20 years since the death of Borges

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Wednesday June 14, 2006 01:33

by iosaf

It might not seem it, but 20 years have passed since the death of Jorge Lluis Borges in Geneva on the 14th of June 1986.

He shared the Nobel Prize for literature with Samuel Beckett.
He learnt Japanese at 90 and was thought by everyone to be very brainy.
His father was an anarchist. He had a wonky eye. Everyone loved him & humoured him.
The cruelest thing you could say about him was "sure he didn't get out enough & spent too much time on the mammy & the demonologies"

20 years since the death of Borges

With respect I'd like to publish a translation of one of his wonderful little pieces the title of which is :-

The Banshee

"Nobody seems to have laid eyes on her, this woman of fairies. She is less a form than a shriek of horror that haunts the Irish nights (and according to Sir Walter Scott’s Demonology & Witchcraft of the mountainous regions of Scotland. By 'neath the windows of the visited house, she forebodes the death of any member of the family. It is a privelage of celtic blood without any saxon, latin or nordic mix. The Banshee is also to be heard in Wales and Brittany. Her shrieking is called keening."

Jorge Lluis Borges (August 24, 1899 – June 14, 1986)

commemorative acts are to be held in both Buenos Aires his birth place in Argentina
& his death place in Switzerland the city of Geneva.
(you wouldn't want to judge Borges on that little translation of mine.... start with Aleph go to Z, begin your new generation's history. He really was a great writer. No-one has a bad word to say about him, not even the ex-girlfriends who managed to pop up once the mammy died, (and they never seemed as gilt edged as Yoko Ono).

argentine coverage :-

http://www.noticiasurbanas.com.ar/tapa.shtml?sh_itm=a76...fb74b
everyone from Senators to school kids will be encouraged to walk around the same town (or whats left of it) that the great writer lived in.
If you'd like to take part phone this Argentine number for more info 4323-9413
swiss coverage :-
http://www2.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.wml?siteSect=10...89000
algerian coverage :-
http://www.lanouvellerepublique.com/actualite/lire.php?...esh=1

______________________________________________________________________________
the series "death of so&so"
http://indymedia.ie/openwire?story_title=the%20death%20of
the series "so&so is dead"
http://indymedia.ie/openwire?story_title=%20is%20dead

we don't really have a birth section yet

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Comments (1 of 1)

its interesting that though the son of an anarchist, Borges never really played a political role.

Thu Jun 15, 2006 00:07

None of the movements or groups he joined or was close to, such as the Ultraists or even the newspaper "Crticia" where Historia universal de la infamia (A Universal History of Infamy) was first published adopting particularly partisan politics. Rather aesthetics & intellectual integrity seemed to the principles that brought him to collective action or association.
Thought that much said, he did suffer political persecution & professional marginalisation during the Peronist years, and perhaps in recognition of that "brushing aside" the first post-Peronist government (still a military junta) gave the post of "chief Librarian" to him in 1955 a job he kept till Peron returned from exile (& one presumes his wife stopped crying for Argentina) in 1973 at which point he resigned.

It really is wonderful that neither biographer nor encyclopedia may put an exact date on the agreement * that is love between the parties or similar economic or shared interest leading to formulisation of said relationship in the eyes of Stand (and / or) Church, between Maria Kodama (1945-) a Argentine writer of half Japanese ethnicity, to get married (just like Yoko and John)
All we know is they met at a brainy gig about Icelandic literature, which is for the most part unsigned but epic. We also know their love was frustrated by social attitudes and law which recognised other previous heirs
Borges & Kodama di finally tie the knot on the 26th of April 1986. As hinted - because of Argentine law on offshore banking and agreements between two parties for similar economic or shared interest leading to formulisation of said relationship and inheritance issues- They got married in Switzerland.

**remember that- you have any really sticky problems go to switzerland, don't leave this till your as old as Nelson Mandela, even if he has loads of living in him, befriend an Helvetian today. I did ages ago & it works for me.

When did that relationship start? perhaps only "More Time & More Deaths" will answer..,

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20 years since the death of Borges

Comments (1 of 1)