Finder's Guide: M

Zen Buddhist monk in fable

collection of Welsh tales, compiled in the 14th and 15th centuries

pseud. of Pierre Dumarchey, French writer, 1882-1970, author of Masques sur mesure

Portuguese colony in China

Fishburn and Hughes : "A Portuguese colony on the South China Sea, the earliest European port in the Far East, dating from the sixteenth century. It was later identified with smuggling and gambling." (122)

Mexican bandit in popular verses

English essayist and historian, 1800-59, author of Lays of Ancient Rome, a History of England and numerous Essays

Thomas Babington Macaulay's father, 1760-1838, a philanthropist and abolitionist

Scottish king, d. 1057, subject of Shakespeare play

Shakespeare tragedy, c. 1606

Fishburn and Hughes : "In the context of the assassination of Fergus Kilpatrick, the allusion to Macbeth , as well as to Julius Caesar , emphasises the literary quality of the 'scheme conceived' by the character Nolan and its predetermined nature. Warnings of death dominate the plots of both plays, unheeded by Caesar and misunderstood by Macbeth. See Julius Caesar." (122)

Thane of Fife, character in Shakespeare's Macbeth, drawn from Holinshed's Chronicle

region in northern Greece and southern former Yugoslavia

Fishburn and Hughes : "An ancient nation in the Balkan peninsula on the Aegean corresponding nowadays to parts of Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia." (122)

Macedonius, bishop of Constantinople from 342 to 360, heterodox theologian associated with the Homoiousians and Pneumatomachi

Fernández Latour book, 1980

Austrian physicist and philosopher, 1838-1916

Spanish poet, 1875-1939, author of Campos de Castilla, Juan de Mairena and other works

Spanish poet and playwright, 1874-1947, author of Caprichos, Cante hondo and other works

Argentine colonel, 1823-1909, important in the Argentine army's campaigns against the Indians in the province of Buenos Aires

Fishburn and Hughes : "An Argentine military commander who in 1863 directed a campaign against the Indians in the southern pampas. The suggestion that Martín Fierro was conscripted to his forces is not mentioned in the poem." (122)

woman for whom Borges wrote one or perhaps two love poems

British author, 1863-1947, author of The London Adventure

Máquina de leer los pensamientos, Maurois, 1937

bazaar in Calcutta

Uruguayan woman, first person to be buried in Recoleta cemetery in Buenos Aires

US poet and critic, 1892-1982

character in Priestley's The Doomsday Men, said to have been based on Rosalind Russell

lieutenant general in British army, 1869-1952, author of numerous works on India and military history

British official in India, publisher of an edition of the Arabian Nights, Calcutta, 1839-42

town in Georgia

Scottish poet, 1736-1796, author of Ossianic poems

Roman writer who lived during the early fifth century. Author of the Saturnalia. 

scholar of US literature, 1877-1932, author of The Spirit of American Literature

character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

island off east Africa

Argentine film version of the Flaubert novel, directed by Carlos Schlieper, 1947

Flaubert novel, 1857

Spanish literary scholar and biographer, 1886-1978

town in the Campania, Italy

character in Borges story La muerte y la brujula

Portuguese island off Africa in the Atlantic

capital city of Wisconsin

city in southern India, now called Chennai

Fishburn and Hughes : "A seaport in south-east India." (122)

Grendel's mother, monster in Beowulf

Parodi : “La madre María no hace milagros.”: María Salomé Loredo Otaola de Zubiza (1854 - 1929), nacida en España, se radicó en la Argentina desde 1869. En 1881, gravemente enferma, visitó a Pancho Sierra (1831 - 1891), el ‘Gaucho Santo Argentino’, miembro de la Sociedad Espiritista de Alan Kardec (cf. “Doce” i § 5) y reputado por sus dotes sobrenaturales, por sus poderes telepáticos y por las curaciones que realizaba por imposición de manos. María Loredo, pronto conocida como ‘la Madre María’, se convirtió en su discípula y continuadora. En 1891 inició su labor de curandera y de prédica del Evangelio en su Misión de Turdera (cf. “Signo” § 11). El Culto a la Madre María, se rinde especialmente el Día de la Madre y el Día de Los Muertos. 

Matka, Capek anti-fascist play, 1938

capital of Spain

Tulio Herrera book of poems, 1961

poem by Wilhelm Klemm, translated by Borges

statue in Brussels

Belgian author, 1862-1949, author of Pelléas et Mélisande and other works, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911

ancient kingdom in India, part of Bihar south of the Ganges

Brazilian poet, author of Versos, 1933

Magariños Cervantes (1825–1893) was an Uruguayan writer and lawyer. 

city in Saxony, Germany

Argentine actress

Rabbi Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mesritch or Mezeritz, second leader of Hasidim, d. 1772

Chesterton, play, 1913.

