Jorge Luis Borges

Pierre Menard, Autor del Quijote

Pierre Menard, Author of the Quijote

A Silvina Ocampo

La obra visible que a dejado este novelista es de fácil y breve enumeración. The visible oeuvre left by this novelist can be easily and briefly enumerated; Son por lo tanto, imperdonables las omisiones y adiciones perpetradas por Madame Henry Bachelier en un catálogo falaz que cierto diario cuya tendencia protestante no es un secreto ha tenido la desconsideración de inferir a sus deplorables lectores -- si bien éstos son pocos y Calvinistas, cuando no masones y circuncisos. unpardonable, therefore, are the omissions and additions perpetrated by Mme. Henry Bachelier in a deceitful catalog that a certain newspaper, whose protestant leanings are surely no secret, has been so inconsiderate as to inflict upon that newspaper's deplorable readers -- few and Calvinist (if not masonic and circumcised) though they be. Los Amigos auténticos de Menard han visto con alarma ese catálogo y aun con cierta tristeza. Menard's true friends have greeted that catalog with alarm, and even with a degree of sadness. Diríase que ayer nos reunimos ante el mármol final y entre los cipreses infaustos y ya el error trata de empañar su memoria... One might note that only yesterday were we gathered before his marmoreal place of rest, among the dreary cypresses, and already Error is attempting to tarnish his bright memory... Decididamente, una breve rectificación en inevitable. Most decidedly, a brief rectification is imperative.

Me consta que es muy fácil recusar mi pobre autoridad. I am aware that it is easy enough to call my own scant authority into question. Espero, sin embargo, que no me prohibirán mencionar dos altos testimonios. I hope, nonetheless, that I shall not be prohibited from mentioning two high testimonials. La baronesa de Bacourt (en cuyos vendredis inolvidables tuve el honor de conocer al llorado poeta) a tenido a bien aprobar las lí neas que siguen. The baroness de Bancourt (at whose unforgettable vendredis I had the honor to meet the mourned-for poet) has been so kind as to approve the lines that follow. La condesa de Bagnoregio, uno de los espíritus más finos del principado de Mónaco (y ahora de Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, despues de su reciente boda con el filántropo internacional Símon Kautzsch, tan calumniado, ay! por las víctimas de sus desinteresadas maniobras) ha sacrificado << a la veracidad y a la muerte>> (tales son las palabras) la señoril reserva que la distingue y en una carta abierta publicada en la revista Luxe me concede a si mismo su beneplacito. Likewise the countess de Bagnoregio, one of the rarest and most cultured spirits of the principality of Monaco (now of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, following her recent marriage to the international philanthropist Simon Kautzsch -- a man, it grieves me to say vilified and slandered by the victims of his disinterested operations), has sacrificed "to truth and to death" (as she herself has phrased it) the noble reserve that is the mark of her distinction, and is an open letter, published in the magazine Luxe, bestows upon me her blessing. Esas ejecutorias, creo, no son insuficientes. Those commendations are sufficient, I should think.

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