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سبع ليال
ألقيت هذه المحاضرت السبع التي يتألف منها الكتاب بشكل منفصل في جامعة تيترو كوليسيو، بيونيس آيرس، بين شهري تموز وآب من عام 1977. في الافتتاحية الواردة في الطبعة الاسبانية للكتاب، والتي نشرت في مدينة مكسيكو، يعلمنا بارثولوميو كيف أن هذه المحاضرات كانت قد سجلت على أشرطة كاسيت ووزعت على نطاق واسع في نسخ مهربة، ثم تم طبعها لاحقاً بشكل مختزل ومجزوء في الملاحق الأدبية لصحيفة بيونيس أيرس. ولكن، وبعد مضي سنتين على ذلك، قام بارثولوميو بجمع هذه المحاضرات وإعدادها للنشر، بالتعاون مع بورخس الذي أجرى عليها تعديلات واسعة.
لقد كان لبورخس، بالإضافة إلى "ذواته" الأدبية المتعددة الأخرى، وجوداً آخر مستقلاً كمحاضر على مدى السنوات الأربعين الماضية، وكأي جانب مستقل من حياته، فإن هذه المحاضرات تسلط ضوءاً مختلفاً على مجمل شخصيته، وتوضح أكثر تشابك عوالمه المتشعبة. إن طرد بورخس من عمله في مكتبة في إحدى الضواحي عام 1946 جعل من إلقاء المحاضرات وسيلة جوهرية في كسب العيش، وقد قبل بذلك بشيء من التردد، إذ كان عليه أن يقوم بتحضير محاضراته، بمساعدة والدته، وحفظها عن ظهر قلب، كونه لا يستطيع قراءة النص المكتوب. ومع ذلك، فإن هذا الإلزام في تذكر نصوصه قد أسدى خدمة كبيرة لبورخس، إذ، وبينما كان عماه يطبق أوزاره، كان بورخس في طور حفظ مكتبة فريدة لا بأس بها من المصادر والاقتباسات. فإن يُسأل سؤالاً، تراه يصفن لبعض الوقت، كمن ينقب بين رفوف الكتب في رأسه، ويأتيك بقبس من نصوصه الأصلية، وبوفرة غريبة من المعلومات المألوفة لقرائه. بعض من محاضراته، كتلك المتبدلة والمتقلبة أبداً عن دانتي، والتي ألقاها لمرات عدة ولكن ربما بشكل مختلف في كل مرة، توجد الآن في تلك المكتبة التي يحفظها في ذاكرته، ومن المناسب أن مجموعة منها قد أصبحت الآن جزءاً من التقليد البورخيسي.
لقد كان لبورخس، بالإضافة إلى "ذواته" الأدبية المتعددة الأخرى، وجوداً آخر مستقلاً كمحاضر على مدى السنوات الأربعين الماضية، وكأي جانب مستقل من حياته، فإن هذه المحاضرات تسلط ضوءاً مختلفاً على مجمل شخصيته، وتوضح أكثر تشابك عوالمه المتشعبة. إن طرد بورخس من عمله في مكتبة في إحدى الضواحي عام 1946 جعل من إلقاء المحاضرات وسيلة جوهرية في كسب العيش، وقد قبل بذلك بشيء من التردد، إذ كان عليه أن يقوم بتحضير محاضراته، بمساعدة والدته، وحفظها عن ظهر قلب، كونه لا يستطيع قراءة النص المكتوب. ومع ذلك، فإن هذا الإلزام في تذكر نصوصه قد أسدى خدمة كبيرة لبورخس، إذ، وبينما كان عماه يطبق أوزاره، كان بورخس في طور حفظ مكتبة فريدة لا بأس بها من المصادر والاقتباسات. فإن يُسأل سؤالاً، تراه يصفن لبعض الوقت، كمن ينقب بين رفوف الكتب في رأسه، ويأتيك بقبس من نصوصه الأصلية، وبوفرة غريبة من المعلومات المألوفة لقرائه. بعض من محاضراته، كتلك المتبدلة والمتقلبة أبداً عن دانتي، والتي ألقاها لمرات عدة ولكن ربما بشكل مختلف في كل مرة، توجد الآن في تلك المكتبة التي يحفظها في ذاكرته، ومن المناسب أن مجموعة منها قد أصبحت الآن جزءاً من التقليد البورخيسي.
170 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
91 people are currently reading
3583 people want to read
About the author
Jorge Luis Borges
1,594 books14.4k followersJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl. Fictions) and El Aleph (transl. The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magic realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."
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January 16, 2017
“What is magic? Magic is a unique causality. It is the belief that besides the causal relations we know, there is another causal relation. That relationship may be due to accidents, to a ring, to a lamp. We rub a ring, a lamp, and a genie appears. That genie is a slave who is also omnipotent and who will fulfill our wishes. It can happen at any moment.”
“A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronunciation. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song.”
I think what is most likeable about Borges the author is that you get to see Borges the reader - the guy whose paradise was a library. And here we get to meet that reader - his favorite books , his poetic faith , his knowledge of traditions all over the world, his habit of quoting and drawing connections between texts; as well as Borges the person with all his troubled life - his fears (masks and mirrors), his nightmares and his blindness. Anyway, to go on when you can quote Borges is like, as Punjabi expression goes, 'showing lamp to the sun'.
The Divine Comedy
“Personally, I am a hedonistic reader; I have never read a book merely because it was ancient. I read books for the aesthetic emotions they offer me, and I ignore the commentaries and criticism.”
“The translation could be, at best, a means and a stimulus for the reader to approach the original.”
“Poetry is, among so many other things, an intonation, an accentuation that is often untranslatable.”
Nightmares
"Groussac writes that it is astonishing that each morning we wake up sane that is, relatively ― sane after having passed through that zone of shades, those labyrinths ― of dreams."
"It also happens in dreams that are not nightmares: they ask us something, and we don't know how to answer; they give us the answer, and we are astonished. The answer may be absurd, but in the dream it is exactly right. Everything has been prepared. I have come to the conclusion, though it may not be scientific, that dreams are the most ancient aesthetic activity."
One Thousand and One Nights
"The Persians have now incorporated him into their history Alexander, who slept with a sword and the Iliad under his pillow."
Why 1001 tales? “In this, there is another kind of beauty. I think it lies in the fact that for us the word thousand is almost synonymous with infinite. To say a thousand nights is to say infinite nights, countless nights, endless nights. To say a thousand and one nights is to add one to infinity. Let us recall a curious English expression: instead of forever, they sometimes say forever and a day. A day has been added to forever. It is reminiscent of a line of Heine, written to a woman: “I will love you eternally and even after”
“What enchanted Aesop or the Hindu fabulists was to imagine animals that were like little men, with their comedies and tragedies. The idea of the moral proposition was added later.”
"The most famous tale of The Thousand and One Nights is not found in the original version. It is the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp. It appears in Galland's version, and Burton searched in vain for an Arabic or Persian text. Some have suspected that Galland forged the tale. I think the word forged is unjust and malign. Galland had as much right to invent a story as did those confabulatores nocturni. Why shouldn't we suppose that after having translated so many tales, he wanted to invent one himself, and did?"
Budhism
“Why not ― believe in the story of Prince Siddhartha?” He replied: “Because it doesn't matter; what matters is to believe in the Teachings.” He added, I think with more wit than truth, that to believe in the historical existence of the Buddha, or to be interested in it, is something like confusing the laws of mathematics with the biographies of Pythagoras or Newton. One of the subjects of meditation for the monks in the monasteries of China and Japan is to doubt the existence of the Buddha. It is one of the doubts that must be imposed on one's self in order to arrive at the truth"
"Man need not abandon the carnal life because it is lowly, ignoble, shameful, sorrowful; asceticism too is ignoble and sorrowful. He preaches a middle way to use the theological terminology. He has ― reached Nirvana, and he continues to live for another forty-odd years, dedicated to teaching."