Argentine musician and tango songwriter (1880-1934)

French classical scholar, 1879-1952, translator of Homer

Benito Larrea's quinta in Bustos Domecq story

Viking warrior, died in Dublin

Magnus the Good, son of Olaf, Norwegian king, subject of a saga by Sturla Thordarson

Sturla Thordarsson's saga about king Magnus of Norway

Icelandic scholar, librarian at the University of Cambridge, 1833-1913, translator with William Morris of the Volsunga Saga

Icelandic historian and antiquarian, scholar of the sagas, 1781-1847

enemy of the people of Israel, perhaps a region from which Gog comes

French writer, 1877-1941, theosophist and author of a travel book on India

Arabic name for the west, usually referring to northwest Africa

Egyptian traveler to Persia

Mainz, German city

Hindu epic poem, c.500 B.C.

character in Cervantes

Vardhamana or Jina, Jain god, perhaps based on a historical figure who organized the Jain religion

Fishburn and Hughes : "The title given to Vardhamäna, the last of the twenty-four legendary patriarchs and founders of Jainism, a religion widespread in west India. Jainism conceives the universe as infinite and formed as a slender human figure with legs apart and arms akimbo surrounded by three layers of atmosphere. Mahavira preached severe asceticism, which involved renunciation of violence and all physical pleasures and respect for all living and non-living things." (122-23)

Muhammad Ahmad, Muslim religion leader in the Sudan, 1844-85

Fishburn and Hughes : "Arabic al-Mahdi, meaning 'the guided one': the name given in Islam to the future restorer of the Islamic faith to the world. Reference is to the Mahdi Mohammed Ahmed (1844-1885) who put an end to Egyptian domination in the Sudan. Claiming divine inspiration, the Mahdi overcame the 8,000 strong army of General Hicks. In 1885, after a long siege, he captured Khartoum and murdered General Gordon." (123)

Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Mahdi, Shia Imam, b. 869 and "occulted" 70 years later

Persian Sufi poet, author of the Gulshan i Raz or The Mystica Rose Garden, c.1320

Mahmud of Ghazni, Afghan conqueror, 971-1030, who ordered the compilation of The Surviving Monuments of Past Generations, The Canon dedicated to Mas'ud, and India

Mohammed or Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, 570?-632

Fishburn and Hughes : "Arabic for 'praised one': the name of the prophet and founder of Islam to whom, according to the tradition, the angel Gabriel revealed the infallible word of God. The saying before bowing to the inevitable, 'If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain', refers to the story of Mohammed who, when asked for a miraculous proof of his teaching, ordered Mount Safa to come to him and, as it did not move, said, 'God is merciful. Had it obeyed my words it would have fallen on us to our destruction. I will therefore go to the mountain, and thank God that He has had mercy on a stiff-necked generation.'" (131)

Irving biography, 1849- 1850

character in Eça's Os Maias

Russian poet and dramatist, 1893- 1930

Parodi : Vladimir Maiakovski (1893-1930) fue un poeta y dramaturgo revolucionario ruso y una de las figuras más relevantes de la poesía rusa de comienzos del siglo XX. Iniciador del futurismo ruso, publica en 1912 el manifiesto de ese movimiento en La bofetada al gusto del público .

Eça de Queiroz novel, 1888

town in Massachusetts

character in Borges story, alias of Emmanuel Zunz

Moses ben Maimon, Jewish rabbi, physician and philosopher, 1135-1204, author of the Guide for the Perplexed

Fishburn and Hughes : "A Jewish philosopher, jurist and physician, born at Cordoba and forced to flee from Spain in the persecutions of 1149. He settled first in Fez and then in Cairo, where he became head of the Jewish community and also physician to the Sultan. Maimonides was the leading Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages. His Commentary on the Talmud contains a codification of Jewish religious doctrine, its interpretation by existing authorities and his own comments on their moral and philosophical implications. His major philosophical work, written in Arabic, is the Guide for the Perplexed . Basing his interpretation of Judaism upon the systems of Aristotle, Maimonides seeks to achieve a harmony between reason and faith. The Guide was translated into Latin as early as the thirteenth century and exerted a profound influence upon Christian as well as Jewish and Moslem thought. Regarding dreams, in book 2 chs 36-8 of the Guide Maimonides discusses the relationship between prophecy, or divine emanations, and dreams. Breaking with traditional interpretations of the dream as a means of protection from anticipated danger, he develops his idea of the dream as a vision in which the action of the imaginative faculty becomes so perfect that you can see a thing as if it were outside you, and the thing which is produced in the dream appears as if by external sensation. Ch. 36 includes quotations of famous sayings, such as 'Dream is one sixtieth of prophecy', The windfall of prophecy is one dream' and 'If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a dream' (Numbers 12:6). Although the discussion includes many ideas which seem closely relevant to Borges's story 'The Secret Miracle', the exact assertion attributed by the narrator to Maimonides has not been traced. The idea mentioned in the story that the final interpretation of dreams rests with God stems from Genesis 40:8." (123)

