On the card
He did not want to compose another Quixote, which is easy, but the Quixote.
No quería componer otro Quijote -lo cual es fácil- sino el Quijote.
The text of Cervantes and that of Menard are verbally identical, but the second is almost infinitely richer.
El texto de Cervantes y el de Menard son verbalmente idénticos, pero el segundo es casi infinitamente más rico.
Jorge Luis Borges, 1939Written in the seventeenth century, written by the "lay genius" Cervantes, this enumeration is a mere rhetorical praise of history.
Redactada en el siglo diecisiete, redactada por el "ingenio lego" Cervantes, esa enumeración es un mero elogio retórico de la historia.
Jorge Luis Borges, 1939Menard, a contemporary of William James, does not define history as an inquiry into reality but as its origin. Historical truth, for him, is not what happened; it is what we judge to have happened.
Menard, contemporáneo de William James, no define la historia como una indagación de la realidad sino como su origen. La verdad histórica, para él, no es lo que sucedió; es lo que juzgamos que sucedió.
Jorge Luis Borges, 1939Drag to look. That is all you do.
The room is a turning picture: from one angle it is 1934, from the other 1605.
Passages are quoted from the Spanish original and translated for this page.
Jorge Luis Borges, 1939
You are Pierre Menard, a poet of Nîmes, at your desk in 1934. Across the room hangs a page of Don Quixote, one sentence long. You will write that sentence: not to copy it, not to become Cervantes, but to arrive at his exact words out of your own life. While you look at his page, the room turns to his century and your pen stops. Look away, and write.
He did not want to compose another Quixote, which is easy, but the Quixote.
No quería componer otro Quijote -lo cual es fácil- sino el Quijote.
Jorge Luis Borges, 1939
Drag to look. That is all you do.
Menard (perhaps without meaning to) has enriched, by means of a new technique, the arrested and rudimentary art of reading: the technique of deliberate anachronism and erroneous attributions.
Menard (acaso sin quererlo) ha enriquecido mediante una técnica nueva el arte detenido y rudimentario de la lectura: la técnica del anacronismo deliberado y de las atribuciones erróneas.
Give any book another author and another century: the words stay, the work changes.
To attribute the Imitation of Christ to Louis Ferdinand Céline or to James Joyce: is that not a sufficient renovation of those tenuous spiritual counsels?
Atribuir a Louis Ferdinand Céline o a James Joyce la Imitación de Cristo ¿no es una suficiente renovación de esos tenues avisos espirituales?
Jorge Luis Borges, 1939
He did not want to compose another Quixote, which is easy, but the Quixote.
No quería componer otro Quijote -lo cual es fácil- sino el Quijote.
...truth, whose mother is history, rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, example and counsel to the present, warning of what is to come.
...la verdad, cuya madre es la historia, émula del tiempo, depósito de las acciones, testigo de lo pasado, ejemplo y aviso de lo presente, advertencia de lo por venir.
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, Part One, chapter 9, 1605 · Pierre Menard, Nîmes, 1934
To be, in some way, Cervantes and arrive at the Quixote seemed to him less arduous, and therefore less interesting, than to go on being Pierre Menard and arrive at the Quixote through the experiences of Pierre Menard.
Ser, de alguna manera, Cervantes y llegar al Quijote le pareció menos arduo -por consiguiente, menos interesante- que seguir siendo Pierre Menard y llegar al Quijote, a través de las experiencias de Pierre Menard.
While his page is in view the room drains toward 1605 and the pen lies still.
He multiplied the drafts; he corrected tenaciously, and tore up thousands of manuscript pages.
Multiplicó los borradores; corrigió tenazmente y desgarró miles de páginas manuscritas.
The text of Cervantes and that of Menard are verbally identical, but the second is almost infinitely richer.
El texto de Cervantes y el de Menard son verbalmente idénticos, pero el segundo es casi infinitamente más rico.
Menard, a contemporary of William James, does not define history as an inquiry into reality but as its origin. Historical truth, for him, is not what happened; it is what we judge to have happened.
Menard, contemporáneo de William James, no define la historia como una indagación de la realidad sino como su origen. La verdad histórica, para él, no es lo que sucedió; es lo que juzgamos que sucedió.
Written in the seventeenth century, written by the "lay genius" Cervantes, this enumeration is a mere rhetorical praise of history.
Redactada en el siglo diecisiete, redactada por el "ingenio lego" Cervantes, esa enumeración es un mero elogio retórico de la historia.
...he tore up thousands of manuscript pages. He allowed no one to examine them, and took care that they should not survive him.
...desgarró miles de páginas manuscritas... No permitió que fueran examinadas por nadie y cuidó que no le sobrevivieran.
Menard (perhaps without meaning to) has enriched, by means of a new technique, the arrested and rudimentary art of reading: the technique of deliberate anachronism and erroneous attributions.
Menard (acaso sin quererlo) ha enriquecido mediante una técnica nueva el arte detenido y rudimentario de la lectura: la técnica del anacronismo deliberado y de las atribuciones erróneas.
To attribute the Imitation of Christ to Louis Ferdinand Céline or to James Joyce: is that not a sufficient renovation of those tenuous spiritual counsels?
Atribuir a Louis Ferdinand Céline o a James Joyce la Imitación de Cristo ¿no es una suficiente renovación de esos tenues avisos espirituales?