Poetry
"The fact is that poetry is not the books in the library, not the books in Emerson's magic chamber. Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book, the discovery of the book"
"Bradley said that one of the effects of poetry is that it gives us the impression not of discovering something new but of remembering something we have forgotten."
“in the East, in general, they do not read literature and philosophy historically. They study the history of philosophy as though Aristotle were disputing with Bergson, Plato with Hume, all at the same time. This greatly disturbed Deussen and Max Müller, who could not determine the chronology of the authors they were studying.”
The Kabbalah
"Horace said, “At times, good Homer nodded.” No one would say that, at times, the good Holy Spirit nodded"
Blindness
"No one should read self-pity or reproach into
this statement of the majesty of God;
who with such splendid irony granted me
books and blindness at one touch"
"Democritus of Abdera tore his eyes out in a garden so that the spectacle of reality would not distract him"
"I wanted to lie down in darkness. The world of the blind is not the night that people imagine."
March 29, 2020
Este librito es magnífico.
Hacia 1977, Borges pronunció siete conferencias en el Coliseo de Buenos Aires, que quedan aquí transcritas. Aquí se descubre a Borges en su manera de hablar, siempre amena, aunque hable de temas eruditos, a veces difíciles de entender (la literatura, el cuerpo). A mi me ha parecido oír su voz tranquila, humilde y, a menudo, risueña.
La primera trata de la Divina Comedia de Dante y es, tal vez, el mejor elogio que he podido leer sobre esta obra. Dice Borges: “La Comedia es un libro que todos debemos leer. No hacerlo es privarnos del mejor don que la literatura pueda darnos, es entregarnos a un extraño ascetismo... nadie tiene derecho a privarse de esa felicidad”.
La segunda es una meditación sobre los sueños y las pesadillas. Considera estos fenómenos de la mente humana como el más antiguo de los procesos creativos. También habla del sentimiento de horror que algunos producen. Desde luego, una manera de enfocar este tema del todo distinta al psicoanálisis.
La tercera nos habla del infinito libro de Las mil y una noches, de su origen, de su composición y de sus traducciones. Fundamentalmente, habla de la idea del Oriente y de su antigua relación con el Occidente.
La cuarta trata del budismo y, de forma más amplia, de la espiritualidad. Habla de su origen (la leyenda de Siddharta), de su doctrina (en especial la del budismo zen) y del mundo que es una ilusión.
La quinta habla de poesía, y ante todo del placer que nos produce a través del lenguaje. Incluye ejemplos de Quevedo y de Banchs. Hablando de ese placer a sus estudiantes, dijo Borges: “Tengo para mí que la belleza es una sensación física, algo que sentimos con todo el cuerpo.” No puedo estar más de acuerdo.
La sexta trata de la tradición cabalística y del gnosticismo, de lo que es un libro sagrado y del sorprendente modus operandi con el cual la cábala estudia y considera tal libro. En suma, habla del universo.
La séptima y última conferencia trata de la ceguera, que padeció Borges durante muchos años, como Homero, como Milton, como Joyce. Sin duda, es la más personal e íntima de estas siete noches.
Concluyo. En algún momento de estas conferencias, Borges asevera: “Creo que la poesía es algo que se siente, y sí ustedes no sienten la poesía, si no tienen sentido de belleza, si un relato no los lleva al deseo de saber qué ocurrió después, el autor no ha escrito para ustedes. Déjenlo de lado, que la literatura es bastante rica para ofrecerles algún autor digno de su atención, o indigno hoy de su atención y que leerán mañana.”
Sin lugar a duda, Borges ha escrito para mi.
Hacia 1977, Borges pronunció siete conferencias en el Coliseo de Buenos Aires, que quedan aquí transcritas. Aquí se descubre a Borges en su manera de hablar, siempre amena, aunque hable de temas eruditos, a veces difíciles de entender (la literatura, el cuerpo). A mi me ha parecido oír su voz tranquila, humilde y, a menudo, risueña.
La primera trata de la Divina Comedia de Dante y es, tal vez, el mejor elogio que he podido leer sobre esta obra. Dice Borges: “La Comedia es un libro que todos debemos leer. No hacerlo es privarnos del mejor don que la literatura pueda darnos, es entregarnos a un extraño ascetismo... nadie tiene derecho a privarse de esa felicidad”.
La segunda es una meditación sobre los sueños y las pesadillas. Considera estos fenómenos de la mente humana como el más antiguo de los procesos creativos. También habla del sentimiento de horror que algunos producen. Desde luego, una manera de enfocar este tema del todo distinta al psicoanálisis.
La tercera nos habla del infinito libro de Las mil y una noches, de su origen, de su composición y de sus traducciones. Fundamentalmente, habla de la idea del Oriente y de su antigua relación con el Occidente.
La cuarta trata del budismo y, de forma más amplia, de la espiritualidad. Habla de su origen (la leyenda de Siddharta), de su doctrina (en especial la del budismo zen) y del mundo que es una ilusión.
La quinta habla de poesía, y ante todo del placer que nos produce a través del lenguaje. Incluye ejemplos de Quevedo y de Banchs. Hablando de ese placer a sus estudiantes, dijo Borges: “Tengo para mí que la belleza es una sensación física, algo que sentimos con todo el cuerpo.” No puedo estar más de acuerdo.
La sexta trata de la tradición cabalística y del gnosticismo, de lo que es un libro sagrado y del sorprendente modus operandi con el cual la cábala estudia y considera tal libro. En suma, habla del universo.
La séptima y última conferencia trata de la ceguera, que padeció Borges durante muchos años, como Homero, como Milton, como Joyce. Sin duda, es la más personal e íntima de estas siete noches.
Concluyo. En algún momento de estas conferencias, Borges asevera: “Creo que la poesía es algo que se siente, y sí ustedes no sienten la poesía, si no tienen sentido de belleza, si un relato no los lleva al deseo de saber qué ocurrió después, el autor no ha escrito para ustedes. Déjenlo de lado, que la literatura es bastante rica para ofrecerles algún autor digno de su atención, o indigno hoy de su atención y que leerán mañana.”
Sin lugar a duda, Borges ha escrito para mi.
August 25, 2018
Emerson said that a library is a magic chamber in which there are many enchanted spirits. They wake when we call them. When the book lies unopened, it is literally, geometrically, a volume, a thing among things. When we open it, when the book surrenders itself to its reader, the aesthetic event occurs. And even for the same reader the same book changes, for the change; we are the river of Heraclitus, who said that the man of yesterday is not the man of today, who will not be the man of tomorrow. We change incessantly, and each reading of a book, each rereading, each memory of that rereading, reinvents the text.
This is a series of seven lectures Borges delivered in the late 70s, relying on his capacious memory as his eyesight had departed by this time. The final lecture on Blindness explores this dynamic, citing Oscar Wilde's assertion that Homer had to be mythologized as a blind poet to present poetry as an aural art.
There are sidelong digressions on The Arabian Nights, on Dante. Etymology is explored. It is a telling endorsement of Borges that I was transfixed by his pontificating on Buddhism, a subject I can't imagine contemplating otherwise. The Maestro recognizes human failing without wasting time to illustrate such. His remark that being blind afforded him the opportunity to explore medieval literature, especially Old English and the Scandinavian Ruins. This revelation is most profound.