Collection of nouvelles by Guy de Maupassant (1889).

Lewis novel, 1920

state in United States

French nobleman who is said to have published a book at the age of seven, apparently Louis Auguste de Bourbon, 1670-1736

Philipp Batz, German philosopher, 1841-1876, author of Die Philosophie der Erlösung

plain near Santiago, Chile, site of a battle between San Martin and the Spanish forces in 1818, often spelled Maipu

Fishburn and Hughes : "A battle fought on 5 April 1818, some ten miles south of Santiago, Chile, in which General San Martín finally defeated the royalist forces, thus securing the independence of Chile. This victory enabled San Martín to reorganise his army and embark on the last lap of his campaign for the emancipation of southern South America, notably the liberation of Peru." (123)

street in Buenos Aires where Borges lived in the last decades of his life

Parodi : en los años cuarenta, Borges vivió con su madre en la calle Maipú 994, a una cuadra de la Plaza San Martín, en el barrio de Retiro.

character in James Curtis's The Gilt Kid

Collection of nouvelles by Guy de Maupassant (1881).

French novelist, 1763-1852, author of Voyage autour de ma chambre

next Buddha

the second of four Nikayas in the Buddhist scriptures

Shaw play, 1907

Scholem, 1941

character in Grettirs Saga

street in Buenos Aires

city in southern Spain

street in Geneva

Prominent dictionarist from Puerto Rico (1878-1967). Author of Diccionario de americanismos

nickname of Guelf leader, the lord of Verucchio, d. 1312

street in Olivos, suburb of Buenos Aires

Work by W. W. Skeat, 1900.

country, now Malaysia

Malcolm III , Scottish king, 1057-93, character in Shakespeare's Macbeth

character in Priestley's The Doomsday Men, said to be based on Leslie Howard

place in Essex, England where battle of Maldon was fought in 991

Old English poem about a battle between the Northmen and the English in 991

Arroyo Maldonado, stream that crosses the city of Buenos Aires, now covered over

Fishburn and Hughes : "A small stream which marked the northern boundary of the city of Buenos Aires. The surrounding area, Palermo, was reputedly rough, as recalled by Borges in his 'Autobiographical Essay'. Today Maldonado forms part of the city's sewers and flows in pipes beneath the Avenida Juan B. Justo. The 'brook' referred to here is the Maldonado." (123-24)

Parodi : “me salvó la vida hace un rato, cuando la última creciente del Maldonado”: hasta 1929, el arroyo Maldonado era uno de los límites naturales de la ciudad de Buenos Aires; se extendía a cielo abierto aproximadamente desde el barrio de Liniers, en el extremo oeste, hasta Palermo, sobre el Río de la Plata. Con el tiempo, el Maldonado se convirtió en un depósito de basuras y desperdicios que, cuando llovía, se transformaba en una enorme laguna; era muy temido por sus desbordes y por las frecuentes inundaciones que provocaba (de ahí la ironía que encierra el “hace un rato” en el enunciado citado en esta entrada: “hace un rato, cuando la última creciente del Maldonado”). Las excavaciones para entubarlo comenzaron en 1929 y en 1936, ya entubado, se construyó una calle sobre el recorrido del arroyo, la actual Avenida Juan B. Justo. En “Palermo de Buenos Aires” ( Evaristo Carriego 109), Borges evoca: “Hacia el poniente quedaba la miseria gringa del barrio, su desnudez. […] había callejones de polvo […] Después: el Maldonado, reseco y amarillo zanjón, estirándose sin destino desde la Chacarita y que por un milagro espantoso pasaba de la muerte de sed a las disparatadas extensiones de agua violenta, que arreaban con el rancherío moribundo de las orillas. Hará unos cincuenta años, después de ese irregular zanjón o muerte, empezaba el cielo […] Lo están encarcelando ahora: ese casi infinito flanco de soledad que se acavernaba hace poco, a la vuelta de la truquera confitería La Paloma, será reemplazado por una calle tilinga, de tejas anglizantes. […] Pensándolo, no creo que el Maldonado fuera distinto de otras localidades muy pobres, pero la idea de su chusma, desaforándose en rotos burdeles, a la sombra de la inundación y del fin, mandaba en la imaginación popular.”

