Jorge Luis Borges

Pierre Menard, Autor del Quijote

Pierre Menard, Author of the Quijote

Page 5

Por qué precisamente el Quijote? dirá nuestro lector.Why the Quixote? my reader may ask. Esa preferencia, en un español, no hubiera sido inexplicable, pero sin duda es en un simbolista de Nîmes, devoto esencialmente de Poe, que engendró a Baudelaire, que engendró a Mallarme, que engendró a Valléry, que engendró a Edmond Teste. That choice, made by a Spaniard, would not have been incomprehensible, but it no doubt is so when made by a symboliste from Nîmes, a devotee essentally of Poe - who begat Baudelaire, who begat Mallarme, who begat Valery, who begat M. Edmond Teste. La carta precitada ilumina el punto. The letter mentioned above throws some light on the point.<<El Quijote>>, aclara Menard, << me interesa profundamente pero no me parece cómo lo diré? inevitable."The Quixote," explains Menard, "deeply interest me, but does not seem to me -- comment dirai-je?-- inevitable. No puedo imaginar el universo sin la interjecció n de Poe:

Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!

I can not imagine the world without Poe's ejaculation: 'Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!' o sin el Bateau ivre o el Ancient mariner, pero me sé capaz de imaginarlo sin el quijote. or the Bateau ivre or the Ancient Mariner, but I know myself able to imagine it without the Quixote, (Hablo, naturalmente, de mi capacidiad personal, no de la resonancia histó rica de las obras.) (I am speaking, of course, of my personal ability, not of the historical resonance of those works.) El Quijote es un libro contingente, el Quijote es innecesario. The Quixote is a contingent work; the Quixote is not necessary. Puedo premeditar su escritura, puedo escribirlo, sin incurrir en una tautología. I can premeditate commiting it to writing, as it were -- I can write it -- without falling into a tautology. A los doce o trece anos lo leí, tal vez íntegramente. At the age of twelve or thirteen I read it -- perhaps read it cover to cover, I cannot recall. Después he releí do con atenció n algunos capítulos, aquellos que no intentaré por ahora. Since then, I have carefully reread certain chapters, those which, at least for the moment, I shall not attempt. He cursado asimismo los entremeses, las comedias, la Galatea, las novelas ejemplares, los trabajos sin duda laboriosos de Persiles y sigismunda y el Viaje de Parnaso... Mi recuerdo general del Quijote, simplificado por el olvido y la indiferencia, puede muy bien equivaler a la imprecisa imagen anterior de un libro no excrito. I have also glanced at the interludes, the comedies, the Galatea, the Exemplary Novels, the undoubtedly laborious Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda, and the poetic Voyage to Parnassus... My general recollection of the Quixote, simplified by forgetfulness and indifference, might well be the equivalent of the vague foreshadowing of a yet unwritten book. Postulada esa imagen (que nadie en buena ley me puede negar) es indiscutible que mi problema es harto más difícil que el de Cervantes. Given that image (which no one can in good conscience deny me), my problem is, without the shadow of a doubt, much more difficult than Cervantes'. Mi complaciente precursor no rehusó la colaboración del azar: iba componiendo la obra inmortal un poco á la diable, llevado por inercias del lenguaje y de la invención. My obliging predecessor did not spurn the collaboration of chance; his method of composition for the immortal book was a bit á la diable, and he was often swept along by the inertiae of the language and the imagination. Yo he contraído el misterioso deber de reconstruir literalmente su obra espontánea. I have assumed the misterious obligation to reconstruct, word for word, the novel that for him was spontaneous. Mi solitario juego está gobernado por dos leyes polares. This game of solitaire I play is governed by two polar rules: La primera me permite ensayar variantes de tipo formal o psichológico; la segunda me obliga a sacrificarlas al texto 'original' y a razonar de un modo irrefutable esa aniquilación... the first allows me to try out formal or psychological variants; the second forces me to sacrifice them to the 'original' text and to come, by irrefutable arguments, to those eradications... A esas trabas artificiales hay que sumar otra, congénita. In addition to these first two artificial constraints there is another, inherent to the project. Componer el Quijote a principios del siglo diecisiete era una empresa razonable, necesaria, acaso fatal; a principios del veinte, es casi imposible. Composing the Quixote in the early seventeenth century was a reasonable, necessary, perhaps even inevitable undertaking; in the early twentieth, it is virtually impossible. No en vano han transcurrido trescientos años, cargados de complejísimos hechos. Not for nothing have three hundred years elapsed, freighted with the most complex events. Entre ellos, para mencionar uno solo: el mismo Quijote.>> Among those events, to mention but one, is the Quixote itself."

Close this window to continue