This is a series of seven lectures Borges delivered in the late 70s, relying on his capacious memory as his eyesight had departed by this time. The final lecture on Blindness explores this dynamic, citing Oscar Wilde's assertion that Homer had to be mythologized as a blind poet to present poetry as an aural art.
There are sidelong digressions on The Arabian Nights, on Dante. Etymology is explored. It is a telling endorsement of Borges that I was transfixed by his pontificating on Buddhism, a subject I can't imagine contemplating otherwise. The Maestro recognizes human failing without wasting time to illustrate such. His remark that being blind afforded him the opportunity to explore medieval literature, especially Old English and the Scandinavian Ruins. This revelation is most profound.
May 26, 2022
Borges’in farklı zamanlarda düzenlenen gece toplantılarında dinleyicilere yaptığı yedi farklı konunun öldükten sonra eşi tarafından kitaplaştırıldığı bir deneme-öykü kitabıdır “Yedi Gece”. Ne demek deneme-öykü? Aslında herbir konu araştırılarak yazarın da görüşlerini kattığı birer deneme olsa da öykü tarzında, öyküsel anlatımla yazılmasını kastediyorum. Kitaptaki yedi konunun başlıkları şunlar: İlahi Komedya, Karabasanlar (ve düşler), Binbir Gece Masalları, Budacılık, Şiir, Kabala ve son olarak Körlük.
Herbir yazı bir cevher, etimolojik (kökenbilim), tarihsel, mitolojik, teolojik ve tabii ki edebi olarak yaptığı derin araştırmaları masal gibi anlatıyor Borges. Yeni okuduğum “İlahi Komedya” ile ilgili yazı Dante’yi daha iyi anlamamı sağladı ki, büyük bir şans benim için. Budacılık deneme-öyküsünü okuyanların Budacı olmayı düşüneceklerini de şaka yollu da olsa belirteyim. Kabala ve Binbir Gece Masalları’nda da ilginç bilgi ve düşünceler var. Hele Körlük yazısı başlı başına bir mücevher.
Borges okumayı düşünenlere ilk başlayacakları kitap olarak “Yedi Gece”yi öneriyorum.
Herbir yazı bir cevher, etimolojik (kökenbilim), tarihsel, mitolojik, teolojik ve tabii ki edebi olarak yaptığı derin araştırmaları masal gibi anlatıyor Borges. Yeni okuduğum “İlahi Komedya” ile ilgili yazı Dante’yi daha iyi anlamamı sağladı ki, büyük bir şans benim için. Budacılık deneme-öyküsünü okuyanların Budacı olmayı düşüneceklerini de şaka yollu da olsa belirteyim. Kabala ve Binbir Gece Masalları’nda da ilginç bilgi ve düşünceler var. Hele Körlük yazısı başlı başına bir mücevher.
Borges okumayı düşünenlere ilk başlayacakları kitap olarak “Yedi Gece”yi öneriyorum.
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October 9, 2025Чудова збірка. Найбільше сподобалось про нічні кошмари та сліпоту.
Варто тримати у голові, що це були лекції, які автор читав вживу. В тексті воно й відчувається. Слухати їх, мабуть, було б набагато краще.
Але завжди приємно повертатись до цієї геніальної людини.
Варто тримати у голові, що це були лекції, які автор читав вживу. В тексті воно й відчувається. Слухати їх, мабуть, було б набагато краще.
Але завжди приємно повертатись до цієї геніальної людини.
March 14, 2024
"O Borges külliyatı artık bitecek" adlı şahsi projem kapsamında Borges okumaya devam ediyorum. Normalde bir yazarı okumaya nereden başlamak gerektiği sorusunu tüm külliyatı tamamlamadan yanıtlamıyorum ama sanki Borges'e Yedi Gece'den başlanabilir gibi hissediyorum çünkü hem Borges'e dair her şey var, hem de aslında konuşmalarının yazıya dökülmüş hali olduğu için, yazılı denemelerine göre çok daha basit ve kolay metinler bunlar.
Kitap, Borges'in çeşitli konularda verdiği küçük konferansların metinlerinden oluşuyor. Borges evrenine girdiğinizde karşınıza neler çıkacağına dair bir 101 gibi sahiden; bol bol etimoloji, çokça kavramsal tartışma, elbette ki Dante, Shakespeare ve Binbir Gece Masalları, birazcık şiir tekniği, okumanın dinamikleri, mitler, mitoloji ve mistisizm... Diğer kitaplarında insana kendini zekasız hissettirecek denli derinleştirdiği konuları burada daha yüzeysel ve yalın şekilde anlatıyor, tam da bu nedenle iyi bir başlangıç kitabı olabileceğini düşünüyorum.
Ben çok çok sevdim. Şu leziz ve uzun alıntıyı da ekleyeyim: "Emerson bir kütüphanenin çok sayıda büyülenmiş ruhun bulunduğu sihirli bir kabin olduğunu söylemişti. O ruhlar biz çağırdığımızda uyanırlar; bir kitabın kapağını açmadığımız sürece, bu kitap kelimenin tam anlamıyla, geometrik boyutlara sahip bir cilttir, diğer nesneler gibi herhangi bir nesnedir. Biz onun kapağını açınca, kitap okuruyla buluşunca, estetik olgu gerçekleşir. Hatta şunu da eklemekte fayda var ki, aynı kitap aynı okur için bile değişir, zira biz değişiriz, zira biz dünkü insanın bugünkü insan olmadığını ve bugünkü insanın yarınki insan da olmayacağını söylemiş olan Herakleitos'un nehriyiz. Sürekli değişiriz ve şunu belirtmek de mümkündür ki bir kitabın her okuması, her yeniden okuması, bu yeniden okumanın her hatırlanışı metni yeniler. Bu yüzden metin de Herakleitos'un değişen nehridir."
Kitap, Borges'in çeşitli konularda verdiği küçük konferansların metinlerinden oluşuyor. Borges evrenine girdiğinizde karşınıza neler çıkacağına dair bir 101 gibi sahiden; bol bol etimoloji, çokça kavramsal tartışma, elbette ki Dante, Shakespeare ve Binbir Gece Masalları, birazcık şiir tekniği, okumanın dinamikleri, mitler, mitoloji ve mistisizm... Diğer kitaplarında insana kendini zekasız hissettirecek denli derinleştirdiği konuları burada daha yüzeysel ve yalın şekilde anlatıyor, tam da bu nedenle iyi bir başlangıç kitabı olabileceğini düşünüyorum.
Ben çok çok sevdim. Şu leziz ve uzun alıntıyı da ekleyeyim: "Emerson bir kütüphanenin çok sayıda büyülenmiş ruhun bulunduğu sihirli bir kabin olduğunu söylemişti. O ruhlar biz çağırdığımızda uyanırlar; bir kitabın kapağını açmadığımız sürece, bu kitap kelimenin tam anlamıyla, geometrik boyutlara sahip bir cilttir, diğer nesneler gibi herhangi bir nesnedir. Biz onun kapağını açınca, kitap okuruyla buluşunca, estetik olgu gerçekleşir. Hatta şunu da eklemekte fayda var ki, aynı kitap aynı okur için bile değişir, zira biz değişiriz, zira biz dünkü insanın bugünkü insan olmadığını ve bugünkü insanın yarınki insan da olmayacağını söylemiş olan Herakleitos'un nehriyiz. Sürekli değişiriz ve şunu belirtmek de mümkündür ki bir kitabın her okuması, her yeniden okuması, bu yeniden okumanın her hatırlanışı metni yeniler. Bu yüzden metin de Herakleitos'un değişen nehridir."
