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    The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    42 views28 pages

    Borges, Jorge Luis - Book of Imaginary Beings

    Uploaded by

    Tim Juang
    The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    of 28
    THE BOOK OF IMAGINARY BEINGS Jorge Luis Borges with Margacita Guerrero Translated by Andzew Hurley Mlastrated by Reter Sie The A Bao A Qu the world one mast go to the topmost story ofthe Tower of Victory in Chit: There one will find x irelarterrace fom hich one commands spiral sairase leads upto this terrace and yet the only persone who dare venture up the stirs are those who donot believe in ‘he fable which goes ke this [= Wishes to gaze upon the most marvelous landsape in view dar tothe horizon all around. A (On the states ofthe Tower of Vistory there has lived from the beginning of ie the A Bao A Qu, hich i sensitive t0 the ‘rts possessed by human soul Ie ives upon thes step ina state of ethargy, end comes to conscouslife ony when someone limbs the stairs. The vibration ofthe person ashe approaches in- fazer the creatare with lif, and an inward light begins to glove ‘within tt che same te ts Body and is veal translucent shin begin wo pple and siz When a person climbs the tain, the ‘ABaoA Qu fllowsalmost onthe prson'sheels liming up af teri, lining tothe edge ofthe curved treads worn down by the fot of generations of pilgrims. On each step the ereaare’® coor grows more intense its frm becomes more perfect, and the light chat emanates fom it shines ever brighter Prof ofthe -reture's sensitivity i he fae that i achieves ies perfet form ‘nly when it ache the topmost step, when the person who hae climbed the stairs has become fally evolved and realized spit In allother cases, the A Beo A Qu remains as though paralyzed midway up the staircase its body incomplete its olor still unde- fine eight anetendy When t cannot achieve te perfect form, the A Bao A Qu suffers great pun, and is moaning i a barely perepible marmur similar tothe whisper of ill But when dhe rman or woman that revives the creature ifilled with pusity dhe ‘A Bao A Quisable to reach the topmost step, completely formed ‘and radiating clear Blo ight, Its eturn oie ibe, however, for when the pli descend the tir again, the A Bao A. Qu rolls down tothe rst step once more, where, now mated and re- sembling some faded picture with vague outlines i awaits the ext visitor tothe Tower The cesture cones ully vile only ‘when it reaches the midpoint of the staircase, where the exten- sions of its body (which, Ike lle arms help it to climb the stor) tke om lear definition. There ave those who say that it can see with ts ete body, and that shin feels Uke that of & peach, Down through all the centuries, the A Bao A Qu has reached perfection only once CCaprain Richard Francs Burton record the legend ofthe A. ‘ao A Quin one ofthe notes this version of The Thousand and One Nights. Six-Legged Antelopes 1 Edda tellus that Odin’s gray horse Slip (which travels overland shrough thea nd down into thelower ‘word i endowed with (or encambered by) eight legs Siberian myth atributes six legs tothe ise Anelopes. With thee sigs the Anclopes were very dificel even imposible, tw overtake; so the divine huntsman Tunk-po} made a pair of se il skates from the wood ofa sacred tee which ceskedinces- aly and which had been revealed to him by the backing of «| dog. The skates ereaked aswell, though they traveled with the swnlness ofan arrow; to moderate their speed, Tunk-poj ted ‘hem with chodks, which he made with branches fom another ragical tree, Tank-poj pursued the Antelope scross the ene Srrsament. Finally, the Antelops, exhausted fll tothe earth and “Tank poj cn off its ewo hind leg, "Men he si, “ae growing smaller end weaker every day How can they hunt Six- Legged Antelopes if myself can barely ‘atch them?” ‘Since shat day, Amtelopes have had four eg. 22 ‘The Three-Legged Ass ny reports that Zoroaster: the founder ofthe religion sll profeeed by the Parsee of Bombay wrote two milion lines of poetry; the Arab historian alTabse states thatthe Ioly man’s complewe works, given eternal life by devoted eal- sraphers required ewelve thousand cowhides We know that Alexander of Macedonia ordered dha the manuscript in Pese- polls be burned, but the fundamental Zoroestrian texts were saved through the renarable memory of erin priest Since ‘he nich century these texts have ben complemented by an en- cycopedic work lle the Buondahis, hich contains the fellow ing passage Regarding the Three-Legged As, they say that e stands amid the wide-formed ocean and thats ee are hres ‘eyes ees mouths