Poema Amanecer de Jorge Luis Borges

From…

y si esta numerosa Buenos Aires
no es más que un sueño
que erigen en compartida magia las almas,
hay un instante
en que peligra desaforadamente su ser
y es el instante estremecido del alba,
cuando son pocos los que sueñan el mundo
y sólo algunos trasnochadores conservan,
cenicienta y apenas bosquejada,
la imagen de las calles
que definirán después con los otros.
¡Hora en que el sueño pertinaz de la vida
corre peligro de quebranto,
hora en que le sería fácil a Dios
matar del todo Su obra!

Pero de nuevo el mundo se ha salvado.

…

It is more about dream states (sueňas = dreams) at the ‘break of day’ (= amenecer).

I had begun by transcribing this poem from the Spanish text printed in the London Review of Books ( 8^th July 2010, P. 27), and thought to add the ‘modified’ translation which the reviewer had also provided, but then there was a letter in the following issue of the LRB from one of the author translators bitterly complaining about the liberty taken by the reviewer who had ‘modified’ his work of art (ie the translation) and so on, and on it went. Later I found the poem belongs to a longer work by the master from Buenos Aires, which you can read in full here Amenecer. Who had ‘modified’ who I began to wonder, and not having the argued over translation is not such an obstacle to knowing a poet whose love of Old and Middle English was renowned, as well as Shakespeare. So let the Spanish stand alone.

The question, it struck me – ‘numerosa’ – how many Buenos Aires are the number of this great city which we dream into being?

And –

cuando son pocos los que sueñan el mundo
y sólo algunos transnochadores conservan

who or what are these few nightwatchers, like Rembrandts famous painting, who alone hold the world in being?

I am glad the Anonymous Novel has been a success, and interesting to learn from you of the necessity for it being published first in Italy before the Vagabond Press. And Russia, have I found the Russians? Yes, last weekend I met an encampment of red flag soviets on the outskirts of Via Reggio (the photographic evidence will be in next week’s blog).