A. Z. Foreman
Translated from the Spanish of Jorge Luis Borges
We're already oblivion we will be,
the elemental dust that does not know
us — dust that was red Adam and is now
all men, the dust that we shall never see.
We're already the two dates on the tomb:
The end and the beginning. Now. The casket.
Decomposition and the shroud to mask it.
Triumph of death. The dirges in the gloam.
I'm not the sort of fool who mindlessly
clings to his own name's magic sound. I can
be hopeful as I think about the man
who will not know this earth was home to me.
Under the heavens' indifferent blue yonder
This is a most consoling thing to ponder.
Aquí. Hoy
Jorge Luís Borges
Ya somos el olvido que seremos.
El polvo elemental que nos ignora
y que fue el rojo Adán y que es ahora
todos los hombres, y que no veremos.
Ya somos en la tumba las dos fechas
del principio y el término. La caja,
la obscena corrupción y la mortaja,
los triunfos de la muerte, y las endechas.
No soy el insensato que se aferra
al mágico sonido de su nombre.
Pienso con esperanza en aquel hombre
que no sabrá que fui sobre la tierra.
Bajo el indiferente azul del cielo,
esta meditación es un consuelo.
A. Z. Foreman is a linguist, poet, short story author and/or translator pursuing a doctorate at the Ohio State University. His work has been featured in the Threepenny Review, Poet Lore and two people's tattoos but not yet the Starfleet Academy Quarterly. He wants to pet your dog.
Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina's best-known writer, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1899. He spent many of his early years in Geneva, Switzerland and Spain, where he became acquainted with literary "modernism." He returned to Buenos Aires in the early 1920s and published his first book, Fervor de Buenos Aires, in 1923. He published a number of collections of verse and fiction to great acclaim including "Labyrinths" and "In Praise of Darkness".