tango

French philosopher, 1638-1715, author of La Recherche de la verité

French artist, 1890-1952, leader of the Lyon Dadaist group, editor of the magazine Manomètre and translator of the Borges poem Atardecer that was published there in French in 1923

Lugones poem in Romances del Rio Seco

Argentine playwright, co-author with Nicolás de las Llanderas of Así es la vida and Los tres berretines, 1932, associated with the acting career of Eva Duarte

Aquilino Ribeiro novel, 1958

French poet and critic, 1555-1628

Francis Iles, novel, 1931.

Argentine Philologist (1910-1962), know as a Hispanist Medievalist, member of the Real Academia Española and the Academia Argentina de Letras.

French poet, 1842-1898, author of Hérodiade and other works

Fishburn and Hughes : "A French poet who, together with Paul Verlaine, is regarded as the founder of the Symbolist movement, which had a marked influence in France throughout the twentieth century. Mallarmé also wrote a number of critical essays: his views on writing derive mainly from the principle that the world exists in order to be written about: 'Le monde est fait pour aboutir à un beau livre' ('The world was made to end in a beautiful book', misquoted by Borges as ' Tout aboutit à un livre ' (Disc. 121)). This idea is examined by Borges in 'On the Cult of Books' (TL 358). In his escape from reality, Mallarmé was influenced at first by Baudelaire, both poets having lost a parent in early childhood, but Mallarmé turned increasingly to the intellect, rather than the emotions, in his search for an ideal world. He saw the poet's task as feeling and describing the essences beyond reality. To convey this sense of distilled reality, Mallarmé sought to pare down and condense his language: his later poems were often obscure, relying for their structure on the sound and association of the words employed." (124)

Parodi : Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) poeta simbolista y crítico. Para Borges, Mallarmé es del tipo de escritor que “laboriosamente elabora una obra secreta” (“Francisco de Quevedo” 111). Traductor de los poemas de Poe, Mallarmé procuró alcanzar una poesía pura que presupone la participación activa del lector.

Argentine novelist, 1903-82, author of La ciudad junto a rio inmovil, Historia de una pasion argentina and numerous other works

Sarmiento's uncle, whose story is told in Recuerdos de provincia

one of the Balearic isles to the east of the Spanish coast

city in southern Sweden

Fishburn and Hughes : "The third-largest city of Sweden, founded in the twelfth century, an important port on the Öresund Canal." (124)

Spanish Augustinian ascetic writer and preacher, 1530?- 1589

Gomensoro poem

monthly bulletin, organ of the Asociación Aborigenista Argentina, edited by Marcelo Frogman

Parodi : supuesta publicación mensual editada, dirigida y distribuida a domicilio por Marcelo Frogman. El nombre del boletín responde al programa de la Asociación Aborigenista Argentina de defensa de la causa nativista y recuperación del lenguaje autóctono. ‘Malón’ es el término con que se designaban las inesperadas incursiones de los indígenas en el territorio habitado por españoles y criollos. Entre los colaboradores de la publicación se cuenta el hispanista Mario Bonfanti (cf. “Sangiácomo” i §5).

French writer, 1901-76

Hammett novel, 1930

Italian historian and military officer, 1595-1653, author of Tarquin and court historian to Philip IV of Spain

Malvinas islands, in dispute between Britain and Argentina

town in New York

character in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi : sobrina de la dueña de la mercería; mantenía una relación íntima con Simón Fainberg (cf. supra §7).

Carriego poem in La canción del barrio

giant in Don Quijote de la Mancha

US film director, 1897-1987

Menninger, 1938

El hombre y su universo, Langdon-Davies book, 1930

Shaw play, 1903

Wilkie Collins, 1870.

Charles Gordon/Ralph Connor novel, 1901

Hombre ha creado la muerte, Yeats line from the poem Death

Shand poem in Ferment

David Garnett, 1924

Robert Flaherty film, 1934

Willard Huntington Wright naturalist novel, 1916

Poe story, 1840

Twain novel, 1900

Spencer essay on political philosophy, 1884

Edwin Arlington Robinson narrative poem, 1924

Chesterton stories, 1922

Belloc, 1931

Heinlein science fiction novel, 1950

Chesterton novel, 1908

Hombre que fue rey, story by Kipling, 1888

one act play by Francis Sladen-Smith

Cowen novel, 1934

Chesterton story in The Secret of Father Brown

Graham Greene, novel, 1929.

