges story in El libro de arena
One of the parts of book V of Moralia by Plutarch.
Lugones poem in Poemas solariegos
Uruguayan poet and essayist, 1906-1959, editor of Cuadernos de La Licorne
Parodi: una institución real, con sede en el barrio porteño de San Nicolás.
Parodi: supuesta sociedad de beneficencia fundada y presidida por la baronne Puffendorf-Duvernois; cf. “Goliadkin”; “Limardo” I.
Parodi: “la Sociedad Protectora”: referencia a la Sociedad Protectora de Animales, creada en 1879, durante la presidencia de Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, que fue su primer presidente. Actualmente, esta institución lleva su nombre.
church in Buenos Aires
Greek philosopher, 469-399 BC
one of the "cities of the plain" in the Bible
German critic, 1880-1958, author of Dichtung und Dichter der Zeit
Fishburn and Hughes: "A German literary critic, author of Dichtung und Dichter der Zeit: Eine Schildung der deutschen Literatur des letzen Jahreszente (2 vols, Leipzig, 1911-28). In this panoramic study of German creative literature from about 1880, Sorgel traces the main influences, native and foreign, that have shaped German literature. Walt Whitman is mentioned several times and has a separate entry with a photograph (vol.1, 533-6), though his alleged comparison with the character David Jerusalem is of course apocryphal." (184)
character in Borges story who possesses Shakespeare's memory; possible allusion to Albert Soergel
character in Borges story, brother of Hermann Soergel
Saint Sophia, here mentioned à propos of a book by Paul Claudel
Sophocles, Greek tragic poet, c. 496-c. 406
Blandas respuestas, Richard Aldington, five short novels, 1932
part of the Skjoldunga-bok
neighborhood in central London
Matthew Arnold poem on the conflict between father and son in the Shah-nama, 1853
Valéry prose work, 1896
Parodi: obra de Paul Valéry publicada en 1895, es la primera de una serie que tiene por protagonista a Edmond Teste, una especie de alter−ego del autor. La velada con el señor Teste es un texto fragmentario, en palabras de Valéry, una novela sin intriga, en la que un narrador analiza los procesos introspectivos del señor Teste, una inteligencia estéril que agota todas sus posibilidades en el examen de su propio proceso intelectual, un autor consagrado a una obra ‘interior’. Escribe Borges en “Valery como símbolo”: “Valery ha creado a Edmond Teste; ese personaje sería uno de los mitos de nuestro siglo si todos, íntimamente, no lo juzgáramos un mero Doppelgänger de Valery. Para nosotros, Valery es Edmond Teste […]” (64).
Argentine novelist and journalist, author of El alma de los perros, Glosario del tango and other works
sun
Scandinavian sun goddess
Sureda poem
Lugones poem in Lunario sentimental
Spanish newspaper
Short story by American writer Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907).
Faulkner novel
Góngora poem, first part of projected four parts of Soledades
Góngora poem, published in 1627, consisting of the Soledad Primera and the Soledad Segunda
Parodi: "una severa gauchización de las Soledades, de Góngora”: la idea de verter en lenguaje gauchesco un clásico de la literatura española ironiza sobre la obra del jesuita Leonardo Castellani (1899−1981), ensayista, cuentista, novelista, teólogo, filósofo, que emprendió la tarea sin precedentes en la literatura argentina de traducir la Summa teologica de Tomás de Aquino (1225−1274) en versos gauchescos. La labor de Castellani quedó inconclusa y sólo se publicó su traducción de los cinco primeros tomos de la Summa, editados en 1944 por el Club de Lectores en veinte volúmenes. Castellani escribió también cuentos policiales en los que aporta reflexiones teológicas sobre el pecado y la redención; sus detectives, el Padre Metri y el Padre Ducadelia, están inspirados en el Padre Brown de Chesterton. Para Castellani, cf. también Modelo iv §2.
street in Buenos Aires
Fishburn and Hughes: "A street in the northern district of Palermo running almost parallel to the house on Calle Serrano in which Borges lived as a child. Borges refers to this area as 'shabby' and 'genteel'." (184)
Argentine writer, poet associated with the magazine Martín Fierro; listed his profession as "astrologer" in the Exposición de la actual poesía actual
Argentine general and politician, 1783-1814
Santayana, 1922
Arabic name for Solomon, used in Arabian Nights
town in Germany near Dusseldorf
Gaius Iulius Solinus, 3rd century Latin encyclopedist who drew most of his Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium from Pliny and Mela without acknowledgement
street in Buenos Aires
Parodi: “Solís y Pavón”: dos de las calles que rodean a la Plaza Garay.
Spanish playwright and historian, 1610-1686; reference to Anáhuac here is to his Historia de la conquista de México, población y progresos de la América septentrional, conocida por el nombre de Nueva España
Old English poetic dialogue
Vladimir Sergeyivich Solovyov, Russian philosopher, 1853-1900
Lugones poem in Los crepúsculos del jardín
Manuel Gálvez novel, 1917
gaucho hero of Güiraldes novel Don Segundo Sombra, based on a real figure named Segundo Ramírez
Bianco novella, 1941
supposed film with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland
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.
