Glossary
| Word / Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Dona | a courtesy title before a woman's name in Spanish-speaking areas |
| taken for granted | not valued properly because always present |
| dawn on | become clear to |
| resource | something useful that can be drawn upon |
| skein | a length of thread, here the thread of fate |
| wrought | made, worked |
| transmute | change into something else |
| Alles Nahe Werd Fern | (German) "All that is near becomes far" - a line by Goethe |
| Library of Alexandria | one of the largest libraries of the ancient world, which was burnt |
| Spengler | Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), German historian and philosopher |
| concur | agree |
| meager / fallible | small, poor / liable to make mistakes |
| aesthetic | concerned with beauty and art |
| banal / cliche | ordinary, commonplace / an over-used idea |
| trivial | unimportant |
| metaphor | a comparison without "like" or "as" |
| whimsical | fanciful |
| astounding | amazing |
| Odyssey | Greek epic by Homer |
Detailed Explanation, Part 1: The Man Behind the Books
Learning at home. Borges does not say school taught him nothing; he says his father's library educated him "perhaps more" than school or university. Reading freely at home shaped him as a writer.
Guilt about his mother. Borges feels he was not a happy man and so could not give Dona Leonor the happiness she deserved. He widens this into a truth about all children: we take our mothers for granted, like the sun, the moon and the seasons, and realise their worth only after they die.
Blindness as a resource. Borges refuses to see blindness only as a loss. He believes that everything that happens to us - even humiliation and misfortune - is given for a purpose: it is raw material, like clay, from which an artist shapes art.
| Source | Idea | How Borges uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Homer, The Odyssey | the gods spun ruin for men "that there might be a song for those yet to be born" | suffering becomes the subject of future poetry |
| Goethe | "All that is near becomes far" | refers to the sunset and to life; the visible world has moved away from his eyes |
| His own poem | misfortune and discord are given so that we may transmute them | the writer turns pain into lasting works |
His duty is to accept and enjoy what has replaced sight. He still buys books and fills his house with them - "pretending that I am not blind".
Detailed Explanation, Part 2: Books and Poetry
The book beyond its author. Borges agrees with Shaw that a book worth re-reading is "written by the spirit". The author's intention is small and can be wrong, but a good book holds something mysterious. Reading an old book is like reading all the time that has passed since it was written, because each age reads it anew. Even with errors, a book keeps something sacred and magical that brings happiness.
Poetry versus the poem.
| The poem | Poetry |
|---|---|
| a series of symbols on the page | the aesthetic act - an experience |
| fixed | happens when the poet writes and when the reader reads, slightly differently each time |
| can be defined | cannot be defined without oversimplifying - like yellow, love, or falling autumn leaves |
Poetry is "magical, mysterious and unexplainable - although not incomprehensible". If a reader does not feel the poetic event, the poet has failed.
Precise words. In Emily Dickinson's line "This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies", the idea of death as dust is a cliche. The magic comes from the precise words "gentlemen and ladies" - they recall living, well-dressed people and make the dust human. "Men and women" would have been trivial.
The essential metaphors. Borges believes true metaphors are as old as time; only their expression changes:
- time and a river (both flow away)
- life and dreams
- death and sleep
- stars and eyes
- flowers and women
The poet's task is to discover metaphors, not to invent entirely new ones.
Detailed Explanation, Part 3: Why the Book Will Survive
Borges answers the fear that modern communication will replace books.
| Invention | Extension of |
|---|---|
| telephone | voice |
| telescope, microscope | sight |
| sword, plough | arms |
| book | imagination and memory |
All other inventions extend the body; only the book extends the mind. That is why it is irreplaceable.
Literature as a controlled dream. Our past is a sequence of dreams, and remembering the past is much like dreaming. Literature preserves these dreams. "Books are the great memory of all centuries." Without them, history - and man himself - would disappear.
The title is Borges's own confident answer to that fear: books will never disappear.
Vocabulary: Word Pairs (textbook exercise)
Non-reversible word pairs always appear in the same order. "Back and forth" is natural; "forth and back" sounds wrong.
| Word pair | Meaning |
|---|---|
| trial and error | learning by trying and making mistakes |
| pride and prejudice | arrogance and unfair judgement |
| flora and fauna | plants and animals |
| null and void | having no legal force |
| whims and fancies | sudden wishes and fancies |
| high and dry | stranded, helpless |
| time and again | repeatedly |
| pick and choose | select carefully |
| time and tide | (wait for no man) - time does not stop |
| tooth and nail | with all one's strength |
| forgive and forget | pardon and put behind you |
| pros and cons | advantages and disadvantages |
| hale and hearty | healthy and strong |
| hue and cry | loud public protest |
More word pairs: safe and sound, bread and butter, ups and downs, law and order, black and white, rich and poor, peace and quiet, bits and pieces, sooner or later, first and foremost.