April 20, 2009
This was good. It's seven lectures that Borges gave in seven nights in Buenos Aires in 1977 (that's a lot of sevens). But it felt more like it was me an Borges sitting in a small room across from each other. He started talking to me about The Divine Comedy Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso and urged me to shed my fears and read the book. He said I would greatly be enriched. So I told him ok, I will. I was a still a bit intimidated by his presence and at that point would have stuck my hand in boiling water if he told me to. Then he started talking about nightmares and I started to loosen up a bit. This guy had some pretty crazy nightmares and it turns out that one of his friends and me shared a certain kind of nightmare... dreams that try to encompass infinity. I wanted to ask questions but he continued on by talking about the book Tales from a Thousand and One Nights and my mouth just hung open. He said he had the complete volumes but would never get to read all of them. Just knowing they were there gave him comfort. And then he went on to Buddhism and my world started spinning. He made me question too many of my foundations... I wanted to scream but he was relentless never giving me a chance to take a breath. This topic more than any he shared with me that night haunted me. Luckily he switched over to the topic of Poetry and I started to relax a little. And then it was on to the Kabbalah and I had to stifle a yawn. It was getting late. I was tired. And I couldn't get Madonna's vision out of my head. But when he told me he was going to wrap up this little talk by discussing Blindness, I perked up. I sat there looking at this old kindly man. I was probably just a greenish or bluish blob in his eyes but I'm sure he noticed that this blob didn't move. He spoke of blindness as being a gift. He said it taught him so much. He ended our time together with a line of Goethe: Alles Nahe werde fern (everything near becomes distant). 'Goethe', he said, 'was referring to the evening twilight. Everything near becomes distant. It is true. At nightfall, the things closest to us seem to move away from our eyes. So the visible world has moved away from my eyes, perhaps forever.'
An excellent book.
An excellent book.
May 8, 2017
Qué puedo decir a estas alturas de nuestro padre universal de las letras, llamado Jorge Luis Borges sino simplemente sumarme a las filas de lectores que se han regocijado con sus libros.
Podría deshacerme en elogios pero caería en lo redundante, por eso, voy a decirles que he disfrutado muchísimo de estas siete charlas que Borges diera en el Teatro Coliseo, allá por 1977 y en las que despliega toda su sabiduría sobre literatura en siete de los tantos temas que mucho le apasionaban, como eran “La Divina Comedia”, al que consideraba uno de sus libros preferidos y de Dante, escritor al que adoraba con locura, “La pesadilla”, en el que realidad habla de los sueños y las pesadillas, “Las Mil y una Noches” en donde diserta acerca de otro de los libros que lo marcaron a fuego, “El Budismo”, “La Poesía”, “La Cábala”, en estos tres apartados y también en los otros nos habla del libro y de la significación que tenía para él y en la última noche nos habla sobre “La Ceguera”, en el que expone sus apreciaciones personales acerca del “don”, como él denomina a su imposibilidad de ver, asociándolo con otros escritores famosos que también lo fueron o terminaron siéndolo (Homero, Milton, Joyce.)
Una verdadera belleza de libro que se lee con placer y admiración a este escritor tan infinito como su obra.
Podría deshacerme en elogios pero caería en lo redundante, por eso, voy a decirles que he disfrutado muchísimo de estas siete charlas que Borges diera en el Teatro Coliseo, allá por 1977 y en las que despliega toda su sabiduría sobre literatura en siete de los tantos temas que mucho le apasionaban, como eran “La Divina Comedia”, al que consideraba uno de sus libros preferidos y de Dante, escritor al que adoraba con locura, “La pesadilla”, en el que realidad habla de los sueños y las pesadillas, “Las Mil y una Noches” en donde diserta acerca de otro de los libros que lo marcaron a fuego, “El Budismo”, “La Poesía”, “La Cábala”, en estos tres apartados y también en los otros nos habla del libro y de la significación que tenía para él y en la última noche nos habla sobre “La Ceguera”, en el que expone sus apreciaciones personales acerca del “don”, como él denomina a su imposibilidad de ver, asociándolo con otros escritores famosos que también lo fueron o terminaron siéndolo (Homero, Milton, Joyce.)
Una verdadera belleza de libro que se lee con placer y admiración a este escritor tan infinito como su obra.
May 20, 2023
ზუსტად შვიდი საღამო დავუთმე, შვიდივე საღამო კარგი იყო.
May 31, 2025
Борхес е написал възхвала на словото като спасение от старостта, болестта, забравата и смъртта. Седемте привидно различни теми са всъщност една. Като в библията - словото беше у бога и словото беше бог.
Борхес разсъждава много върху двете - словото и бога. С разсъжденията му за второто никак не се съгласих (най-малкото: вижданията ни за дантевия Ад изобщо не съвпадат!), но тези за словото са поезия. Малко абстрактна, рееща се, но винаги много лична и пълна с топлота.
Борхес разсъждава много върху двете - словото и бога. С разсъжденията му за второто никак не се съгласих (най-малкото: вижданията ни за дантевия Ад изобщо не съвпадат!), но тези за словото са поезия. Малко абстрактна, рееща се, но винаги много лична и пълна с топлота.
August 16, 2022
Palabra del maestro. Poco más que añadir.
August 6, 2021
Для мене Борхес є айзбергом, справжнім незбагненним генієм.
З усіх цих лекцій найбільше сподобалась остання, про його сліпоту.
З усіх цих лекцій найбільше сподобалась остання, про його сліпоту.
August 2, 2024
Lo logré! Leerlo fue complicado pero me parecieron muy interesantes conferencias, que reflexivo es el maestro Borges, me gustaron sus comentarios sobre el budismo y la cábala.
Me dieron muchas ganas de releer la divina comedia y el libro de las mil y una noches.
Vale la pena leer Siete Noches y estoy feliz de haberlo leído.
Me dieron muchas ganas de releer la divina comedia y el libro de las mil y una noches.
Vale la pena leer Siete Noches y estoy feliz de haberlo leído.
September 7, 2022
Borges spoke at Loyola University back in the eighties while I was working on a philosophy degree there. It was during the Malvinas/Falklands war, during the Argentine military's rule. I asked the great man about that and received a vague response. Now, on reflection, I'm embarrassed by subjecting that old, blind man to what amounted to abuse.
In the meantime, both before this event and since, I've read most of Borges' work available in English excepting his poetry, which I've only sampled. This title, a collection of seven lectures he gave in Argentina, was new to me and read with interest. As ever, Borges is impressively erudite and subtly amusing.
In the meantime, both before this event and since, I've read most of Borges' work available in English excepting his poetry, which I've only sampled. This title, a collection of seven lectures he gave in Argentina, was new to me and read with interest. As ever, Borges is impressively erudite and subtly amusing.
July 31, 2025
yazarın 7 farklı konuda yaptığı söyleşileri içeren bir kitap yedi gece. en son bölüm olan "körlük" te yazarın gözlerinin yavaş yavaş kör olmaya başladığı ve bu süreçte de cennet olarak isimlendirdiği kütüphaneye müdür olarak atandığı anlatılmış. okumayı bu kadar çok seven ve hayatını okumaya adamış birinin körlük yaşaması ne büyük bir talihsizlik. ama kendisi durumu olumlu yönde değerlendirmeye çalışmış, anglosakson dili ve eski germen edebiyatı çalışmalarına başlamış.