Sackville-West book on gardening, 1937
Stevenson essay
Nicolson, 1926
William James, 1911
William Irish, novel, 1940.
British naval hero, 1554-1610, leader of a naval campaign against Spain and founder of the British colony in Bermuda
Kipling autobiography, 1937
Susana Bombal character
Kepler scientific satire, published posthumously in 1634
Cicero's account of a dream by Scipio Aemilanus, in De re publica
character in Buddhist fable
Lugones poem in El libro de los paisajes
Enrique Banchs
Jáuregui poem, 1610
Lope sonnets
Banchs sonnets
Góngora sonnets
Quevedo sonnets
Sonetos de Antero, Antero de Quental sonnet collection, 1861
Silvina Ocampo’s book of poetry, 1948.
Shand poem in Ferment
Whitman poem in Leaves of Grass, 1855
Kipling poem, 1894
Cancion del mañana, Stevenson fable
Stevenson, poems, 1896.
Christopher Smart poem
Masters, 1916
Blake collection of poems, 1794
Blake collection of poems, 1789
section of Whitman's Leaves of Grass in later editions
style of handwriting invented by Friedrich Sönnecken, 1848-1919, German inventor
Parodi: el empresario e inventor alemán Friedrich Sönnecken (1848-1919) fue el fundador de la primera fábrica alemana de estilográficas, el creador de la perforadora de papel, de la carpeta de tres anillos, de un estilo de caligrafía –la letra redonda− y de la pluma de punta redondeada para dibujarla. La fábrica continúa ofreciendo utensilios para oficinas.
Shakespeare sonnet sequence, probably written between 1593 and 1596, published in 1609
Santayana, 1901
Elizabeth Barrett Browning sonnet sequence, published in 1850
D. H. Lawrence novel, 1913
Phillpotts, 1900
British scholar of China and Confucianism, 1861-1935
Fishburn and Hughes: "A linguist and classical scholar, described by Cicero as 'litteratissimus omnium togatorum' ('the most educated of all the Romans'). He was murdered at Pompey's instigation in 82 BC. The information that Soranus 'divulged the hidden name of Rome' is given by Pliny (3.65) who recounts that it was held a sin to reveal the 'other name' of Rome 'religiously kept for the weal of the state'; Soranus 'soon paid the penalty', though it is not made clear what." (184)
Sorbonne, University of Paris
Italian troubadour, c.1180-1269?, mentioned by Dante and the subject of a poem by Browning
French political philosopher, 1847-1922
Kafka story written between 1914 and 1917 concerning Odradek
place in southeastern Spain
character in Borges-Bioy filmscript
Spanish painter, 1863-1921
Parodi: Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923), pintor español vinculado con la escuela impresionista francesa de la que fue contemporáneo. Célebre por sus paisajes de diversas regiones de España, en especial de la costa valenciana, y por las escenas de la vida y el trabajo cotidianos; también fue un destacado retratista.
Uruguayan colonel, 1811-1844, mentioned in Ascasubi's Paulino Lucero
Bustos Domecq reference to the Buenos Aires subway system, usually called "subterráneo" or "subte"
Parodi: referencia al transporte subterráneo de Buenos Aires.
friend of Borges
Argentine poet and translator, 1863-1936, adversary of Borges
knife-fighter in Buenos Aires
Spanish soldier and explorer, c. 1500-42
Spanish linguist, 1785-1869, inventor of an artificial language
collection of stupid quotations by Flaubert, sometimes included in Bouvard et Pécuchet
French mystic from Lourdes, 1844-1879, canonized in 1933
Old English poem, in different versions in the Vercelli and Exeter Books
H. G. Wells novel, 1917
Oscar Wilde essay, 1891
Faulkner novel, 1929
Portuguese poet
Portuguese monk and writer, 1555-1632, author of Latin poetry and of lives of Bartholomew and Dominic
Charles de Soussens, 1865-1927, Swiss-French friend of Carriego's, important member of artistic circles in Buenos Aires in the early twentieth century
parliamentary consistuency in Greater Manchester
large district of Chicago
English clergyman and author, 1634-1716
city in southern England
Freya Stark's narrative of her travels in Yemen, 1934, full title The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut
Fishburn and Hughes: "A railway network serving the south of Argentina whose terminal is in Plaza Constitución. It is now called Ferrocarril General Roca. There is no 'Ferrocaril Austral'." (185)
literary magazine edited by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks, 1935-1942
English poet, biographer, historian and translator, 1774-1843, author of Thalaba, Roderick, the Last of the Goths, A Tale of Paraguay, a History of Brazil and many other works
character in Bustos Domecq, perhaps related to Nierenstein Souza
Parodi: “Souza, que es la mano derecha de Gouveia, el de los Pegotes Pereyra −sabés− que vez pasada se impusieron también como la Tapioca Científica”: estos nombres evocan acontecimientos y personajes de “El testigo”, la primera de las Dos fantasías memorables, donde se mencionan el Piojicida Diogo (cf. §1) y el Hotel y Fonda de Gouveia (§3).
popular lyric of Buenos Aires
popular lyric of Buenos Aires
corpse in Ellery Queen's The Devil to Pay
town in Lincolnshire, England
Ellery Queen mystery, 1935
Work, 1911, attributed in the Antología de la literatura fantástica to I. A. Ireland.