nine, ears wo ants horn one ody is hie ies food i spetl, and i wholly ig teous And two ofits six eyes ae in the postion of eyes, ‘oon the tp ofthe head and to inthe position ofthe hump; with the sharpness of thos sx eyes it overcomes and destroys OF the nine mouths, three ate in the hesd, thvee inthe hump, and thece In the inner pert of che flanks and each mouth i about the sie ofa cottage Each one of te hres fest, when iti placed on the round, {sas much asa lock of thousand sheep may ein when they repose together and each psstern isso great in its Stent that a thossend men with «thousand horses may io inside. Ar forthe beasts two ears it ie Marandaran” “Aproice corte i 3 which they will encompass. is one hor i ike unto gold and hollow anda thousand branch hors have grown upon some bfiting a xml, some befitting horse, sme be- Siting an o, some beftng en ass, both gret and small The Bahamut ‘With hat hom shall vangush andi shal ptt rout all he fame ofthe Bsbaanut reached as fra the deserts of the vile corrupsion brought abou by the forts of nox- Arabia, where men changed and magnified its image. At fous creatures firs hippoporamas or an elephants lst ¢ was eane- : formed ino a fish that oats in a bottomless se above the Bh Wie know cht amber i the dung of the Three-Legged As. In ‘heen of Arabia pictareda bull and above the bulla mounta Mazdeicmythology this beneficent monstrisone ofthehelpers rade of ruby, and above the mountain an angel and above the ‘of Ahura Mazda (Ormuz, the principle of Life Light and Trath angel sx inferno and above the infernns the earth and above the earth seven heavens Here isthe story ofthis creature, ja Lane's tranalation: ‘The cath was iti ssid orginally unstable and therefore God erated an angel oF immense sie and ofthe utmost strength and ordered him to go beneath i and place i on his shoulders... But there was no support for his fat s0 | God created a rock of ruby, ane ordered this rock to stand under the fet ofthe angel: But there was no exp port forth rock wherefore God crates huge bull with four thousand eyes and the sume nomber of ers, noses, mouth, tongues, and feet... and Ged, whose name be exalted ordered this bull 0 go beneath the rock and he bore it on his back and his horn... But sere was no ‘support forthe bull: therefore God, whese name be ex: lee, created an enormous fish that no one cold look ‘upon om account of is vast sae, and the flashing ofits eyes and theie greatness: and God, whose name be ex site, commanded the Fi tobe a support to the feet of ‘the bul The name ofthis fish ie Bshamoot (Bchemosh He placed, as its support, water; and under the water, 7 | 5 darkest: nd the knowledge of mankind fas et whats unde the dries Another opinion i that she earth e upon water: che ‘water upon the rock the rock, on the Back ofthe bull she bul cn a bed of sand he sand on the fy the sh, upon «sll, saffcating wind the wind, on a veil of darkness: ‘the darkness on a mist and what is Beneath the mis is unknown, Soimmense and resplendent the Bahams that haman eyes cannot bear tolookupon it. Allehe seas ofthe earth placed i one ofthe nos fits nose, would beno more than a grin of mas- tard in che mist of the desert. In Night 496 ofthe Burton’ ver sion ofthe Thousand and One Nights we read that Ise (Jesus) wa slowed cose che Behar and when thi if was bested ‘upon iow he fll dwn in «swoon, and did noe awake Frm the swoon that had came upon him for three day. Later, we read in don that beneath the huge fish theres sea and beneath the sa,“ vas abyss fifa] under the ar fire and under the fice mighty expen, by name Falak in whote mouth lie the In ferno, “The fiction ofthe roe standing upon che bull, and the bull, ‘spon Bahamt, and Bahamut upon something else cou well be sn illatration ofthat cosmological proof ofthe existence of Gd which gues that every cause requis «prior cause—so that a Tas if one isnot ogo on to nity, one comes tothe necessity of First Case 26 ‘The Baldanders he Baldanders (whose name sigur in che German ight be malted “suddenly different” or “sudenly hes’) ‘as suggested tothe Nuremberg shoemaker Hane Sach by ‘thar passage in The Oyssey in which Meneaus is atempring 10 salu the Egyptian god Proteus, who wansforms himself inc @ ‘in, aserpenta panther an immense wd bos a re and ily, ‘ater: ans Sachs ded in 3576 some ninety years ter the Bald- ders reappeared in he seth book of Grimmelahausen’sfantasy- laregue novel Simplicius Simpliisimus In forest che hero comes upon @ stone statue that he takes fr the idl rom some old Germanic temple. He touches the statue and he statue tlle him thts Baldanders and thatit can take che shape of man, sn oak tee a sow, 2 