şiiri de şöyle:
"kimse yakınıp yerindiğimi sanmasın
bu lütfundan yüce tanrının
bana ilahi bir şaka yaptı
kitabı ve körlüğü aynı anda bağışladı.
binbir gece masalları ile ilgili bölümü de çok sevdim. en sevdiğim eserlerden birinin değerlendirmesini okumak keyifliydi. binbir ifadesinin nasıl sonsuzluğu ifade ettiğini anlatan satırları okudukça, eserin efsaneleşmesini daha iyi anladım.
bu kitaptan pek çok şey öğrendiğimi hissettim ama aynı zamanda da ne çok şeyi bilmediğimi farkettim. her bölümü iyi anlayamadım belki ama borges okumaya başlamak için iyi bir seçimdi diye düşünüyorum.
şiiri de şöyle:
"kimse yakınıp yerindiğimi sanmasın
bu lütfundan yüce tanrının
bana ilahi bir şaka yaptı
kitabı ve körlüğü aynı anda bağışladı.
binbir gece masalları ile ilgili bölümü de çok sevdim. en sevdiğim eserlerden birinin değerlendirmesini okumak keyifliydi. binbir ifadesinin nasıl sonsuzluğu ifade ettiğini anlatan satırları okudukça, eserin efsaneleşmesini daha iyi anladım.
bu kitaptan pek çok şey öğrendiğimi hissettim ama aynı zamanda da ne çok şeyi bilmediğimi farkettim. her bölümü iyi anlayamadım belki ama borges okumaya başlamak için iyi bir seçimdi diye düşünüyorum.
May 30, 2014
خواندنش مثل شب نشینی با پیرمرد بسیار دانایی است که شیرین سخن می گوید و بسیار بسیار می داند. هر از چند گاهی این حجم دانش متعجبت می کنی سپس تحسینت را برمی انگیزد.گاه البته آن همه ارجاعات تاریخی و فلسفی و...باعث میشوند فکر کنی هیچ نمی دانی و حس سرخوردگی کنی که باز شیرینی و عمق سخن پیرمرد تو را سر ذوق می آورد. سه تا سخنرانی اش را در مورد هزار و یکشب،بودا و قباله بیشتر از بقیه دوست داشتم. بخصوص هزار و یکشب و توصیف مردمانم از زبان بورخس. .
خرداد 93
December 21, 2019
Bin Bir Gece Masalları'nı, Dante'yi, kelimelerin etimolojilerini okumaktan daha keyifli bir şey varsa o da bunları Borges'in gözünden -pun intended!- okumaktır.
July 9, 2021
"In my case, that slow nightfall, that slow loss of sight, began when I began to see."
These lectures were delivered by Borges in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Coliseo, between June and August 1977.
As Borges's blindness encroached, the obligation to memorize his material did him a great service, for he was at the same time memorizing a considerable private library of reference and quotation. One can see it in videos of his interviews and lectures, when asked a question he will pause, as though riffling through bookshelves in his head, and come up with a verse from one of his essential texts.
Something may give him a reason to quote Oscar Wilde, and he will go on to talk about Wilde, about the French language, his schooldays in Geneva, Calvin, the Scots, always turning to the library in his memory. Everything connects, but it is Borges alone who can make these connections, across cultures, across literatures, across languages, across time. I can't help myself though, I have to try, weaving him into my own bookshelves..
To lamely attempt to reason like Borges, to try to see a text through his all-seeing Borgesian eye is a Borgesian trait in itself and no one does it better than Borges himself. Or is it his Other self?
Take Dante, a topic put under so many literary microscopes that the search of meaning has in itself lost any meaning, but we leave it to Borges to pinpoint a little something of Beauty:
"I would like to mention another aspect: the gentleness of Dante. We always think of the somber and sententious Florentine poem, and we forget that the work is full of delights, of pleasures, of tenderness. That tenderness is part of the structure of the work. For example, Dante must have read somewhere that the cube is the most solid of volumes. It was a current, unpoetical observation, and yet Dante used it as a metaphor for man, who must support misfortune: “buon tetragono a i colpe di ventura,” man is a good tetragon, a cube. That is truly rare."
Gentleness in a cube, dear reader. This is also truly rare - to see a crude, unpoetical observation and to take it as gentleness and no one but Borges could have seen it that way. In the whole of Dante, it was a cube that moves Borges. A logophile true and true.
Speaking of words, the English nightmare, to Borges, means the mare of the night. This was how Shakespeare understood it. There is a line of his that says, “I met the night mare.” Clearly he saw it as a mare. And there is another line where he says, deliberately, “the nightmare and her nine foals. Bid her alight, and her troth plight.” (King Lear, III,4)
But according to the etymologists the root is different. The root is niht mare or niht maere, the demon of the night. Dr. Johnson says that this corresponds to Nordic mythology Saxon mythology we would say which saw nightmares as the products of demons. This would make it a play on, or translation of the Greek ephialtes or the Latin incubus
Victor Hugo mastered English and wrote an unjustly forgotten book on Shakespeare. In one of his poems, Les contemplations, he speaks of “le cheval noir de la nuit,” the black horse of night.
Gongóra, in a sonnet, expresses with precision the idea that dreams and nightmares are, above all, fictions; they are literary creations:
El sueño, autor de representacions,
en su teatro sobre el viento armado
sombras suele vestir de bulto bello.
[The dream, author of representations,
in its theater above the armored wind
dresses shadows in beautiful bulk.]
Language is an aesthetic creation. I think there is no question of that. A proof is that when we study a language, when we are obliged to see the words up close, we experience them as beautiful or not. Studying a language, one sees the words with a magnifying glass; one thinks, this word is ugly, this lovely, this too heavy. This does not happen in one's mother tongue, where the words do not appear to us isolated from speech.
Emerson said that a library is a magic chamber in which there are many enchanted spirits. They wake when we call them. When the book lies unopened, it is literally, geometrically, a volume, a thing among things. When we open it, when the book surrenders itself to its reader, the aesthetic event occurs. And even for the same reader the same book changes, for we change; we are the river of Heraclitus, who said that the man of yesterday is not the man of today, who will not be the man of tomorrow. We change incessantly, and each reading of a book, each rereading, each memory of that rereading, reinvents the text. The text too is the changing river of Heraclitus.
There is another aesthetic experience, also quite strange ― in which the poet conceives the work, in which he is discovering or inventing the work. As is well known, in Latin the word for to invent and to discover is the same. All of this is in accord with the Platonic doctrine that to invent, to discover, is to remember. Francis Bacon agreed that learning is remembering, not knowing is knowing to forget; everything is this way, only we don't see it.
For example, a line by the Persian poet Hafiz: “I fly, my dust will be what I am.” In this there is the whole doctrine of transmigration. “My dust will be what I am.” I will be reborn again and again; in another country, I will be Hafiz, the poet. All of this is given in a few words in English, but which cannot be very different in Persian. It is too Simple to have been altered greatly.
Beauty awaits in ambush for all of us.
“Yo fui un soldado que durmió en el lecho
de Cleopatra la reina. Su blancura
y su mirada astral y omnipotente.
Eso fue todo.
I was a soldier who slept in the bed
of Cleopatra, the Queen. Her paleness,
her starry and omnipotent gaze.
Nothing more.”
― Rubén Darío
These lectures were delivered by Borges in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Coliseo, between June and August 1977.
As Borges's blindness encroached, the obligation to memorize his material did him a great service, for he was at the same time memorizing a considerable private library of reference and quotation. One can see it in videos of his interviews and lectures, when asked a question he will pause, as though riffling through bookshelves in his head, and come up with a verse from one of his essential texts.
Something may give him a reason to quote Oscar Wilde, and he will go on to talk about Wilde, about the French language, his schooldays in Geneva, Calvin, the Scots, always turning to the library in his memory. Everything connects, but it is Borges alone who can make these connections, across cultures, across literatures, across languages, across time. I can't help myself though, I have to try, weaving him into my own bookshelves..
