I don’t remember reading the poetry of Borges until after I started visiting Buenos Aires. A few years ago I read one of his earliest poems Las calles, which opens his first book of verse Fervor de Buenos Aires. Published in 1923 the first sentence of this poem captures my feeling for Buenos Aires, a sentiment that I’m sure is shared by many others:
Las calles de Buenos Aires
ya son mi entraña.
My soul is in the streets
of Buenos Aires.
That standard English translation is by Stephen Kessler, which brings up some of the difficulties of translation. Entraña and the English word soul are not quite the same but I think that soul does captures the essence of the poem. Here Borges is clearly using entraña in a dramatic, figurative sense. Also, the use of the word ya in Spanish is left out of the English translation. A variation in English could also be “The Streets of Buenos Aires in my soul.”
In this series I never did really cover the thoughts of Borges on translation and he addressed that topic quite often. Poetry brings up even greater difficulties than prose. Essentially, the objective of translation is not to be literal but to provide the spirit of a work. Ultimately, a translation is a variation on a tale. Borges said something to the effect that you have never really read a book until you have read all of its translations. Now, I need to go and hunt down that exact quotation.
June 19th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
I even wonder if poetry should be translated. I’ve read lots by Fernando Pessoa in both Portuguese & English, both good & bad. Poetry is necessarily picky about it’s wording so something usually gets lost in translation.
Your selection for today is a good example. I’m inclined to disagree that “soul” captures the real essence of what Borges is trying to say here… only because “soul” is ethereal & “entraña” is very physical. It’s a rather vulgar term used to emphasize the depth of feeling.
I think the streets of BA are so much a part of him that it’s impossible for Borges to exist without them. You can live without your soul, but it’s hard to live without your gut. In fact, it’s one of the things that keeps you alive. There are many ways to internalize a city or a culture, & by making it so vulgar & physical, it stresses just how much it’s a part of your core being. “Pulsing through your veins” sounds much deeper than something that’s merely “inside you.”
But don’t ask me for a translation because I’d let you down. I think I understand the concept of what Borges is trying to say, but I doubt I could express it equally in my native language. Bizarre.
June 19th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Robert – good comment! Anyone reading poetry in translation really needs to read the original on facing pages. Without an understanding of the language you absolutely miss out on word meaning and, especially, the rhythm of a language.
June 19th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
I watched the Canal(á) bio of Borges tonight & was utterly confused. It was the first time I’d seen footage of him, & he spoke like everything was rehearsed. No doubt he had time to think about many things due to his loss of sight, but he didn’t speak like an upper-class porteño.
I laughed at a few comments though: the first was when he refused to display portraits of Juan & Eva Perón in the SADE, saying that the members were in danger of laughing. Next was the bitterness of being nominated for the Nobel Prize… he said, I’m going to be 80 soon & that’s the cutoff point. If I don’t receive it now, I’m dead to the Nobel Committee. 🙂
But now I understand the politics of the times: him meeting with Videla (along with Sábato), visiting Chile & being decorated under Pinochet, & his marriage to a former student after his mother died. It makes sense why he was never awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It’s just a shame he isn’t in Recoleta Cemetery. I have a pic of his tombstone that was sent to me by a friend… I can send it along if you want.
This could be a long series of posts… I’ll quit rambling now.
June 20th, 2006 at 1:29 am
I have also noticed in his TV interviews that he did speak in a very rehearsed manner. Perhaps he just was not comfortable with the medium.
The more I read his works, the more I feel that it is a shame that he was not awarded the Nobel but you are right about the politics of it, and the Nobel is a very political award. The Williamson biography states that it was due to accepting the medal from Pinochet; throughout the last period of Borges life there was a socialist writer, a friend of Neruda, on the Nobel committee who always vetoed the possibility of Borges winning the Nobel.
Borges was pretty far to the right of the political spectrum. He hated Perón. In 1976 Borges expressed his doubts about democracy, which he called a “curious abuse of statistics”: “descreo de la democracia, ese curioso abuso de la estadistica.” That certainly is a very patrician perspective!
Ironically, Borges was not really that upper class. At one time his family really was like that but his parents were not that wealthy. They never had the money of Bioy Casares or the Ocampos. (In many ways the Borges of his youth reminds me of those old Southern families back in Tennessee that still have a distinguished name but little money.) Of course, in the last part of his life he probably did extremely well with royalties.
Ok, I am rambling now, but I always do that!
December 14th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Talking about that Borges hated Peron, there is a funny story I am going to tell you… JL Borges was going to cross the “Avenida 9 de Julio” (one of the largest avenues of the world), he was absolutly blind at that time, and suddenly a guy offers to help him to cross the street, of course knowing he was JLB. While there was at the middle of the avenue the man left Borges there, saying: I am sorry but I am “peronista”… to ehat Borges answered: It is ok, I am blind too.
December 14th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
Very funny!
August 22nd, 2009 at 8:07 pm
[…] 30 Days with Borges: Day 29, “Las calles” » Buenos Aires, City of Faded Elegance Las calles de Buenos Aires ya son mi entraña. […]