sausage mendow full of dover dang, « wer a lowering branch, a mulberry tee, ail tapestry and ‘many other things and beings, and chen, once more, man. I at tempts to tesch Simplicius the at “of speaking with hinge which by their nature are mute, suchas chairs and benches, pots and kettles" leo tums itself into a secretary and writes these words from St, John’s Revelations: “Iam Alpha and Omega, the Deginning and the ending,” which are the key tothe coved docs ‘ment in which the instructions for thst att are writen. Bald- ners ads that its cot of arms (like the Tork’ though with more jase) ithe inconstant moon, Baldanders i sucresstve monster a monster time; the tle page ofthe ist edition of Grimmelshausen’s novel bears an engraving that portrays a being with the head of « sty, the tone of a man, the outepread srngs of a bird and the tal of « 27 Ssh; with one goat's foot and one vultures claw it stands atop 2 ‘mound of mas, which might be the individuals ofthe species (On its Hele ther hangs sword its hands hold an open book, with he figure of crown ship chalice atowey baby «pi of dice, fool'-cp wih bells nd acon 28 Banshees Tse seeictincetenne al qenedigee ar ude Senay a Wao ence egret Ere eam tatty st ee pag of a ae pe caer te oe eee (i em They hewn Wand Bary Te Inge fc The mig tem here” 29 ‘The Bied That Makes the Rain ‘the bird known ae the Shang Yang to bring them en. tad bu sgl leg in ancient timer children would hop on one lng, wrinkle their forheads and shows, “It will soon rai, for Shang Yang frolicking in dhe yar Ie was sid tha the bird ean water from the rivers and dropped it yp the lind Inancient simes a wise man domestiated this fowl, and he ‘would walk shout witht upon hisleeve. Historians say hat one day the Shang Yang, Gepping ts wings and hopping on ite one Teg, passed before the throne of Prince Ch, whe, alarmed, sent ‘one ofhis ministers tothe court of La, to consult with Confucius about thie event. Confuse predicted that che Shang Yeng would cause loods in the princlpalty and in the lands nearby, and he dvisod that dikes end canals be bail. The prine followed Con- cin’ avies, and thereby avoided grea disasters I: sation tothe Dragon, Chinese farmere might eal upon 36 The Demons of Judaism ‘pint dnc persion has there ican orb inhabited fy angels and demons, Is population exceds all arith ‘etcal poesia: Through dhe entries, Egypt, Babylonia, nd ‘Persia have helped shape his fanasic word. Perhaps under the infuence of Chesiniy (eachtnberg suggest), Demonalogy, ‘or the slenceof demons came tobe less important than Ange- ogy, o the science of ngs. ‘We might, however mention the name Keteh Meri, the lord of Midday and Hot Summers. A group of children on theie ‘way to school met up with him all bur to of them died. During ‘hethineenh centory dsc Demonology was inte by Latin, ‘French, and German interopes who began co comming wit thor listed in the alma. I ying between the worl of flesh and the world ofthe 58 ‘Swedenborg's Demons he Demons of Emanuel Swedenborg (2585-1772) are not 8 species apart they belong tothe species of mankind. “They ae individuals wo, after death, choose Hell. They are not happy in tht region of marshes, deserts, jungles, Bce- aged villages, brothels, and dark Ines, but they would be uushappee sl in Heaven Sometime ay of eel light pen- ‘ewates 1 where they ae; the Demons experience ita fery brrning and afoul stench. They consider themselves bestia but many of them have faces like bests or mere pices of feh, for have no faces at al, They live in mutual hatred and armed violence; If they come together, they do so in order to destroy fone another or someone else. God forbids men and angels to rawa map of Hel, bur we now that ts general shape ie hat of ‘Demon. The most sordid and horable elle are in the west. 59) The Lamed Wafaiks che earth there ars and have slays boon thirty-six ast men whose mission ist justify the word to God, These ate the Lumed Wataik. These men donot know ‘exch other and they are very poor If man comes to realize shat the i « Lamed Wai, he immediatly dies and another man, perhaps in some other corner ofthe earth, taker hieplce. These ‘men are, without suspecting it, the secre pil ofthe universe. If not for ther, God would annihilate the human rice. They are cur saviors though they donot know it ‘This mystica belief of the Jewish people hae bosn explained by Max Brod. Its distant roots may be found in Genesis 1, where God says ‘hat He wil nor destroy the cy of Sodom iftn just men canbe found within it, ‘The Arabs have an analogous figure the Qutb or “sint." The Lamia ceoeing tthe Latin an Greek dass the Lami ved Aw onthe wet oy ht bol kth om ‘of