Chesterton, 1912

battlefield in Uruguay

Fishburn and Hughes : "A battle fought in the department of Colonia, Uruguay, on 17 July 1871, when the revolutionary forces led by Timoteo Aparicio were defeated by the army of the president, Lorenzo Batlle." (124)

ranch in Bustos Domecq story

Döblin, 1926

Argentine writer from Gualeguay, b. 1919

region in south central Spain

city in the Midlands in England

Fishburn and Hughes : "The leading commercial city in the north of England during the nineteenth century. The choice of Manchester as the place of publication of Nahum Cordovero's apocryphal work reflects its strong links with Jewish culture and its association with some of the oldest Sephardi families in England." (124)

Eça de Queiroz novel, 1880

putative author of the Voiage of Sir John Maundeville

devil, here mentioned in connection with gaucho folklore

baker, character in Bustos Domecq story

French painter, 1832-1883

Lenormand play, 1922

central part of New York City

Korzybski, 1921

English writer, 1904-1991

Scandinavian moon god

Unamuno poem

Marcus Manilius, Roman poet, fl. 20 A.D., author of a didactic poem on astrology

Cuban rumba about the street cry or pregón of a peanut seller, composed by Moisés Simons, 1889-1945, first recorded in 1926 or 1927 by Rita Montaner

German novelist, 1875-1955

Parodi : nombre que equivale a ‘niño que orina’, un mote que también alude a la hediondez. El ‘Manneken Piss’ es una pequeña estatua de bronce ubicada en la ciudad antigua de Bruselas que representa a un niño orinando en una fuente; data de 1619. 

Manequí de mimbre, Anatole France novel, 1896

Kipling poem

English cardinal, 1833-1892, subject of a biography in Strachey's Eminent Victorians

Germanic god

O'Neill characters

character in Borges-Levinson story

reverend, character in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi : supuesto creador en 1941 de un edificio múltiple, el santuario de las Muchas Musas, en “Postdam” [sic]. Potsdam (y no Postdam) es la capital del Estado de Brandeburgo, ubicada a 24 km al sur de Berlín. La mención de Potsdam permite suponer que ‘Manntoifel’ es una versión fonética de un apellido mundialmente famoso durante la segunda Guerra Mundial, el del General Hasso-Eccard barón de Manteuffel (1897-1978), nacido en Potsdam, el alto militar alemán que dirigió los avances de las tropas blindadas del Tercer Reich tanto en el frente ruso como en el norafricano. Fue el comandante de la División Manteuffel durante la ‘Operación Barbarroja’ (1941), nombre de con que Hitler designó el plan de invasión a la Unión Soviética durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Parodi : alusión a un episodio real de la vida de Enrico Caruso, cuando la “La Mano Negra”, la más antigua asociación mafiosa italiana de América, liderada por el capo Giuseppe Battista Balsamo, le exigió una elevada suma de dinero como ‘protección’ por actuar en el Metropolitan Opera House de Nueva York; Caruso pagó y a esa extorsión siguieron otras; finalmente, la Mafia lo amenazó de muerte. Hasta el año en que murió, Caruso vivió bajo protección policial. 

Portuguese king, 1469-1521

Spanish poet, 1440-1479, author of the Coplas a la muerte de su padre

Jorge Manrique's father, the Count of Paredes, 1406-1476

New Zealand-born writer of short fiction, 1888-1923

street in Buenos Aires

Parodi : “en Mansilla, esquina Ecuador”: una intersección cercana al término de la Avenida Alvear, en el barrio de Recoleta.

