Jorge Luis Borges: Frases en inglés

"Guayaquil", in Brodie's Report (1970); tr. Andrew Hurley, Collected Fictions (1998)

Other Inquisitions (1952), The Modesty of History

The Garden of Forking Paths (1942), The Garden of Forking Paths

"Averroës' Search" (1949)

The Garden of Forking Paths (1942), The Garden of Forking Paths

"The Wall and the Books" ["La muralla y los libros"] (1950)
Variant translation: Music, feelings of happiness, mythology, faces worn by time, certain twilights and certain places, want to tell us something, or they told us something that we should not have missed, or they are about to tell us something; this imminence of a revelation that is not produced is, perhaps, the esthetic event.
Other Inquisitions (1952)

"Creation and P.H. Gosse" ["La creacin y P.H. Gosse"]
Other Inquisitions (1952)

Prologue
Discussion (1932)

And yet, and yet … Negar la sucesión temporal, negar el yo, negar el universo astronómico, son desesperaciones aparentes y consuelos secretos. Nuestro destino no es espantoso por irreal: es espantoso porque es irreversible y de hierro. El tiempo es la sustancia de que estoy hecho. El tiempo es un río que me arrebata, pero yo soy el río; es un tigre que me destroza, pero yo soy el tigre; es un fuego que me consume, pero yo soy el fuego. El mundo desgraciadamente es real; yo, desgraciadamente, soy Borges. <br class="br">&quot;A New Refutation of Time&quot; (1946) [&quot; Nueva refutación del tiempo http://www.monografias.com/trabajos11/filoylit/filoylit.shtml&quot;] <br class="br">Variant translations: <br class="br">And yet, and yet... Denying temporal succession, denying the self, denying the astronomical universe, are obvious acts of desperation and secret consolation. Our fate (unlike the hell of Swedenborg or the hell of Tibetan mythology) is not frightful because it is unreal; it is frightful because it is irreversible and ironclad. Time is the thing I am made of. Time is a river that sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that tears me apart, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges. <br class="br">Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. <br class="br">Other Inquisitions (1952)

"Poem of the Gifts" ["Poema de los Dones"]
Dreamtigers (1960)

"The Library of Babel" ["La Biblioteca de Babel"] (1941)

With the same rigor he could have said that all of the centuries that preceded the moment when he painted were necessary. From that correct application of the law of causality it follows that the slightest event presupposes the inconceivable universe and, conversely, that the universe needs even the slightest of events.
"Gauchesque Poetry"
Discussion (1932)