nual woman oo hat of serpent. Some report have cle ther sorceress others, align monsters “They lacked the fay of speach, bu thei whaling was melo- ious. Tey would lure eavlere to hemslesin the dover and thendevour them. Ther remte origin were diving hey sprang, feomone of sce many aur In that part of she Anatomy of Melancholy (260 that eats ofthe pssion flav, Raber Ba ton ls the tory of Lamia het peed human form ands duced a young philosopher “abng him home ro her hows in the asbrbs of Corin She being faieand lovely woul ive and di with him, tha. ‘was faicand lovely co behold The young man tied with Jnera wile to his great concent anda ast marled he 10 whose wedding came Apollonius, who by some probable conjectures found her out 1 e a Serpent a Lamia. When he sw herself deserid, she wept, and desired Apollonise to be silent, But he would not be moved, and thereupon ‘ts, house and al hat was in i vanished in an instant. Shortly before his death, John Keats (1795-s8as) was inspired by Burton’ tale to write his poem “Lami.” 133 Nymphs theancents divided the Nymph into Water Nymphs nd Land Nymphs. Some ofthese latter beings were Wood Nymplas the pesiding deities of woods and. groves: the Hamadeyads lied invisible inside tes and iad when the recs died. Osher types of Nymphs were believed tobe immoral, orto live for thousands of years. Those who lived in the sea were called Ocsands or Nereds; those who lived in svers, Nada. ‘Ther exact umber isnot known, but Hesiod ventured the fg ‘ue thre thousand, They were grave and lovely maidens; seeing them might bring on madness of i they were naked, detth; a line fom Proprtnesvows thet fc. ‘Theancent brought the Nymphs offerings ofhone. oi and milk, They were minor dete: no temples were bul o them, p= wold have ith they lve enly in water but 142 Odradeke by Kathe ‘ome say the word Odeadc sof Slavonic origin, and ty to coon fort on chat basis. Others again believe it be of German origin, only Snduenced by Slavonic, The uncer tainty of both incerpretatone allows ane to assume with justice that ethers aocurnte,espedlly a neither of them provides an Intliget meaning of the word. [Noone of course, would oscupy himself with such ste if ‘there were net a creature called Odrsde, At fet lance it oaks like a at starshaped spol forehead nd indeedit dos eeem to have thread wound upon it;tobe sur, they are nly ol broken- ofits of thread, noted and angled together ofthe noe a= Jed sons and colors. But ts notonly a spool or tall wooden cronsbar sticks out ofthe middle of che sa and another small rod joined ro chat at ight ange. By means of thie Inter rod on one side and one ofthe points ofthe star onthe other the ‘whole ting en stand upright rion two legs. ‘One is tempted to believe thatthe creatare once hed some sor of ineligible shape and is now only a broken-down rem- nant Yet this doe not seem tobe the ate; at least there sno siga of nowhere is ther an unfinished or unbroken surface ro suggest anything ofthe kind: dhe whole thing loks senseless nough bu ints own way perfeedy ished. In any ease, loser seeutiny is imporsible since Odoadek i extraordinarily witble and can never be aid hold of iin ied “De Sorge dar Haare” (The Cao ay Ma 149 He Turks by tus in the gare, the staliay the lobbies the ‘entrance hal, Often far months on end hee not tobe see: then he has presumably moved into other houses; but he alveays comes faithflly back to ourhouse again. Many atime when you go cut ofthe door and he happens justo be leaning direcly be neath you agains the Faisters yor fel inclined to speaeo him. (Ofcourse you put no dfclt questions to hm, you teat hi Ihe is so diminusive that you cannot help e—rather lke did "Will, what's your name?” you ask him, “Odradek” he says “And where do you ive?” *No fixed abode,” he says and lughs but iis only dhe hind of laughter that has no eng behind it I sounds rather lke the rustling of allen leaves And that ewes ally the end of the conversation, Even these answers are not slays forthcoming: often he stay mute for «long time, as ‘wooden a is appearance ‘sk myself, eo no purpose, white Miely to happen to in? Cane possibly diet Anything that dies has hd some kind of sm in if, some kindof activity, which hat warn out ut that oes no apply to Odzadek. Am Io suppose, then, that he wil l= ‘ways be rolling down theses, with ends of chread tiling after hi, right before the feet of ny ciléen, and my cldre's cil- rent He docs no arm to anyone that one can see; but the ides that es ikely to soreve me [ind almost pin Fenn Kl 49 4 One-Eyed Beings Spanish the English word mano" irendered “mond” Before this word was wed athe name ofan eyelet wae plied to those