Argentine writer, colonel and diarist, 1831-1913, author of Excursion a los indios ranqueles, Mis memorias and other works

glacier and river near Bariloche

character in film The Petrified Forest

monster described by Pliny and Flaubert

Fishburn and Hughes : "The Persian form of Parliament of Birds." (124)

Pilar de Lusarreta, 1964.

city in Italy

Written by Federico Barbará

anthology by Borges and Margarita Guerrero, 1953, later revised as the Libro de los seres imaginarios, 1967

Book written by Ciro Bayo in 1931

Kern, 1896

Moulonguet cookbook, 1929

Poe story, 1833

Borges poem added to revised editions of Luna de enfrente

Kipling book of stories, 1893

Italian poet and novelist, 1785-1873, associated with the Risorgimento

Menén Desleal story

Lugones series of poems in El libro de los paisajes

Mexican poet and essayist, 1898-1981, associated with the movement of estridentismo

Machiavelli, Italian author and statesman, 1469-1527, author of the Principe, Discorsi, Arte della guerra and Mandragola

sea god

beach resort in the province of Buenos Aires

Waendelsae, medieval Germanic name for the Mediterranean

city on the Atlantic coast of the province of Buenos Aires

Black Sea

Nepalese god of love

character in Henry Miller's Tropic of Capricorn

French actor and director, 1913-1998

al-Qazwini's Atharu'l-Bilad, a treatise on geography

one of the "libros serios" Aquiles Molinari sees in Abenjaldún's house, series of illustrated books on world geography from about 1900, published by the Editorial Ibérica in Barcelona

Parodi : obra enciclopédica en cuatro gruesos volúmenes lujosamente encuadernados, con ilustraciones en color y fotografías, publicada en Barcelona por la editorial Ibérica, a principios de 1920. Uno de los volúmenes estaba dedicado al continente americano y los otros, a Asia, Europa y Oceanía−África.

Hawthorne romance, 1860

character in El curioso impertinente, the exemplary novel Cervantes inserted in the first part of the Quijote

Ford Madox Ford memoirs and reflections on British literature and culture, his final book, 1938; the title given here is Más fuerte que la espada, which is a pretty creative translation

Argentine painter, 1899-1978, known for his paintings of Buenos Aires and of Argentine landscapes

Uruguayan weekly edited by Carlos Quijano, published from 1939 until 1974

Parodi : célebre semanario uruguayo de temas políticos y culturales. Fundado en 1939 por el abogado, periodista y político Carlos Quijano (1900-1984) y clausurado en 1974. El escritor Juan Carlos Onetti (1909-1994) fue secretario de redacción de la revista entre 1939 y 1941; colaboraba además con una columna cultural, “La piedra en el charco”. Marcha contaba con la sección “Literarias” dedicada a la crítica, que estaba a cargo de Emir Rodríguez Monegal y de Ángel Rama. En 1955, Marcha publicó “La fiesta del monstruo”, que en 1977 fue incluido en Nuevos cuentos de Bustos Domecq . Según el testimonio de Bustos Domecq, supuestamente Marcha publicó críticas muy favorables a las obras de Nierenstein Souza, que fueron editadas por la editorial Probeta.

French explorer and general, 1863-1934

Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm's collection of fairy tales, compiled between 1812 and 1857

Gustav Jungbauer, 1923

town in France near Orleans

Fishburn and Hughes : "A forest near Blois, the scene of numerous battles in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870." (124-25)

part-owner of a meatpacking plant

Marcus Antonius, Roman politician and soldier, 83-30

Marcus Aelius Aurelius Antoninus, Roman emperor and writer, 121-180

Marcus Junius Brutus, assassin of Julius Caesar, c. 85-42

Quevedo historical work, 1631-1644

given the context this would seem to be an invented name, but there is a Teodoro Ernesto Marcó listed in Quien es quien en la Argentina, a politician in Entre Ríos, b. 1911

hotel in the Once neighborhood

Parodi : supuesto hotel; para el Once, cf. “Limardo” i §11.

Gospel of Mark in the New Testament

Character in El frac by Ulises Nobody, El frac, 1961

St. Mark the Evangelist

Fishburn and Hughes : "The author of the second synoptic gospel now considered the earliest of the three and the source of Matthew and Luke. With its sixteen chapters, it is the shortest of the gospels, its power lying in the simple narrative of events in the life of Jesus. Mark may have received his information direct from St Peter, which would account for his immediacy. The gospel was written in Hellenistic Greek, the popular dialect of the eastern Mediterranean. Its purpose is clearly evangelical. It emphasises the dramatic presentation of the passion and resurrection of Jesus as the means of achieving the Kingdom of God." (125)

in medieval dialogues between Solomon and Saturn, the name given to Saturn

Fishburn and Hughes : "A fictional Latin name with the connotation 'flame' and 'red' (Rufus), contrasted with Joseph Cartaphilus, an 'earthen man, with grey eyes and grey beard' (see Christ, The Narrow Act , NY 1969, 206)." (125)

Melville novel, 1849

French physician, 1868-1949, translator of the Arabian Nights

Peyrou, book of short stories, 1967.

