Infinity according to Jorge Luis Borges - Ilan Stavans

翻译人员: Carol Wang 校对人员: Candace Hwang

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

当伊利内奥·富内斯 看着桌上的一杯葡萄酒时，

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

他看到了“所有葡萄藤上的 新芽、串串葡萄和葡萄粒。

He remembered the shapes of the clouds in the south

他记起了1882年4月30日

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

南方黎明时云彩的形状，

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

将它们与回忆中仅见过一次的

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

一本真皮包装书的 大理石纹理图案作比较，

and with the lines in the spray which an oar raised

与科布兰筹战役前夕

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

内格罗河上 船桨溅起的层层水花作比较。”

In the short story “Funes, the Memorious,”

在短故事《博闻强记的富内斯》中，

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

豪·路·博尔赫斯探索了 拥有完美记忆的感受。

His character not only remembers everything he has ever seen,

主人公不仅记得所见过的一切，

but every time he has seen it in perfect detail.

而且每次都记得翔实细节。

These details are so overwhelming

这些细节太强大，

Funes has to spend his days in a dark room,

富内斯只得在一间黑屋度日，

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

只能通过想象城镇里 没去过的地方才能入睡。

According to Borges,

据博尔赫斯的描述，

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

富内斯的记忆力 甚至使他无法真正思考，

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

因为“思考需要忘记差异 而去概括、抽象。

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

在富内斯过分充实的 世界里只剩细节。”

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

“富内斯的无限记忆”只是博尔赫斯 对“无限”的许多探索之一。

Born in Argentina in 1899,

1899年出生于阿根廷的他，

he admired the revolutionaries of his mother’s family

钦佩母亲家族的革命者，

but took after his father’s bookish clan.

但却成为父亲书香家族的一员。

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

他称之为“科幻”的散文、 诗歌和故事，

pioneered the literary style of “lo real maravilloso,”

开创了 “lo real maravilloso” 文学风格，

known in English as Magical Realism—

英文称之为“魔幻现实主义”——

and each was just a few pages long.

每一篇仅短短几页而已。

Though Borges was not interested in writing long books,

虽然博尔赫斯对写长篇不感兴趣，

he was an avid reader,

但他是个书痴，

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

中年失明后，他说服朋友读给他听。

He said his image of paradise was an infinite library,

他说心目中的天堂形象 是一个无穷尽的图书馆，

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

并把这个想法写进了 《巴别塔图书馆》一书。

Built out of countless identical rooms,

图书馆由无数相同的房间组成，

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

每个房间书目数量相同、 每本书长度相同，

the library of babel is its own universe.

巴别塔图书馆就是它自己的宇宙。

It contains every possible variation of text,

它包含每种文本变化的各种可能性，

so there are some profound books,

所以，有些书籍很深奥，

but also countless tomes of complete gibberish.

但也有无数的书完全是胡言乱语。

The narrator has spent his entire life

叙述者在这个巨大的信息迷宫里

wandering this vast labyrinth of information

游历了一生，

in a possibly futile search for meaning.

近似徒劳地寻找意义所在。

Labyrinths appeared over and over in Borges’ work.

迷宫反复出现在博尔赫斯的作品中，

In “The Garden of Forking Paths,”

在《小径分岔的花园》中，

as Yu Tsun winds his way through country roads,

当孙瑜在乡间道路上蜿蜒而行时，

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

他想起了一位祖先 建造的已遗失的迷宫。

Over the course of the story,

随着故事的进展，

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

他发现它不是现实的迷宫， 而是一本小说。

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

这部小说揭示出， 真正的小径分岔的花园是时间，

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

在每一个瞬间， 都有无限可能的行动方案。

And as one moment follows another,

随着时间的推移，

each possibility begets another set of divergent futures.

每一种可能都会 产生一系列不同的未来。

Borges laid out infinite expanses of time in his labyrinths,

博尔赫斯在迷宫中 设置了无限的时间扩展，

but he also explored the idea of condensing all of time

但他也探索了

将全部时间凝结成一个瞬间的想法。

into a single moment.

In “The God’s Script,”

在《上帝的手稿》中写到，

at the very beginning of the world

世界之始，

the god writes exactly one message

上帝把一条信息

into the spots of the jaguars,

写在美洲豹的斑点中，

who then “love and reproduce without end,

“美洲豹们相爱并不断繁殖，

in caverns, in cane fields, on islands,

在洞穴中、甘蔗田里、在岛上，

in order that the last men might receive it.”

以便最后的人类能收到这条信息。”

The last man turns out to be a tenacious old priest

最后的人是一个固执的老牧师，

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

花了多年时间 去记住和解码美洲豹的斑点，

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

他终于顿悟，明白了上帝的信息。

Imprisoned deep underground,

被囚禁于地下深处的他，

he has no one to share this meaning with,

无法与人分享这条信息的含义，

and it changes nothing about his circumstances,

这条信息也没能改变其处境，

but he doesn’t mind:

但他并不在意：

in that one moment,

就在那一刻，

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

他体验了所有曾生存过的人的经历。

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

通过读博尔赫斯的作品， 你也可以一瞥无限的魅力。