For a Version of the I Ching | Jorge Luis Borges

Submit a letter:

The future is as irreversible
As ironclad yesterday. There is no matter
Unless it be a dark and soundless letter
Of the eternal Writ no tongue can tell,—
Whose book is time. Whoever leaves his house
Has already returned. This life we lead
Is the future’s beaten pathway. And indeed
Nothing bids us goodbye or parts from us.
But don’t lose heart. The slave’s dungeon is black,
The way of things is iron, cold and hard,
But in some corner of your prison yard
There may be an old carelessness, a crack.
The path is like an arrow, deadly straight,
But in the cracks is God, who lies in wait.
(1976)

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), a giant in Latin American letters, wrote numerous books of poetry, fiction, and essays, and was a prodigious translator of authors such as Kipling, Woolf, Faulkner, and Poe. He was a regular contributor to Victoria Ocampo’s journal Sur, and a frequent dinner guest of Silvina Ocampo and Bioy Casares. Over one of their legendary conversations, the three friends came upon the idea of editing the Antología de la Literatura Fantástica, which was published in 1940.

Robert Mezey

This Issue

June 11, 1992