Argentine poet, novelist, essayist and playwright, 1900-70, author of Adán Buenosayres and numerous other works

He was a French pediatrician(1858 – 1942) . 

French pediatrician (1858-1942).

character in Bustos Domecq story

Barrie, 1897, about the author's mother

character in Goethe's Faust

Margaret of Navarre, also called Margarita de Angulema, queen of Navarre, 1492-1549, author of Heptameron

Parodi : “el Heptamerón de la Reina Margarita”: se trata de una colección de relatos escritos por Marguerite d’Angoulême (1492-1549), más conocida como Marguerite de Navarre, que fue princesa de Orleans y reina consorte de Navarra. A semejanza del Decamerón de Boccaccio (cf. infra ), en el Heptameron (1540-1549), diez viajeros sorprendidos por una tempestad se refugian en una abadía y durante siete días cuentan historias que comentan los oyentes; el resultado son setenta y dos relatos sobre el tema del amor, que describen y satirizan prácticas eróticas sobre todo de la corte renacentista de Navarra.

French literary critic, author of studies of Erasmus, Rabelais, Flaubert and others

French scholar of China, author of an Anthologie raisonnée de la litterature chinoise, Histoire de la litterature chinoise, Evolution de la prose artistique chinoise and other works

pharmacist, character in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi : supuesto farmacéutico de Burzaco.

Jorge Isaacs novel, 1867

Austrian-born queen of France, 1755-1793

tale from Francisco Espínola’s book Raza ciega

in New Testament, repentant courtesan

in New Testament, mother of Jesus Christ

Argentine theater promoter, 1913-1996, author of Historia del teatro independiente

Miguel Torga story

character in Borges story

Argentine writer, 1893-1946, part of Boedo group, author of Cuentos de la oficina

Argentine film directed by Luis José Bayón Herrera, 1947, based on the 1895 Oscar Wilde play The Ideal Husband

town in West Prussia, now Malbork in Poland

Fishburn and Hughes : "German for Polish Malbork, a town in the Polish province of Gdansk, formerly in East Prussia and closely associated since the thirteenth century with the Teutonic Order." (125)

Wernher's life of the Virgin Mary, 1172, entitled Drei Lieder von der Jungfrau

Marian poetry, a common element of medieval religious poetry in Germany and elsewhere

“no es escrúpulo de Marigargajo”. According to the DRAE (Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy), it is a colloquial adjective which means ridiculous, unfounded, extravagant and non-sense. (Mentioned in Suárez Lynch novella.)

Parodi: “no es escrúpulo de Marigargajo”: “Marigargajo es un personaje proverbial, prototipo de escrúpulos infundados y cochinería, que alardeaba de limpia y escrupulosa, de la que se decía que para saber si el aceite de la sartén estaba caliente, escupía en él. Vive en el dicho Escrúpulo de Marigargajo, o del padre Gargajo, con el significado de escrúpulo infundado, ridículo y falto de razón. Lo mismo se dice de la aseada de Burguillos, otra dama que hacía lo mismo.” (Sánchez 525).

Italian futurist poet, novelist and critic, 1876-1944

Parodi : Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876−1944), que en 1909 publicó en París el documento fundador del movimiento futurista ( Manifesto del futurismo ), al que siguieron el Manifiesto de la literatura futurista (1910), el Manifiesto de los pintores futuristas y el Manifiesto técnico del futurismo (1912) y otros once más. Las doctrinas de Marinetti sobre la literatura y el arte están también expuestas en sus libros Mafarka il futurista (1910), La battaglia di Tripoli (1911) y Parole in libertá (1912). Los postulados del futurismo fueron también adoptados en pintura y escultura, en las artes aplicadas, el teatro, la danza, la moda, el diseño, la fotografía, los juegos onomatopéyicos y tipográficos. Marinetti visitó dos veces la Argentina; en 1926, ocasión en que fue homenajeado por la Revista Martín Fierro , y en 1936, como delegado de Roma al XIV Congreso del PEN Club, realizado en Buenos Aires. Durante esas visitas, organizó en Buenos Aires varias veladas (las “seratas futuristas”). Sus ideas políticas de exaltación belicista y sus simpatías por el fascismo de Mussolini dieron ocasión a enfrentamientos con intelectuales locales; expuso esas convicciones en Democrazia futurista (1919) y Futurismo e fascismo (1924). Sobre Marinetti, cf. también “Toros” i §§2 y 5; iii §8.