men or creture that had but a single eye ‘Thus in a sonner composed in the early seventeenth century, CGéngora spoke of what we might translate a¢ the "monodl’4 suitor of Galatea.” He was referring, of ears, to Polyghemas, tnd in his Fula he dediated to that monster lines that ex sete, but donot compare to, those (prised by Quinlan) in ‘he third book of The Eneid-which in tur exaggerate but ll shor of those lings in The Odyssey, Book IX, This Ieray de- line corresponds toa dedine in poetic ith Virgil atempte fo pres the reader with his Plyphemus though he hardly be- eves inhi, while Gingora believes only in the Word-—vetal atic vesbal creatures ‘The roe of Cyclops was not the only one-eyed race; Pliny (V0, 2) mentions aso the Aimasp [Nee] fa fom dhe spot from which the north wind aces, the Arimspi are sald to exe, «nation cemartable for having but one eye, and chat place inthe middle of the forchead. Thi ac is ai to cary ona perpetual rf ith the Grif kind of monster, with wings they are commonly represented, for ehe gold which they dig ‘ut of the mines, and which these wild beasts retain and beep watch over witha singular degree of cupiity, while ‘he Asimaspi are equally desirous to get possesion oft 45 ‘vebuundred yeas eal the fist encyclopedist, Herodoces of Hacarnasss wrote the following (136) “Then agrn towards the North of Europe, there is evi dently a quay of gold by fr lager than in any other land: ohow ie gos here agin Tam not abet ay for certain, bu it said tobe cared of from the gifs by Aslaspians, a one-eyed race of men. But donot believe this tal either that nature produces one-eyed men which inl other respects are ke other mes 146 The Ourcboros oy the ocean is x sn or system of seas for the Greeks ‘Oceanus was « crcl river that girdled the eth. All ‘waters flowed frm it anit had neither outlet nor source Iwas lsoa god or «Titan, perhaps the alder ofl for Slop in ‘ook XIV of The Mid, calls Oceanus he “from whom all gos arose In Hess Togo Osan the ater of the swing vers” which number three thousend and foremost of which are Nellos (the Nie) and Alpheios, Ocenus wae customarily pocsayed as an old man with fll, owing beard: after many ‘centuries humanity discovered better symbol eraltas had said that in the dele, the begining and end fare a single point. A thicd-oenrary Greek emt, be found today inthe British Musou, gives ws an image tht can better lustre that infinicude: the expen ha bites ts own tl or a8 4 Spanish poet put it, “thet begins at the tip of is ail” Ouroboros ("he who devours his all”) is this monster's techn- ‘al name, later employed in myriad teas by the alchemist. ‘This creature's mos famous appenranceisin None cosmogony. Inthe Younger or Proce, Eddy, Loli aid eo have engendered 2 Wilf and Serpent. An orale wamed the gals that there cet- ‘ares would be the eres doom. The Wolf Fen was bound by “fer called Gleipnis, made from six things the nose a et makes when it moves the Beard of woman, the root of # mou ‘ain the sinews of a bear the breath ofa fish and the spite of bird” The Serpent Jirmungande the *Midhgeth-Sespen,” “was fang inc the deep sea which surrounds the whale world, and it grew co lge that it now les in the mile ofthe ocean round che earth, iting its ow ti” uy tn Jotunhein, or “Gint-Land” Utgarda- Loki once hllenged the god Thor toliftacat Thor usingall his trength cou barely lift one ofthe eas paws off the ground; this cat was Jérman- sands and Thor was tricked by magi. ‘When the Twilight ofthe Gods shall ome, the serpent shall Aevour the earth sd the wolf shall devour she sun 148 The Panthes quite diferent from the “carnivorous mammal ofcontem= porary zoology: Aristotle ad said dat the ado of his east sasrats other animals; Allan, the Latin author known as the “honey-tongued” for his mastery of Greek, declared that tis ‘dor was “grateful wo man,” as wel. (These statements ave led to the conjecture thar there was some confusion between the Panther and dhe cvet eat) According co Pin, there are reports that “the Panther hes, on the shoulder a spot which bears the form ofthe moony and that ik it, it egoacty increases to fll and then diminishes toa crecent"To these marvelous crcam- stances there care to be added the fact that in the Septuagint, the word “Panther” is ased once in a way that might refer to (Chis (Hose 44. Inthe Anglo-Saxon bestiary known as the Exeter Book the Panther i oltary, kind animal with « melodious voice and « {ragrant breath t makes its home inthe mountains in a secret place ts only enemy is the Dragon with which ii onstanely cmbattled. A twelth-centacy Lain bestiary add deta to this

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