Agatha Christie, novel, 1945.
character in Bustos Domecq story
Parodi: Spátola más adelante es identificado como abanderado del grupo (cf. infra §10)
quotation from Hamlet.V.ii, here translated as: Que hablen sonoramente por él / La música del soldado y los ritos de la guerra
magazine where Oscar Wilde published two articles in 1890, edited by Thomas Wemyss Reid
character in Collins's The Moonstone
character in Bustos Domecq story
Parodi: Speciale, a pesar del apellido manifiestamente italiano, recibe el apodo de ‘el vasco’; cf. “Doce” i §4.
periodical edited by Addison and Steele, 1711-1712
Fishburn and Hughes: "A weekly periodical first published in London in 1828. Described then as a review of 'educated radicalism', it is still traditionally associated with the literary views of the intelligentsia, though no longer of the left." (185)
Ben Hecht film, 1946
Vincent de Beauvais miscellany
medieval encyclopedia
English philosopher, 1820-1903, author of First Principles, The Principles of Psychology and other works
Fishburn and Hughes: "An English philosopher, author of First Principles (1862) and Principles of Ethics (1879-93), who expounded the theory that the evolutionary forces which act in the development of animal life are also at work in man and in the moral structure of society, striving towards a goal which corresponds with the 'survival of the fittest'. The details relating to Spencer are autobiographical: in 'An Autobiographical Essay' Borges recalls that he first learnt about Spencer as a child, from his own father who was 'a disciple of Spencer' (Aleph 126 (204)). What particularly attracted him, as much as it did his father, was the importance Spencer gave to the individual and Spencer's defence of individual identity and freedom against the increasing intrusion of the state (Other Inq. 35)." (185)
English poet and critic, 1909-1986, author of The Destructive Element, The Creative Element, The Struggle of the Modern and other works
German historian and philosopher, 1880-1936, author of Der Untergang des Abendlandes
Fishburn and Hughes: "A German philosopher of history, best known for his pessimistic work The Decline of the West (1918).
The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero: Spengler argues against a linear interpretation of history, which he sees as consisting of aimless cycles of cultural configurations, of which western European civilisation is only one and already in decline.
Deutsches Requiem: Spengler expresses the passing of cultures in terms of seasons, at times Apollonian, at times Faustian. By the latter term he means everything that is dynamic and speculative, a romantic longing for the unattainable. An ardent nationalist, he believed in the need for an aristocratic elite; today he is accused of laying the intellectual foundations of fascism. His concept of Faust became the symbol of German dynamism at the time of the Third Reich." (185)
character in Scottish ballad
English poet, c. 1552-1599, author of The Faerie Queene
Fishburn and Hughes: "Richard Church's biography of the poet Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) contained an extensive account of the composition of The Faerie Queene The 'fault previously noted by Richard William Church (Spenser, 1879)', constituting a point of comparison with 'The Approach to Almotasim', may be found at page 130. Church writes: 'It is a heroic poem in which the heroine, who gives her name to it, never appears: a story of which the basis and starting point is whimsically withheld for disclosure in the last book which was never written!'" (186)
Wilde poem, 1894
character in Bustos Domecq
Parodi: Spiantujen o también espiantujen son variantes del término lunfardo ‘spiante’ o ‘espiante’ (cf. “Limardo” i §5), que se emplea popularmente con el significado de fuga, escape, huida; cf. “Limardo” i §13.
