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Available in cloth, paper, or audio CD Through a twist of fate that the author of Labyrinths himself would have relished, these lost lectures given in English at Harvard in 1967-1968 by Jorge Luis Borges return to us now, a recovered tale of a life-long love affair with literature and the English language. Transcribed from tapes only recently discovered, This Craft of Verse captures the cadences, candor, wit, and remarkable erudition of one of the most extraordinary and enduring literary voices of the twentieth century. In its wide-ranging commentary and exquisite insights, the book stands as a deeply personal yet far-reaching introduction to the pleasures of the word, and as a first-hand testimony to the life of literature. Though his avowed topic is poetry, Borges explores subjects ranging from prose forms (especially the novel), literary history, and translation theory to philosophical aspects of literature in particular and communication in general. Probably the best-read citizen of the globe in his day, he draws on a wealth of examples from literature in modern and medieval English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, and Chinese, speaking with characteristic eloquence on Plato, the Norse kenningar, Byron, Poe, Chesterton, Joyce, and Frost, as well as on translations of Homer, the Bible, and the Rub??iy??t of Omar Khayy??m. Whether discussing metaphor, epic poetry, the origins of verse, poetic meaning, or his own "poetic creed," Borges gives a performance as entertaining as it is intellectually engaging. A lesson in the love of literature and in the making of a unique literary sensibility, this is a sustained encounter with one of the writers by whom the twentieth century will be long remembered. (20001106)
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THIS CRAFT OF VERSE
The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures
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THIS CRAFT OF VERSE
JORGE LUIS BORGES Edited by C¢alin-Andrei Mih¢ailescu
H A R V A R D U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S 䊐 2 0 00
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England
Copyright © by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Frontispiece: Borges lecturing at Harvard University, . Photo by Christopher S. Johnson; courtesy of Harvard Magazine. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Borges, Jorge Luis, – This craft of verse / Jorge Luis Borges; edited by C¢alin-Andrei Mih¢ailescu. p. cm.—(The Charles Eliot Norton lectures; –) ISBN --- (alk. paper) . Poetry—History and criticism. I. Mih¢ailescu, C¢alin-Andrei, – II. Title. III. Series. PN.B .—dc
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CONTENTS
1 The Riddle of Poetry 2 The Metaphor 3 The Telling of the Tale 4 Word-Music and Translation 5 Thought and Poetry 6 A Poet’s Creed Notes “Of This and That Versatile Craft” by C¢alin-Andrei Mih¢ailescu Index
THE RIDDLE OF POETRY
At the outset, I would like to give you fair warning of what to expect—or rather, of what not to expect—from me. I ~nd that I have made a slip in the very title of my ~rst lecture. The title is, if we are not mistaken, “The Riddle of Poetry,” and the stress of course is on the ~rst word, “riddle.” So you may think the riddle is all-important. Or, what might be still worse, you may think I have deluded myself into believing that I have somehow discovered the true reading of the riddle. The truth is that I have no revelations to offer. I have spent my life reading, analyzing, writing (or trying my hand at writing), and enjoying. I found the last to be the most important thing of all. “Drinking in” poetry, I have come to a
~nal conclusion about it. Indeed, every time I am faced with a blank page, I feel that I have to rediscover literature for myself. But the past