Infinity according to Jorge Luis Borges - Ilan Stavans

Prevoditelj: Petra Porubić Recezent: Sanda L

When Ireneo Funes looked at a glass of wine on a table,

Kada je Ireneo Funes pogledao u čašu vina na stolu,

he saw “all the shoots, clusters, and grapes of the vine.

vidio je "sve izdanke, grozdove i bobice loze."

He remembered the shapes of the clouds in the south

Sjetio se oblika oblaka na jugu,

at the dawn of the 30th of April of 1882,

u zoru 30. travnja 1882.,

and he could compare them in his recollection with the marbled grain

i mogao ih je uspoređivati sa sjećanjima mramorne teksture

in the design of a leather-bound book which he had seen only once,

dizajna knjige kožnog uveza koju je vidio samo jednom,

and with the lines in the spray which an oar raised

s linijama koje je veslo načinilo

in the Rio Negro on the eve of the battle of the Quebrancho.”

u Rio Negru u noć pred borbu u Quebrachu."

In the short story “Funes, the Memorious,”

U kratkoj priči "Funes pamtilac",

Jorge Luis Borges explores what it would be like to have a perfect memory.

Jorge Luis Borges istražuje kako bi to bilo imati savršeno sjećanje.

His character not only remembers everything he has ever seen,

Njegov lik ne sjeća se samo svega što je ikad vidio,

but every time he has seen it in perfect detail.

nego i da je svaki put to vidio savršeno detaljno.

These details are so overwhelming

Ti detalji su toliko snažni

Funes has to spend his days in a dark room,

da Funes treba provesti svoje dane u mračnoj sobi

and can only sleep by imagining a part of town he has never visited.

i može spavati samo kada zamišlja dio grada koji nikada nije posjetio.

According to Borges,

Prema Borgesu,

Funes’s memories even rendered him incapable of real thought,

Funeova sjećanja su ga čak sprječavala da jasno razmišlja,

because “To think is to forget a difference, to generalize, to abstract.

jer "razmišljati znači zaboraviti razlike, generalizirati, pojednostaviti."

In the overly replete world of Funes there were nothing but details.”

U ovom prenapučenom Funesovom svijetu nema ničeg osim detalja.

Funes’ limitless memory was just one of Borges’s many explorations of infinity.

Funesova neograničena memorija jedno je od mnogih Borgesovih istraživanja beskraja.

Born in Argentina in 1899,

Rođen u Argentini 1899. godine,

he admired the revolutionaries of his mother’s family

divio se revolucionarima u obitelji svoje majke,

but took after his father’s bookish clan.

ali se priključio očevom knjiškom klanu.

His body of essays, poems, and stories, or, as he called them, ficciones

Njegov opus eseja, pjesama i priča, ili, kako ih je on nazivao, ficciones,

pioneered the literary style of “lo real maravilloso,”

otvorio je put književnom stilu "lo real maravilloso",

known in English as Magical Realism—

poznatom kao magični realizam -

and each was just a few pages long.

i svako djelo je bilo dugo samo nekoliko stranica.

Though Borges was not interested in writing long books,

Iako se Borges nije zanimao za pisanja dugih knjiga,

he was an avid reader,

bio je strastveni čitač,

recruiting friends to read to him after he went blind in middle age.

zahtijevao je da mu prijatelji čitaju, kada je oslijepio u srednjim godinama.

He said his image of paradise was an infinite library,

Rekao je da je za njega predodžba raja jedna beskonačna knjižnica,

an idea he brought to life in “The library of Babel.”

jedna ideja koju je oživio u djelu "Babilonska knjižnica".

Built out of countless identical rooms,

Sazdana od bezbroj identičnih soba,

each containing the same number of books of the same length,

svaka sadržavajući isti broj knjiga jednake duljine,

the library of babel is its own universe.

"Babilonska knjižnica" je jedan zasebni svijet.

It contains every possible variation of text,

Sadržava sve moguće varijante tekstova

so there are some profound books,

i ima tu nekih dubokoumnih knjiga,

but also countless tomes of complete gibberish.

ali i bezbrojnih tomova potpunog besmisla.

The narrator has spent his entire life

Pripovjedač je proveo čitav svoj život

wandering this vast labyrinth of information

lutajući tim ogromnim labirintom informacija

in a possibly futile search for meaning.

u uzaludnom traženju smisla.

Labyrinths appeared over and over in Borges’ work.

Labirinti su se uvijek iznova pojavljivali u Borgesovim djelima.

In “The Garden of Forking Paths,”

U "Vrtu razgranatih staza",

as Yu Tsun winds his way through country roads,

kada Yu Tsun prolazi putevima državnih cesta,

he remembers a lost labyrinth built by one of his ancestors.

on se sjeti izgubljenog labirinta koji je izgradio jedan od njegovih predaka.

Over the course of the story,

Kroz priču

he finds out the labyrinth is not a physical maze but a novel.

on doznaje kako labirint ne postoji u fizičkom smislu, nego je to novela.

And this novel reveals that the real Garden of Forking Paths is time:

I ta novela otkriva da je pravi vrt razgranatih staza, zapravo, vrijeme.

in every instant, there are infinite possible courses of action.

U svakom trenutku, tu su beskonačni mogući tokovi radnje.

And as one moment follows another,

I kako jedan trenutak prati drugi,

each possibility begets another set of divergent futures.

svaka mogućnost stvara drugi set različitih fikcija.

Borges laid out infinite expanses of time in his labyrinths,

Borges je prikazao beskonačna prostranstva vremena u svojim labirintima,

but he also explored the idea of condensing all of time

ali je također proširio ideju da se cijelo vrijeme

into a single moment.

stopi u jedan trenutak.

In “The God’s Script,”

U "Božjem zapisu",

at the very beginning of the world

na samom početku svijeta,

the god writes exactly one message

Bog je napisao samo jednu poruku

into the spots of the jaguars,

u mrljama na koži jaguara,

who then “love and reproduce without end,

da se zatim "vole i množe bez prestanka,

in caverns, in cane fields, on islands,

u pećinama, u poljima trske, na otocima,

in order that the last men might receive it.”

u nadi da će je posljednji ljudi primiti."

The last man turns out to be a tenacious old priest

Ispadne da je zadnji čovjek jedan ustrajni stari svećenik

who spends years memorizing and deciphering the jaguar’s spots,

koji provodi godine pokušavajući upamtiti i odgonetnuti jaguarove mrlje,

culminating in an epiphany where he finally understands the god’s message.

kulminirajući u bogojavljenje gdje napokon otkriva Božju poruku.

Imprisoned deep underground,

Zarobljen duboko pod zemljom,

he has no one to share this meaning with,

nema ni s kim podijeliti mišljenje

and it changes nothing about his circumstances,

i ništa se ne mijenja oko njegovih okolnosti,

but he doesn’t mind:

no njemu ne smeta.

in that one moment,

U jednom trenutku,

he has experienced all the experience of everyone who has ever existed.

on je iskusio sva iskustva svih koji su ikada postojali.

Reading Borges, you might catch a glimpse of infinity too.

Čitajući Borgesa, možda ćete i vi osjetiti tračak beskraja.