Carl Van Vechten book about Hollywood, 1928
Becher
Werfel verse trilogy, 1921
Argentine painter, 1896-1964
British psychologist and humanist, born in Hungary, 1864-1940, author of The Mind of Man, 1902, The Origin and Nature of Man and other works, including some secular hymns
US educator and literary critic, 1875-1939, who endowed the Spingard Medal for outstanding black Americans
Borges poem
Dutch philosopher, 1632-77, author of Tractatus theologico-politicus and Ethica ordine geometrica demonstrata
Fishburn and Hughes: "A Dutch Jewish philosopher, an admirer and follower of the rationalism of Descartes and author of one of the most comprehensive systems of philosophy ever composed. His unorthodox views caused consternation among the Jews of Amsterdam who, in 1655, fearful of their position in a Christian environment, felt compelled to excommunicate him. Spinoza set out to deduce the nature of reality using a system conceived entirely through reason. His philosophy, expanded in Ethics, is essentially pantheistic and explains the universe as one substance or independent unity which must be its own cause. This belief led him to deduce that, since it comprises the whole of nature and its creation, this substance must be equivalent to God. Hence he concluded that God does not transcend the universe but is an impersonal force immanent in nature, an assertion that shocked his contemporaries. In Ethics Spinoza distinguished substance from its attributes and modes. Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius: substance, nature or God is infinite and manifests itself through an infinity of attributes, of which only two, thought and extension, are known to man. It is also divided into an infinity of finite modes (defined as 'parts' of the whole and ultimately indivisible from it), of which human beings are an example. For Spinoza there exists an exact correspondence between the 'modes' of one 'attribute' and the modes of any other, which makes the human mind a part of God's intellect, as the human body is a part of the physical system of nature. Though part of the absolute intellect, human thought can experience the absolute only through intuition, an insight Spinoza terms 'the intellectual love of God'; total knowledge is impossible since only two of God's attributes are known to man. Spinoza tries to achieve this intuition of God (or knowledge, or truth) through a logically deduced system of metaphysics in which arguments are advanced like geometrical theorems. Death and the Compass): this particular characteristic of Spinoza's method of exposition highlights the significance of the compass in 'Death and the Compass'. Borges was attracted to the idea of Spinoza 'creating' God in his elaboration of a rational system of metaphysics and wrote two poems to this effect. The juxtaposition of reason and intuition is a distinguishing feature of Borges's own writing as exemplified in his often used formulation 'álgebra y fuego' ('algebra and fire'). See More geometric." (186)
French poet and Zionist activist, 1868-1966
Macy, 1913
Whitman poem, 1881
French writer, 1896-1963, author of L'Agonie du globe and L'Homme élastique
German-born literary critic, 1887-1960, professor at Yale University, author of Linguistics and Literary Theory
German literary scholar, author of works on Trakl, Dante and other writers, here mistakenly named Theodor
city in eastern part of the state of Washington
Masters book of poems, 1915
Hylton Cleaver, 1951.
Parodi: “Sportivo Palermo”: club de fútbol creado en 1908; durante los años veinte y treinta tuvo su estadio en Palermo, junto al club k.d.t. (cf. Modelo iv §15); en los años setenta fue relegado a la más inferior de las categorías y dejó de participar en el fútbol nacional en 1983.
George Sylvester Viereck, 1931
capital city of Illinois
Cooper romance, 1821
character in Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby
in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
fabulous animal of Pennsylvania, Lacrimacorpus dissolvens, described in Cox's Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, 1910
Savatthi, ancient city in India associated with the life of Gautama Buddha, near Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh
Saki’s short story.
Chinese historian, c. 145-c. 90, author of the Historical Record
capital city of Minnesota
Anglican cathedral, Christopher Wren building in London
Tennyson poem on early Christian ascetic
Richard of St. Victor, d. 1173, Scottish theologian, prior of the Abbey of St. Victor in Paris
Publius Papinius Statius, Latin poet, c. 45-96, author of the Thebais, Achilleis and Silvae
German expressionist poet, 1883-1914
Swiss-French woman of letters, 1766-1817, author of De la littérature considerée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales, De l'Allemagne and other works
midland county in England
Fishburn and Hughes: "One of Borges's many allusions to his family ancestry; his grandmother Fanny Haslam was born in Staffordshire. See Francisco Borges." (186)
Soviet leader, 1879-1953, originally named Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili
Kipling's collection of short stories, 1899.
Graham Greene, novel, 1932.
site of important battle in 1066 between West Saxons and Norwegian invaders
Fishburn and Hughes: "A village on the border of the East Riding of Yorkshire, seven miles from York, where Harald Hardrada, king of Norway, was defeated in 1066 by Harold, king of England." (186)
university in Palo Alto, California
rapids on the Congo River, now known as Boyoma Falls
Lincoln's secretary of war, 1814-1869
doctor, character in Bustos Domecq story
Parodi: “es la única en Indo-América donde se aplica con rigor la metodología del doctor Eric Stapledon”: Narbondo se declara seguidor de un supuesto médico cuyo nombre recuerda al escritor inglés William Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950), al que Borges dedicó varias páginas. Escribe Borges “[…] este soñador de universos nació en Liverpool el 10 de mayo de 1886 y […] su muerte ocurrió en Londres el 6 de setiembre de 1950.” (“Olaf Stapledon” 141). En su primera novela Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future, de 1930, Stapledon describe al primer individuo verdadero de la cuarta especie humana, una nueva humanidad reducida a enormes cerebros inmóviles, que gobernará a la Tercera: “su sistema mecánico y químico era mucho más eficiente, y sus creadores esperaban que, debido al cuidadoso ajuste de los mecanismos de crecimiento y decadencia, podría llegar a ser inmortal. […] Sus hacedores construyeron una gran torre craneana circular que dividieron en muchos compartimientos, distribuidos en torno a un espacio central, con casillas por todas partes. […] el “cráneo” artificial era una espaciosa torre de hormigón armado de unos doce metros de diámetro. Una puerta y un pasillo permitían el acceso desde el exterior hasta el centro de la torre, y de allí partían otros pasillos entre hileras de pequeños aparadores. Innumerables tubos de cristal, metal y una especie de vulcanita distribuían la sangre y los elementos químicos por todo el sistema. Unos radiadores eléctricos mantenían un calor constante en todos los aparadores, así como en los innumerables canales de las fibras nerviosas, cuidadosamente protegidos. Termómetros, esferas, barómetros e indicadores de toda clase informaban a los asistentes de todos los cambios físicos que se producían en aquel extraño sistema medio natural y medio artificial, aquella descabellada factoría de la mente.” (La última y la primera humanidad 142-143). Aunque en rasgos generales respeta las conjeturas de Stapledon, el doctor Narbondo introduce “algunos toques acordes a nuestra idiosincrasia porteña”: en lugar de que −como en Last and First Men− una institución estatal atendiera y solventara la alimentación y educación de los cerebros (144), Narbondo establece que el aspirante a inmortal transfiera sus bienes a la empresa Narbondo, hijo y descendientes, que promete hacerse cargo de los gastos de “alojamiento, atención y service” por toda la eternidad. El dato que aporta Bustos sobre Eric Stapledon (“la muerte del llorado maestro, acaecida en Nueva Zelandia”) también lo vincula con Olaf, que se casó con una prima suya oriunda de Nueva Zelandia y en algunas de sus novelas los personajes tienen vinculaciones con esta isla.