To lamely attempt to reason like Borges, to try to see a text through his all-seeing Borgesian eye is a Borgesian trait in itself and no one does it better than Borges himself. Or is it his Other self?
Take Dante, a topic put under so many literary microscopes that the search of meaning has in itself lost any meaning, but we leave it to Borges to pinpoint a little something of Beauty:
"I would like to mention another aspect: the gentleness of Dante. We always think of the somber and sententious Florentine poem, and we forget that the work is full of delights, of pleasures, of tenderness. That tenderness is part of the structure of the work. For example, Dante must have read somewhere that the cube is the most solid of volumes. It was a current, unpoetical observation, and yet Dante used it as a metaphor for man, who must support misfortune: “buon tetragono a i colpe di ventura,” man is a good tetragon, a cube. That is truly rare."
Gentleness in a cube, dear reader. This is also truly rare - to see a crude, unpoetical observation and to take it as gentleness and no one but Borges could have seen it that way. In the whole of Dante, it was a cube that moves Borges. A logophile true and true.
Speaking of words, the English nightmare, to Borges, means the mare of the night. This was how Shakespeare understood it. There is a line of his that says, “I met the night mare.” Clearly he saw it as a mare. And there is another line where he says, deliberately, “the nightmare and her nine foals. Bid her alight, and her troth plight.” (King Lear, III,4)
But according to the etymologists the root is different. The root is niht mare or niht maere, the demon of the night. Dr. Johnson says that this corresponds to Nordic mythology Saxon mythology we would say which saw nightmares as the products of demons. This would make it a play on, or translation of the Greek ephialtes or the Latin incubus
Victor Hugo mastered English and wrote an unjustly forgotten book on Shakespeare. In one of his poems, Les contemplations, he speaks of “le cheval noir de la nuit,” the black horse of night.
Gongóra, in a sonnet, expresses with precision the idea that dreams and nightmares are, above all, fictions; they are literary creations:
El sueño, autor de representacions,
en su teatro sobre el viento armado
sombras suele vestir de bulto bello.
[The dream, author of representations,
in its theater above the armored wind
dresses shadows in beautiful bulk.]
Language is an aesthetic creation. I think there is no question of that. A proof is that when we study a language, when we are obliged to see the words up close, we experience them as beautiful or not. Studying a language, one sees the words with a magnifying glass; one thinks, this word is ugly, this lovely, this too heavy. This does not happen in one's mother tongue, where the words do not appear to us isolated from speech.
Emerson said that a library is a magic chamber in which there are many enchanted spirits. They wake when we call them. When the book lies unopened, it is literally, geometrically, a volume, a thing among things. When we open it, when the book surrenders itself to its reader, the aesthetic event occurs. And even for the same reader the same book changes, for we change; we are the river of Heraclitus, who said that the man of yesterday is not the man of today, who will not be the man of tomorrow. We change incessantly, and each reading of a book, each rereading, each memory of that rereading, reinvents the text. The text too is the changing river of Heraclitus.
There is another aesthetic experience, also quite strange ― in which the poet conceives the work, in which he is discovering or inventing the work. As is well known, in Latin the word for to invent and to discover is the same. All of this is in accord with the Platonic doctrine that to invent, to discover, is to remember. Francis Bacon agreed that learning is remembering, not knowing is knowing to forget; everything is this way, only we don't see it.
For example, a line by the Persian poet Hafiz: “I fly, my dust will be what I am.” In this there is the whole doctrine of transmigration. “My dust will be what I am.” I will be reborn again and again; in another country, I will be Hafiz, the poet. All of this is given in a few words in English, but which cannot be very different in Persian. It is too Simple to have been altered greatly.
Beauty awaits in ambush for all of us.
“Yo fui un soldado que durmió en el lecho
de Cleopatra la reina. Su blancura
y su mirada astral y omnipotente.
Eso fue todo.
I was a soldier who slept in the bed
of Cleopatra, the Queen. Her paleness,
her starry and omnipotent gaze.
Nothing more.”
― Rubén Darío
August 12, 2022
Regresar a Borges es como volver al hogar, y esta colección de Alianza editorial que me ha caído en las manos, tengo unos dieciocho volúmenes de una colección que debe acercarse a la treintena, promete darme verdaderas alegrías.
De momento, Siete noches y Nueve ensayos dantescos son dos colecciones de artículos que me han obligado a subrayar mucho y a disfrutar más, bajo la idea de que nadie superará jamás ese equilibrio perfecto borgiano entre erudición y hedonismo por la lectura.
Los artículos, no puede ser de otra manera ni para mí ni para nadie, han resultado desiguales para mi paladar, pues, al fin y al cabo, no me pueden interesar lo mismo los diferentes temas que trata. Y si tuviera que escoger, que sería un absurdo, Siete me gustó más que Nueve. Eso sí, casi hacia el final, se encuentra su famosa reflexión sobre la idea de que “enamorarse es crear una religión cuyo dios es falible”. Borges se refiere a lo que le ocurrió a Dante con respecto a Beatriz, pero tras leer todo lo que dice, y, como lo dice, ¿quién no se sentirá identificado con la diana donde se clave una flecha tan certera como dolorosa?
En fin, bendito Borges.
De momento, Siete noches y Nueve ensayos dantescos son dos colecciones de artículos que me han obligado a subrayar mucho y a disfrutar más, bajo la idea de que nadie superará jamás ese equilibrio perfecto borgiano entre erudición y hedonismo por la lectura.
Los artículos, no puede ser de otra manera ni para mí ni para nadie, han resultado desiguales para mi paladar, pues, al fin y al cabo, no me pueden interesar lo mismo los diferentes temas que trata. Y si tuviera que escoger, que sería un absurdo, Siete me gustó más que Nueve. Eso sí, casi hacia el final, se encuentra su famosa reflexión sobre la idea de que “enamorarse es crear una religión cuyo dios es falible”. Borges se refiere a lo que le ocurrió a Dante con respecto a Beatriz, pero tras leer todo lo que dice, y, como lo dice, ¿quién no se sentirá identificado con la diana donde se clave una flecha tan certera como dolorosa?
En fin, bendito Borges.
November 17, 2022
ათას ერთი ღამე, პოეზია და სიბრმავე მომეწონა ყველაზე მეტად, თუმცა, დანარჩენებიც შესანიშნავი იყო. ან რა აქვს ჩემი დასაწუნი ყველა დროის საუკეთესო ესეისტს...
პ.ს. "ვეფხისტყაოსანზე" კი დაწერა ნაშრომი ამ დიადმა კაცმა, მაგრამ ამ წიგნში რომ შეეტანა ძალიან, ძალიან მოუხდებოდა!
პ.ს. "ვეფხისტყაოსანზე" კი დაწერა ნაშრომი ამ დიადმა კაცმა, მაგრამ ამ წიგნში რომ შეეტანა ძალიან, ძალიან მოუხდებოდა!
September 11, 2020
He aquí una serie de conferencias que diera Borges a fines de los años setenta. Ya para ese entonces había perdido la visión (o como el mismo explica, vivía en una especie de eterna nebulosa gris), por lo que se apoya únicamente en su memoria para desarrollar los contenidos propuestos. Y vaya memoria.
