Writings of light assault the darkness, more prodigious than meteors.
The tall unknowable city takes over the countryside.
Sure of my life and my death, I observe the ambitious and would like to understand them.
Their day is greedy as a lariat in the air.
Their night is a rest from the rage within steel, quick to attack.
They speak of humanity.
My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty.
They speak of homeland.
My homeland is the rhythm of a guitar, a few portraits, an old sword,
the willow grove’s visible prayer as evening falls.
Time is living me.
More silent than my shadow, I pass through the loftily covetous multitude.
They are indispensable, singular, worthy of tomorrow.
My name is someone and anyone.
I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away he doesn’t expect to
arrive.
- Jorge Luis Borges
At this phase in life, I’m the ambitious, the anticipating lariat, the unknowable, the furious metal, perhaps even the lofty. Where’s the wise to enlighten the blind? I wish I could stay for the strums and the strokes, but my journey has begun – hasty to reach, indifferent to return.








7 responses so far ↓
aleafof // June 3, 2007 at 8:40 am |
does your staying for the strums (guitar) and strokes (sword) refer to what was written in the poem? what’s youth without being ambitious, without the unknowables and without the furious metal… we might as well be dead haha.
anyways i like the paragraph u’ve written, i like the quietness in the poem too.
votrex // June 3, 2007 at 9:06 am |
yup! so true… the poem is written like a ghost.
By the way,
takes on a new meaning, when you realise that Jorge Luis Borges had been having vision problems.
darryl // June 4, 2007 at 11:33 am |
where’d you find this poem?
votrex // June 4, 2007 at 12:35 pm |
This is found in the opener to Kiran Desai’s 2nd novel “The Inheritance of Loss”, a tale about displaced individuals in a multi-cultural world.
Valentina // July 24, 2007 at 2:17 pm |
I’m in desperate need to know the name of this poem in Spanish (i.e.: the original)!!! Can you help me? Thanks a lot! BTW, great poetry, great poet!
torokilopz // August 4, 2007 at 11:44 pm |
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Anna // November 20, 2007 at 10:45 pm |
Valentina, the poem in Spanish is Jactancia de Quietud.
Anna