English writer, 1886-1950, author of Star Maker
Wells novel, 1937
Stapledon, 1937
British travel writer, 1893-1993
Irish literary critic, 1897-1970, known for her work on French poetry
town in Bavaria where Meyrink died
final line of Chesterton's A Christmas Carol, 1896
Whitman poem, 1860
Masters book of poems, 1919
Quain book of short stories, 1939
waterfall in Switzerland, in the Bernese Oberland
famous French criminal, 1888-1934
Los guardianes del templo, Brezina poems, 1899
US diplomat and poet who became an Anglican clergyman, 1884-1967, known for his work on Christopher Smart
German-born British minister, editor of the English edition of Johann Andreas Eisenmenger's Rabbinical Literature; or the Traditions of the Jews, 1748
US photographer, 1879-1973
Sudermann, 1905
US writer, 1874-1946, author of Tender Buttons, Three Lives, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Lectures in America and other works
Fishburn and Hughes: "An American writer and critic who lived and worked in Paris, presiding over an artistic salon and encouraging young writers; she was the friend and confidante of Matisse, Picasso, Braque and Douanier Rousseau, and a champion of the literary 'avant-garde' which included Hemingway, T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. The experimental nature of her fiction, as in Three Lives (1909), and other poetry, as in Tender Buttons (1914), greatly influenced her generation." (187)
US writer and art collector, 1872-1947, brother of Gertrude Stein, author of Appreciations and Journey into the Self
Polish-born French scholar of Tibet, 1911-1999, author of La civilisation tibétaine, 1962
US writer, 1902-1968, author of The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden and other works
Italian literary scholar, 1863-1933, author of studies of Petrarch, Dante, Columbus and others
editor of Dante, probably a mistaken reference to Carlo Steiner
German occultist and social philosopher, 1861-1925, author of Die Philosophie der Freiheit, Anthroposophie, Geheimwissenschaft im Umriss and other works
woman mentioned in Kormac's Saga
Icelandic woman, mother of Refr Gestsson, mentioned in the Njalssaga
pseud. of Marie Henri Beyle, French novelist, 1783-1842, author of Le Rouge et le noir and La Chartreuse de Parme
drunkard, character in Shakespeare's Tempest
Fishburn and Hughes: "The first Christian martyr and saint, stoned to death for proclaiming his belief in the divinity of Jesus. The episode of Stephen's martyrdom, believed to have made a deep impression upon Paul, is related in Acts 7:58-60 in which it is said that Stephen's accusers laid their cloaks at the feet of a certain young man 'whose name was Saul'." (187)
English author and critic, 1832-1904, author of Hours in a Library and other works, father of Virginia Woolf
Irish novelist and poet, 1882-1950
La estepa roja, Joseph Kessel novel, 1922
Hesse novel, 1927
Stefan George collection of poems, 1914
Jonas Sternberg, US film director, 1894-1969, director of Underworld, The Blue Angel, Morocco, The Scarlet Empress and other works, and author of Fun in a Chinese Laundry
Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman, 1713-68, author of Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
Scottish writer, 1850-1894, author of Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, The Master of Ballantrae, Weir of Hermiston and numerous other works
Australian writer, 1912-1999, author of 1939 book on Blanqui and co-author of two crime novels with his wife, Patricia Hansford Johnson
accomplice of Lazarus Morell in Borges story
German industrialist and politician, 1870-1954
pseudonym of Johann Kaspar Schmidt, German philosopher important in the history of anarchism and nihilism, 1802-1856, author of Der Einzige und sein Eigentum
literary critic, 1902-1988, co-editor of Prison Anthology, 1938, and of a book on Yeats
Fishburn and Hughes: "A street in southern Buenos Aires near the Riachuelo, so-called because it led to the old corrales where cattle were sold and slaughtered." (187)
Dreiser novel, 1947
Ruskin treatise on medieval and Renaissance art, 1851-1853
Austin Freeman mystery, 1938
Frost poem, published in New Hampshire, 1923
Historia de Italia, Guicciardini, 1537-1540
Croce study, 1929
De Sanctis literary history, 2 vols., 1870-1871
Momigliano, 1936
Papini essay, 1921
Cantù compilation in 72 vols., 1840-1847
Parodi: “la Historia Universal de César Cantú”: el historiador y político italiano César Cantú (1807−1896) publicó en veinte volúmenes una Historia universal, de gran difusión en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX y la primera del XX. En la Argentina, un compendio de esa extensa obra fue el libro de texto escolar más empleado en la época para el aprendizaje de la historia universal.