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Los temas son, por orden de aparición: La Divina Comedia, la pesadilla, Las mil y una noches, el budismo, la poesía, la cábala y, para cerrar, el que ha sido mi favorito personal: la ceguera. En todos ellos se evidencia que la vida de este escritor (o lector, como le gustaba calificarse) fue dedicada en forma total a la literatura; no hay prácticamente momento en que no esté presente la referencia a libros, autores y textos relacionados con los temas en cuestión. Son ensayos eruditos, pero no pretenciosos: más bien, una emanación del auténtico genio borgeano.
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Si la ficción de Borges puede resultar complicada, estos ensayos no lo son. Al tratarse de conferencias, el estilo es bastante coloquial y accesible. Tal vez alguna que otra sección no fue de mi total interés (léase, la cábala), pero el temario es tan variado y Jorge Luis lo lleva tan bien, que uno termina "enganchado" en su lectura.
⠀
Los temas son, por orden de aparición: La Divina Comedia, la pesadilla, Las mil y una noches, el budismo, la poesía, la cábala y, para cerrar, el que ha sido mi favorito personal: la ceguera. En todos ellos se evidencia que la vida de este escritor (o lector, como le gustaba calificarse) fue dedicada en forma total a la literatura; no hay prácticamente momento en que no esté presente la referencia a libros, autores y textos relacionados con los temas en cuestión. Son ensayos eruditos, pero no pretenciosos: más bien, una emanación del auténtico genio borgeano.
⠀
Si la ficción de Borges puede resultar complicada, estos ensayos no lo son. Al tratarse de conferencias, el estilo es bastante coloquial y accesible. Tal vez alguna que otra sección no fue de mi total interés (léase, la cábala), pero el temario es tan variado y Jorge Luis lo lleva tan bien, que uno termina "enganchado" en su lectura.
December 28, 2022
Jorge Luis Borges's Seven Nights is taken from a series of lectures delivered by the author in Buenos Aires in 1977. The topics include Dante's Divine Comedy; nightmares; The Thousand and One Nights; Buddhism; poetry; The Kabbalah; and blindness (Borges was almost totally blind).
When I first read this book in 1985, I wasn't quite so impressed with it, giving it only three stars. Since then, I have come to realize that Borges is one of the main guiding lights of my life. After reading the lecture on Dante, for instance, I am eager to return to The Purgatorio.
Borges is one of the greatest authors of the 20th century. It is only because he accepted an award from Chilean dictator General Pinochet Ugarte that the members of the Nobel Prize Committee blackballed him from consideration for the Literature prize, though he richly deserved it.
When I first read this book in 1985, I wasn't quite so impressed with it, giving it only three stars. Since then, I have come to realize that Borges is one of the main guiding lights of my life. After reading the lecture on Dante, for instance, I am eager to return to The Purgatorio.
Borges is one of the greatest authors of the 20th century. It is only because he accepted an award from Chilean dictator General Pinochet Ugarte that the members of the Nobel Prize Committee blackballed him from consideration for the Literature prize, though he richly deserved it.
January 17, 2016
A transcription of Borges lectures originally delivered in Buenos Aires. Lit-crit without the academic pom-poms. Playful takes on seven subjects: Dante's Commedia, dreams and nightmares, the endless pleasures of The Thousand and One Nights, Buddhism, poetry, the Kabbalah, and blindness. I imagine myself attending these lectures (in English) and turning the ideas over in my mind before going to sleep. Perhaps I will sleep peacefully knowing that the next night's lecture will be another food for the mind. Or I can't sleep at all, anticipating the next lecture. Or I will be visited by fearful nightmares of mirrors, of closed rooms, of the inferno. There's no question that literature for Borges is like religion. Reading for him is an act of miracle. He is a blind man who sees.
March 9, 2023
Las personas que me conocen saben (de tanto que lo repito) que Borges no es una de mis personas favoritas en el mundo. No sé si es por la cantidad de cuentos hasta el hartazgo que me han hecho leer en el colegio, o porque me da unas vibras de elitista muy malo, o el endiosamiento a él con el que crecí, pero es que me hablen de él y yo ya estoy revoleando los ojos. Sin embargo, en esta obra, siento que descubrí la otra cara de la moneda: no al Borges que me cae mal, sino al Jorge que podría pasarme las tardes charlando.
Luego de haber finalizado los últimos detalles para publicar el libro, Roy Bartholomew cuenta que Borges le dice «No está mal; me parece que sobre temas que tanto me han obsesionado, este libro es mi testamento», y la verdad es que tenía razón. Fueron estas charlas las que me hicieron dar cuenta que, al fin y al cabo, ese Borges tan austero que me parecía, es un fan obsesivo más de la literatura, al igual que yo o cualquiera que conozco. Y para muchos, esta afirmación les puede parecer muy obvia y tonta, pero créanme si les digo que pasé de empezar la obra con un poco de "resentimiento" para darle otra oportunidad al autor, a querer haberlo tenido como profesor, de tenerlo como amigo y/o simplemente tomar unos mates con él para tener charlas interminables.
Habló sobre cosas que me interesaban, de las que tenía un poco de conocimiento y otras que no sabía absolutamente nada, y fue lindo saber un poco más. Y en todas se notaba la pasión que tenía por dichos temas que eligió para las conferencias. Desde sus libros favoritos hasta la religión o sobre la ceguera, el arduo estudio que hay detrás se nota. Ahora entiendo el endiosamiento a élporque yo sería totalmente igual.
Seguiré un poco reacia a aceptarlo a él como mayor exponente de la literatura (me puede más el orgullo y sigo teniendo un poco de rencor, perdón). ¿Que es uno de los mejores que tuvo Argentina? Sí, por supuesto, eso nunca lo voy a negar. Pero todavía tengo una espinita clavada, aunque ya no es tan gruesa como antes. Ahora lo acepto a él, a su capacidad intelectual, a la posibilidad de considerarlo un amigo como lo hago con muchos otros autores que amo. Capaz, en un futuro, vuelva a sus obras y revolee los ojos pero por mi, por la tonta que fui al menospreciar a Borges.
PD: Igual sí estoy un poquito enojada, porque de todas las personas que ha nombrado en esas siete noches, no ha habido ni una mujer (o yo no me he dado cuenta). No es un detalle importantisimo, pero me pareció un poquito raro...
Luego de haber finalizado los últimos detalles para publicar el libro, Roy Bartholomew cuenta que Borges le dice «No está mal; me parece que sobre temas que tanto me han obsesionado, este libro es mi testamento», y la verdad es que tenía razón. Fueron estas charlas las que me hicieron dar cuenta que, al fin y al cabo, ese Borges tan austero que me parecía, es un fan obsesivo más de la literatura, al igual que yo o cualquiera que conozco. Y para muchos, esta afirmación les puede parecer muy obvia y tonta, pero créanme si les digo que pasé de empezar la obra con un poco de "resentimiento" para darle otra oportunidad al autor, a querer haberlo tenido como profesor, de tenerlo como amigo y/o simplemente tomar unos mates con él para tener charlas interminables.
Habló sobre cosas que me interesaban, de las que tenía un poco de conocimiento y otras que no sabía absolutamente nada, y fue lindo saber un poco más. Y en todas se notaba la pasión que tenía por dichos temas que eligió para las conferencias. Desde sus libros favoritos hasta la religión o sobre la ceguera, el arduo estudio que hay detrás se nota. Ahora entiendo el endiosamiento a él
Seguiré un poco reacia a aceptarlo a él como mayor exponente de la literatura (me puede más el orgullo y sigo teniendo un poco de rencor, perdón). ¿Que es uno de los mejores que tuvo Argentina? Sí, por supuesto, eso nunca lo voy a negar. Pero todavía tengo una espinita clavada, aunque ya no es tan gruesa como antes. Ahora lo acepto a él, a su capacidad intelectual, a la posibilidad de considerarlo un amigo como lo hago con muchos otros autores que amo. Capaz, en un futuro, vuelva a sus obras y revolee los ojos pero por mi, por la tonta que fui al menospreciar a Borges.
