Infinity according to Jorge Luis Borges - Ilan Stavans

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: Carol Wang

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

當伊雷尼歐弗內思 看著桌上的一杯酒，

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

他看到的是「葡萄樹的所有 幼芽、葡萄串，以及葡萄。

He remembered the shapes of the clouds in the south

他記得 1882 年 4 月 30 日黎明時分

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

在南方天空上的雲朵是什麼形狀，

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

且他能夠將這些雲朵拿來對照

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

他記憶中只看過一次的 皮繩書的大理石花紋設計，

and with the lines in the spray which an oar raised

或是在 Quebracho 之戰前夕，

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

尼格羅河上槳手 所划起的水花線條。」

In the short story “Funes, the Memorious,”

在短篇故事

《記憶力超強的弗內思》中，

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

豪爾赫路易斯波赫士探究了 若能有完美的記憶會是什麼樣子。

His character not only remembers everything he has ever seen,

他的角色不僅能過目不忘，

but every time he has seen it in perfect detail.

且每次都能夠看見所有的細節。

These details are so overwhelming

這些細節實在讓人難以招架，

Funes has to spend his days in a dark room,

導致弗內思一直待在 黑暗的房間中，

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

且唯一能入睡的方式

就是想像小鎮中他從來 沒有造訪過的那部分。

According to Borges,

根據波赫士，

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

弗內思的記憶甚至使得他 無法進行真正的思考，

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

因為「思考就是忘記差異、 一般化、做摘要。

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

在弗內思那過度充實的 世界中，滿滿都是細節。」

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

弗內思無限的記憶只是波赫士 對「無窮」所做的許多探討之一。

Born in Argentina in 1899,

他於 1899 年生於阿根廷，

he admired the revolutionaries of his mother’s family

他很仰慕他的母系 家族中的革命者，

but took after his father’s bookish clan.

但愛好書籍的天性 則來自父系家族。

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

他把他的短文、詩作、 故事稱為虛構故事，

pioneered the literary style of “lo real maravilloso,”

它們開創了「lo real maravilloso （西班牙文）」文學風格的先鋒，

known in English as Magical Realism—

也就是「魔幻寫實主義」——

and each was just a few pages long.

且每一篇的長度都只有幾頁。

Though Borges was not interested in writing long books,

雖然波赫士對於 寫長篇書籍沒興趣，

he was an avid reader,

他卻是熱衷閱讀的讀者，

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

當他中年失明之後， 還找朋友來唸給他聽。

He said his image of paradise was an infinite library,

他說他對於天堂的印象 是一座無窮的圖書館，

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

他在《巴貝爾圖書館》中 把這個想法呈現出來。

Built out of countless identical rooms,

這座圖書館有無數 一模一樣的房間，

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

每一間都有同樣數目的書籍， 書籍的長度也相同，

the library of babel is its own universe.

圖書館本身就自成一個宇宙。

It contains every possible variation of text,

它包含了所有可能的文本變化，

so there are some profound books,

所以，有一些深奧的書籍，

but also countless tomes of complete gibberish.

也有無數完全在 胡說八道的大型書本。

The narrator has spent his entire life

說故事的人，一生的時間

wandering this vast labyrinth of information

都遊走在這個浩瀚的資訊迷宮中，

in a possibly futile search for meaning.

尋找著意義，即使 找到的可能性很低。

Labyrinths appeared over and over in Borges’ work.

在波赫士的作品中， 迷宮不斷出現。

In “The Garden of Forking Paths,”

在《歧路花園》中，

as Yu Tsun winds his way through country roads,

當于尊在鄉間小路上蜿蜒前進時，

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

他想起他的祖先之一 所建造的一個失落的迷宮。

Over the course of the story,

在這個故事的過程中，

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

他發現迷宮並不是 實體的迷宮，而是本小說。

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

而這本小說揭露出 真正的歧路花園是時間：

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

在每一個瞬間，有無窮個 可能的行動步驟。

And as one moment follows another,

而一個時刻接著一個時刻下去，

each possibility begets another set of divergent futures.

每一個可能性又會招致 另一組分歧的未來。

Borges laid out infinite expanses of time in his labyrinths,

波赫士在他的迷宮中 展示出時間的無窮擴張，

but he also explored the idea of condensing all of time

但他也會探討將所有時間

壓縮成為單一時刻的想法。

into a single moment.

In “The God’s Script,”

在《神的劇本》中，

at the very beginning of the world

在世界的起源之初，

the god writes exactly one message

神將一則訊息

into the spots of the jaguars,

寫入美洲豹的斑點中，

who then “love and reproduce without end,

美洲豹接著就 「相愛並無止境地繁殖，

in caverns, in cane fields, on islands,

在洞穴中、在甘蔗田裡、在島嶼上，

in order that the last men might receive it.”

目的是要讓最後的人類 能夠接受到這訊息。」

The last man turns out to be a tenacious old priest

結果發現，最後的人類 是位頑固的牧師，

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

他花了數年的時間， 記憶並破解美洲豹的斑點，

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

終於，他在頓悟中了解了神的訊息。

Imprisoned deep underground,

他被監禁在地底深處，

he has no one to share this meaning with,

沒有人能跟他分享這意義，

and it changes nothing about his circumstances,

且他的境況也沒有因此改變，

but he doesn’t mind:

但他不介意：

in that one moment,

在那一刻，

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

他已經經歷到了所有曾經 存在過的人所經歷過的一切。

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

閱讀波赫士的作品， 你可能也有機會瞥見無窮。