Cuentos basados en el teatro de Shakespeare, Charles and Mary Lamb, 1807
Aldous Huxley collection in Everyman's Library, 1937
place mentioned in the Gudrun
Argentine poet, 1892-1938
Rouse translation of Homer's Iliad, 1938
Lewisohn literary history, 1932
de Mille film, 1944
Historia de Fernando, Munro Leaf book for children about a bull in Spain, 1936
Dieterle film, 1936
H. G. Wells, 1896
Charles Edward Key, 1938
Conan Doyle, play, 1907.
US novelist and humanitarian, 1811-1896, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin
Jane Maria Grant Strachey, British writer and feminist, 1840-1928, Lytton Strachey's mother
English biographer and critic, 1880-1932, author of Eminent Victorians
British general, Lytton Strachey's father
Italian violin maker, 1644-1737
German expressionist poet, 1874-1915
Stevenson novella, 1886
O'Neill play, 1928
town in England, home of Shakespeare
town in southern England where Shakespeare was born and where he is buried
German theologian and philosopher, 1808-1874
Cromwell film, 1930
Morland, 1936
Vidor film, 1931, based on Elmer Rice play
Elmer Rice play, 1929
Williams play, 1947
Sandburg poem, 1920
Jack London, collection of short stories, 1914.
place mentioned in Bede's history
character in James's The Ambassadors
Swedish playwright and novelist, 1849-1912
Austrian-American film director and actor, 1885-1957.
German writer, 1817-1888
Clement of Alexandria miscellany, c. 200 A.D.
Parodi: “corneta −reliquia que salvé del remate judicial del Studebaker−”: alusión a una bocina o claxon que Larrea logró que no fuera vendida en el remate forzado de su automóvil. ‘Studebaker’ fue una fábrica norteamericana que produjo automóviles entre 1902 y 1963.
Christopher Caudwell, 1938
D. H. Lawrence literary history, 1923
Walter Pater book, 1873
James Farrell novel
Conan Doyle detective story, 1887
Arnold essay, 1867
Czech baroness Borges met in Geneva and who gave him a copy of Meyrink's Der Golem
character in Grettirs Saga
nephew of Snorri Sturluson
another nephew of Snorri Sturluson, author of part of the Sturlunga Saga
family of Snorri Sturluson
Icelandic saga about Snorri Sturluson
expressionist magazine founded by Herwarth Walden in 1910 and was published until 1932
Tempestades, von Unruh play, 1922
city in Germany
(?-60 AD) A diplomat and a statesman of the Han dynasty of China. He is a model of the loyal and self-sacrificing servant. (Mentioned in Bustos Domecq story.)
seaport of the Sudan on the Red Sea
Fishburn and Hughes: "A town in the Sudan, on the Red Sea, formerly the port whence slaves were shipped to the Americas and Muslim pilgrims sailed to Mecca." (187)
pseudonym of Félix-André-Yves Scantrel, 1868-1948, French poet and critic who was one of the founders of the Nouvelle Revue Française
street in Buenos Aires
family
Fishburn and Hughes: "The name of several Argentine military men, including Borges's ancestor to whom the allusion in CF 212 probably refers. Manuel Isidoro Suárez (1759-1843) was Borges's mother's maternal grandfather. Borges honoured his memory in two poems. Suárez fought in the Wars of Independence and is remembered as the victor of Junín. In the period leading to 1829, during the struggles between Federalists and Unitarians, Suárez fought on the side of the Unitarians." (187)
Argentine literary journalist, friend of Carriego's
Borges's maternal grandmother, 1837-1918
Spanish nobleman and man of letters, 1518-1583
Argentine writer, disciple of H. Bustos Domecq, author of Un modelo para la muerte
Parodi: el único intelectual cercano a Bustos que vierte sus dotes artísticas en actividades exclusivamente literarias es su discípulo B. Suárez Lynch, otro de los pseudónimos creados por Borges y Bioy para su obra en colaboración. La trayectoria literaria de Suárez puede interpretarse como un intento –fallido− de separarse de la imitación de sucesivos maestros en busca de una personalidad literaria propia. Cuando Suárez Lynch publica su novela, Bustos ya es un escritor consagrado y ha editado al menos una de sus obras mayores, Seis problemas. Los datos sobre la vida y obra de Suárez provienen exclusivamente del prólogo que Bustos Domecq escribió para Modelo, fechado en Pujato, el 11 de octubre de 1945. En esas páginas, Bustos historia la carrera literaria de su discípulo, en la que señala dos etapas bien diferenciadas: antes y después de la llamada Revolución del 4 de junio de 1943 (cf. infra §7), fecha en que se ubica la publicación de Modelo, la obra capital de Suárez. Esta novela fue supuestamente precedida por obras menores: unas páginas inspiradas en la obra del escritor Tony Agita, un boceto biográfico de un presidente argentino, un informe sobre el Negro Falucho, obra que le valió el Gran Premio de Honor de la Academia de la Historia; a estas primeras creaciones se añade un “articulejo sobre la muerte propia de Rilke”. Según Bustos, Suárez Lynch alcanza finalmente la cima literaria con su propia novela policial, inspirada en Seis problemas, los seis cuentos de Bustos Domecq de los que retoma la mayor parte de los personajes, incluido el detective Parodi. Sobre la elección del pseudónimo, dice Borges: “Bautizamos B. Suárez Lynch al autor de ese libro. Creo que la “B” correspondía a Bioy y Borges, Suárez era otro bisabuelo mío y Lynch otro bisabuelo de Bioy.” (Autobiografía 120). Sobre este parentesco con los Lynch, cf. “Búsqueda” §6; “Naturalismo” §4.