PD: Igual sí estoy un poquito enojada, porque de todas las personas que ha nombrado en esas siete noches, no ha habido ni una mujer (o yo no me he dado cuenta). No es un detalle importantisimo, pero me pareció un poquito raro...
January 26, 2025
Цикл літературних (!) лекцій Борхеса різноманітний не лише за своєю тематикою, але і за способом і глибиною викладу. Він то плавно і методично розжовує тему, то кидається в сторони наводячи безліч прикладів і цитати що стосуються різних аспектів обраної теми. Але всі вони, так чи інакше присвячені Літературі. Навіть найсильніша та найбільші особиста - Сліпота, в якій ніби як представлена така собі особиста сповідь, але врешті виходить на одне.
Проте впевнений, що слухати ці лекції іспанською наживо було набагато більш захопливо ніж читати їх українською.
Проте впевнений, що слухати ці лекції іспанською наживо було набагато більш захопливо ніж читати їх українською.
March 24, 2020
El N° 1.
October 17, 2023
"Siete noches" es una excelente opción para comenzar con Borges, para descubrir su estilo y genialidad.
El libro es un ensayo con 7 capítulos, que son las 7 conferencias que el autor dio en el Teatro Coliseo de Buenos Aires, durante 1977... ¡Me encanta la repetición del número 7!
A través de estos capítulos, el autor aborda, con absoluta maestría y dominio; temas como el budismo y la cábala, además, hace un recorrido de obras como "Las mil y una noches" y "La divina comedia", para luego llegar a terrenos más personales donde analiza las pesadillas, la poesía (que era una de sus pasiones), y la ceguera donde nos comparte cómo fue para él perder la vista desde muy joven.
Con este libro confirmé lo que ya había escuchado de Borges, que era un genio. Amé como en cada capítulo cita decenas de referencias de autores, lugares y frases, donde deja en claro su admiración por la literatura griega, su amor por la poesía y la lectura en general, dejando una gran lección sobre que debe de ser un acto de disfrute:
"Si los textos les agradan, bien; y si no les agradan, déjenlos, ya que la idea de la lectura obligatoria es una idea absurda: tanto valdría hablar de felicidad obligatoria."
El libro es un ensayo con 7 capítulos, que son las 7 conferencias que el autor dio en el Teatro Coliseo de Buenos Aires, durante 1977... ¡Me encanta la repetición del número 7!
A través de estos capítulos, el autor aborda, con absoluta maestría y dominio; temas como el budismo y la cábala, además, hace un recorrido de obras como "Las mil y una noches" y "La divina comedia", para luego llegar a terrenos más personales donde analiza las pesadillas, la poesía (que era una de sus pasiones), y la ceguera donde nos comparte cómo fue para él perder la vista desde muy joven.
Con este libro confirmé lo que ya había escuchado de Borges, que era un genio. Amé como en cada capítulo cita decenas de referencias de autores, lugares y frases, donde deja en claro su admiración por la literatura griega, su amor por la poesía y la lectura en general, dejando una gran lección sobre que debe de ser un acto de disfrute:
"Si los textos les agradan, bien; y si no les agradan, déjenlos, ya que la idea de la lectura obligatoria es una idea absurda: tanto valdría hablar de felicidad obligatoria."
July 2, 2014
Seven Nights gathers seven lectures delivered by Borges in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Coliseo, between June and August 1977. As usual, the erudition is overwhelming, the subjects enthralling, the interpretation original and the passion catching. Most of all, they offer, as usual, keys for reading not only the classics but also Borges’s works, revealing his obsessions, his views and his literary games.
The first conference is dedicated to his book of all books, The Divine Comedy, which can be read in infinite ways, in which the expression defines the content and vice versa, whose most insignificant characters have more life that any main character in other books, and which, above all, is the ultimate proof that mankind was made for art. Therefore,
The Commedia is a book that everyone ought to read. Not to do so is to deprive oneself of the greatest gift that literature can give us; it is to submit to a strange asceticism.
After a dissertation about nightmares, suspected to be cries from hell, Borges speaks of the Thousand and One Nights, the book the Arabs say that it cannot be finished. Probably because it is infinite, like literature. I remember the little volumes aligned in my mother’s library that I read one by one. I always thought I’d read them all. I was obviously wrong.
The lecture about Buddhism offers two explanations for its longevity: tolerance (resulted from that discipline of the self taught by yoga) and the request of faith (you have to feel the four truths and the eightfold path) and recalls the dream-like quality of life.
Poetry develops Croce’s theory that literature is expression, to emphasize that language is an aesthetic creation, since it is always a matter of choice, dictated by feelings. This is why, Borges jokes,
There are people who barely feel poetry, and they are generally dedicated to teaching it.
Kabbalah developed an interesting (although not original) theory about the existence of evil. We were created by the last emanation of God, the almost zero God. The evil is nothing more that this divine imperfection translated into the material world. This explanation given by the cabbalists surpasses others, among which:
• the theologians’, who declared that evil is negative, an absence of good, forgetting that physical pain, misfortune etc. are felt positive. “When we are miserable, we feel it as misery.”
• Leibniz’s, who compared two libraries: one containing only the Aeneid, the other thousand books and Aeneid, to emphasize that the second is superior because evil is necessary for the variety of the world. “But he seems to forget that it is one thing that there are bad books in the library, and another thing to be those books. And if we are those books we are condemned to hell.”
• Kierkegaard’s,” who said that if there were one soul in hell necessary for the variety of the world, and if that soul were his, he would sing from the depths of hell the praises of the Almighty.”
The last lecture, reminding Oscar Wilde’s presumption that “Antiquity had deliberately represented Homer as blind” argues that blindness can be a powerful tool to better understand literature:
We may believe that Homer never existed, but that the Greeks imagined him as blind in order to insist on the fact that poetry is, above all, music; that poetry is, above all, the lyre; that the visual can or cannot exist in a poet.
In fact, Borges’ own ability to listen to the music of the spheres, sight or no sight, is proof enough.
August 28, 2009
"Borges is our Virgil; only he knows the way." (from the introduction by Alastair Reid)
At first you might mistake the frequency and variety of Borges' references for pretentiousness, but soon you will understand it as a symptom...of genius! Borges seems to be an expert in all things even marginally literary, and it shows very clearly in this clever, erudite, and surprisingly easy-to-read collection of essays. Since they were adapted from a series of lectures he gave, they really do read conversationally, making the sometimes densely layered and storied topics he discusses actually comprehensible.
The world is simply a better place to live while reading Borges, there I said it.
At first you might mistake the frequency and variety of Borges' references for pretentiousness, but soon you will understand it as a symptom...of genius! Borges seems to be an expert in all things even marginally literary, and it shows very clearly in this clever, erudite, and surprisingly easy-to-read collection of essays. Since they were adapted from a series of lectures he gave, they really do read conversationally, making the sometimes densely layered and storied topics he discusses actually comprehensible.
The world is simply a better place to live while reading Borges, there I said it.
July 11, 2007
Finished this on my birthday. Read one chapter a day for a week--not the author's recommended method, but the obvious one. Like taking a night class. His voice, ideas echoed in my head and had an effect on some of my browsing choices for the next few weeks.
Actually, it's the translator's voice, isn't it? The lecture-transcriptionist's voice.
Borgesian, that.
Actually, it's the translator's voice, isn't it? The lecture-transcriptionist's voice.
Borgesian, that.
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