supposed 17th century Spanish writer to whom Borges attributes a paragraph he elsewhere attributes to Josiah Royce
Buenos Aires thug, alias Carnaza
Argentine colonel in the wars of independence, 1799-1846, Borges's great-grandfather
a knife-fighter, a character in several Borges stories
knife-fighter
young man mentioned by Lugones in El Payador who made a living reciting the Martín Fierro
character in Borges story
knife-fighter
López Velarde poem on Mexico
brand of cigarettes
Parodi: cigarrillos fabricados por “La sin bombo”
Elmer Rice play, 1929
Parodi: “un “Suceso Argentino” que gallardamente prolongara en el celuloide cierto desfile más o menos gauchesco”: alusión a la película sobre el desfile de gauchos que se proyectaba en el cine Select Buen Orden (cf. supra iv §2). Sucesos argentinos fue el nombre de uno de los primeros noticiarios cinematográficos del país y del primer ‘Semanario Cinematográfico Latinoamericano’. Si bien surgió como una empresa privada en 1938, desde un principio mantuvo un tono marcadamente patriótico y una orientación política que fue acompañando a diversos gobiernos hasta que dejó de producirse en 1972. Ofrecía información sobre política, economía, cultura, moda y deportes. Desde 1943, durante el gobierno de Ramírez (cf. supra “A manera de Prólogo” §5), se dictó un decreto para promover los noticiarios en el país y se estableció la obligatoriedad de proyectar Sucesos argentinos en todas las salas unos minutos antes del comienzo de cada función. Desde esa fecha, la producción de los noticiarios estuvo orientada por la recién creada Subsecretaría de Información, Prensa y Propaganda del Estado (siip). A partir de 1949, durante el segundo gobierno de Perón, Sucesos argentinos fue subsidiado por el Estado e impulsó la promoción, difusión y propaganda de las obras del gobierno. En “El hijo de su amigo”, uno de los Nuevos cuentos de Bustos Domecq, el narrador hace una síntesis satírica de esos noticiarios: “la campaña que hace la s.o.p.a. en pro de la producción nacional, zampando en cada noticiario de ceremonias y banquetes un tendal de tomas que usted se distrae viendo la fabricación del calzado, cuando no el sellado de los tapones o el etiquetado de los envases”; cf. “Hijo” i §2.
country in northern Africa
Fishburn and Hughes: "The largest nation in north-east Africa, whose name derives from an ancient Arabic expression meaning 'land of the blacks'. Its population is largely Arabic in the north and African in the south; the many different tribes are divided by language and customs. Tribalism is considered one of the main political problems of the Sudan." (187)
Muerte súbita, Conrad Aiken poem translated by Borges in 1920
Rossetti poem on déjà vu
Williams play, 1958
king of Shakya people in southern Nepal, Buddha's father
German playwright and novelist, 1857-1928
Simcha Südfeld, original name of Max Nordau
French novelist, 1804-1857
Sweden or Sverige
personification of dreams
one of Quevedo's five Sueños, 1627
Text written by Adolfo Bioy Casares.
Bioy Casares novel, 1954
Hung Lou Meng, Dream of the Red Chamber, Chinese novel composed by Cao Xueqin (Tsao Hsue Kim) in the middle of the eighteenth century
Excerpt from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll.
Excerpt from the Dream of the Red Chamber.
Roberto Alifano book of poems, 1981
Menén Desleal story
Torres Villarroel satires, 1727 and 1728
Quevedo satirical sketches, 1627
Argentine-Spanish journalist, 1898-1943, author of a book of interviews from the time of the Spanish Civil War, friend of García Lorca
Caedmon poem, see The Fates of the Apostles
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, c. 70-c. 130, Roman historian and biographer
Work by Léon Bloy, 1894.
canal linking the Mediterranean and the Red Seas
character in the Shah-nama, son of Rustam
linguist
Menén Desleal story
Stevenson novella, 1882, part of the New Arabian Nights
street in Buenos Aires
Fishburn and Hughes: "A fashionable street in the Barrio Norte district of Buenos Aires." (188)
Switzerland
capital of the Estado Occidental in Borges story
Fishburn and Hughes: "A town and province in the fictional country of Costaguana in Conrad's novel Nostromo. See José Avellanos, Estado Occidental, Golfo Plácido, Higuerota, José Korzeniovski." (188)
character in Beckford's Vathek
Suleiman the Magnificent, sultan of Turkey, 1494-1566
island in Indonesia
Frank Capra film, 1928
Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas synthesis of theology and metaphysics
Fishburn and Hughes: "One of the most important texts of the Christian Church in which Aquinas (1225-1274) systematises and defines the theology of the Christian faith. Divided in three parts, each of about 1,500 pages, it discusses the nature of God, angels and man, the divine government of human acts and the state of grace (part 1); the theological and cardinal virtues (part 2); and the incarnation and resurrection of Christ and the sacraments (part 3). The material is arranged under different 'questions', each divided into 'articles' headed under a statement and presenting the objections to it, which are contested one by one. Reference to the question 'whether God can make the past not to have been', which Aquinas answers in the negative, his principal reason being that changing the past would imply a contradiction and as such a diminution of God's power (part 1, q.25, art.4)." (188)
Somerset Maugham autobiography, 1938
Hemingway novel, 1926
character in Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday
Northern Sung dynasty in China, 960-1279
Washington Irving's house in Tarrytown, New York
Part of José María Paz Memorias (1855).
Franco-Uruguayan poet, 1884-1960
Barbusse novel, 1903
Work by Rabelais, 1535.
Argentine magazine founded in 1930 by Victoria Ocampo, edited by José Bianco from 1937 to 1961
Old neighborhood in Buenos Aires.
Borges story, 1953
university in Bahía Blanca, Argentina
city in Java in Indonesia
Fishburn and Hughes: "The kingdom and capital of Java, whose population is largely Muslim. The reference is probably to Surakarta's famous mosque, Mesjit Gede. The incident alluded to has not been traced." (188)
Jacobo Sureda's sister, 1905-1924
Spanish poet, 1901-1935, friend of Borges's in Mallorca
Suriname, former Dutch Guyana
ancient city of Persia near modern Shush
Herrera y Reissig poem in Los parques abandonados, 1909
ranch in Borges story
county in southern England
Japanese Buddhist scholar and writer, 1870-1966
Svarfaðardalur, large valley in northeast Iceland
Icelandic saga of ghosts and berserker
name of Emmanuel Swedenborg's father, a bishop and professor at Uppsala University
17th century Icelandic bishop
Norwegian king, 1152-1215, subject of Sverris Saga
Karl Jonsson's saga in which he tells of the life of his friend Sverrir, c. 1200
Sweyn Estridsson, c. 1019-c. 1074, Danish king
Swedish scientist, religious teacher, theologian and mystic, 1688-1772, author of De caelo et inferno, Prodromus principiorum rerum naturalium, Sapientia angelica divina, Opera philosophica et mineralia and other works
Emerson essay in Representative Men
Tennessee Williams play, 1959
Harold Nicolson novel, 1921
British philologist, 1845-1912, author of The History of Language and works on English grammar and phonetics, and editor of an Anglo-Saxon Reader
Anglo-Irish writer, 1667-1745, author of Gulliver's Travels, A Tale of a Tub, A Modest Proposal and numerous other works
Fishburn and Hughes: "An Anglo-Irish satirist and man of letters. In his best-known work, Gulliver's Travels (1726), the eponymous hero describes his journeys to various places, including Lilliput where the inhabitants are a mere six inches tall and Brobdingnag which is inhabited by giants. Other creatures met by Gulliver are the Houyhnhnms (horses endowed with reason) and their enemies the Yahoos (brutal beasts in the shape of men). Borges learnt from Swift the device of the 'foreign observer', an ironic means of presenting absurdity through the eyes of a naive or uncomprehending onlooker. Other points of contact include the mixture of the serious and the absurd, economy of expression and attention to detail." (188)
Swift River in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, England
Nicolson, 1926
Eliot essay, 1920
English poet and critic, 1837-1909, author of Poems and Ballads, Essays and Studies and other works
English novelist and critic, 1884-1982, author of The Georgian Literary Scene
Bradbury science fiction, 1955
character in Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop
Fishburn and Hughes: "A metaphor for blood used in the Norse Eddas: an example of a kenning, a type of condensed metaphor found in Old Norse sagas. A kenning is always a compound consisting of two nouns, a head noun and a modifying noun, neither of which refers directly to the object designated, the comparison being usually by attributive association. Other kennings for blood are 'dew of wounds' or 'dew of sorrow'. Borges wrote extensively on kennings in Etern. (43- 67) and Lit. germ. (141-151)." (188-89)
city on the eastern coast of Australia
British Orientalist, 1867-1945, author of A History of Persia, 1915
Lewis Carroll narrative, 1889 and 1893
Dodgson, 1892
English poet and critic, 1840-1893, known for his work on homosexuality, the Greek world and the Renaissance
Welsh poet, 1865-1945
Wilde poem, 1889
Irish playwright, 1871-1909
Justin Martyr's collection of heretical doctrines
Mill treatise, 1843
Proudhon, 1846
Collection of nouvelles by Guy de Maupassant (1884)