Italian poet, 1569-1625, author of Adone

town in Virginia

French philosopher, 1882-1973

prostitute mistaken for damsel in distress by Don Quijote

Saga of the Virgin Mary, c.1200

Walter Pater novel, 1885

DeVoto biography, 1932

Stevenson novella, 1887

Old Norse name for Newfoundland

12th century Icelandic poet, known as Markus the Lawman

first Duke of Marlborough, 1650-1772

character in Conrad

English dramatist and poet, 1564-1593, author of Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta and other works

English waiter who wrote a 1937 memoir "Coming, Sir!

Argentine poet, novelist and politician, 1817-1871, author of Amalia, Cantos de peregrino and other works

Fernández Irala book of poems

title for royal architect, position held by John Gibbon, Edward Gibbon's father

river in France, site of major battle in the First World War

Arolas tango

US novelist, 1893-1960, author of The Late George Apley and other works

scholar of Norse poetry, author of Die Altenglischen Kenningar, 1938

islands in the south Pacific

city in Morocco

Fishburn and Hughes : "A town in Morocco, one of the residences of the Sultan. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was the North African capital of the Almohad dynasty, under whose rule it enjoyed a temporary flowering of culture. Averroes spent some years of exile in Marrakesh." (125)

Blake prose work, 1790

Morocco

Fishburn and Hughes : "Arabic for 'farthest west', Morocco was a sultanate in north-west Africa inhabited by Arabs, Berbers, Europeans and Jews. It was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century and by the Almohads in the twelfth and thirteenth." (135)

English sea-captain and novelist, 1792-1848

Marseilles, port city in southern France

English translator of Hermann Keyserling

English painter, d. 1940, wife of David Garnett

British historian, 1602-1685, author of Canon chronicus aegyptiacus, ebraicus, graecus

the planet Mars

Mars, Roman god of war

Fishburn and Hughes : "The Roman god of war." (125)

Danish theologian, 1808-1884, author of works on Christian ethics and dogma, and of a life of Jakob Boehme

Fishburn and Hughes : "A Danish theologian, bishop and court preacher, author of several treatises on Christian ethics and dogma revealing a strong interest in theosophy. Martensen also wrote a sketch on the life of Jakob Boehme." (125-26)

Cuban poet, novelist, journalist and political figure, 1853-1895, author of Versos sencillos, Ismaelillo, Versos libres and other works

Parodi : alusión al político, periodista, ensayista, poeta y revolucionario cubano, celebrado como el padre de la independencia de su país.

Bradbury science fiction novel, 1950

French town

Dickens novel, 1843-44

French author, 1881-1958, author of Jean Barois and L'Été 1914

Jack London, novel, 1909.

Hernández gauchesque poem, published in two parts, El gaucho Martín Fierro, 1872, and La vuelta de Martín Fierro, 1879

Fishburn and Hughes : see Fierro, Martín

Argentine literary magazine founded by Evar Méndez, 1924-27

Literary study written by Vicente Rossi

Argentine writer, author of Una mujer fronteriza, 1924, and El tiempo, 1924

reference to Quinquela Martín

suburb in northern Buenos Aires

Argentine poet and essayist, 1895-1964, author of Radiografía de la pampa, Muerte y transfiguración de Martín Fierro and other works

Fishburn and Hughes : "A prolific Argentine writer whose work reflects a deep concern with his country's development. Radiografía de la Pampa (1933) describes the changes that took place in Argentina in the early 1930s under fascist rule. La cabeza de Goliath (1940) examines the relationship of Buenos Aires to the rest of the country. Muerte y transfiguración del Martín Fierro (2 vols, 1948) is regarded as an outstanding work of literary criticism." (126)

Argentine poet and journalist, 1910-1968

friend of the narrator of the story El soborno, the Spanish literary scholar, 1907-2011, a disciple of Américo Castro and professor at the University of Texas for many years until 1971

Spanish playwright, poet, novelist, actor and journalist, 1881-1947

Parodi : Gregorio Martínez Sierra (1881−1947) fue un exitoso escritor, dramaturgo y empresario teatral español que, entre 1939 y 1947, vivió exiliado en Buenos Aires. Publicó obras dramáticas, de ficción y ensayos, varias sobre la condición social de la mujer ( La mujer moderna, Eva curiosa: libro para mujeres, Sólo para mujeres, Mujer, El ama de la casa , etc.) que, si bien aparecieron firmadas con su nombre, fueron en su mayor parte escritas por su esposa, María de la O Lejárraga (1874−1974), escritora feminista republicana muerta en Buenos Aires. No sería improbable que, en caso de ser genuina, la frase que cita Bonfanti perteneciera a Lejárraga que incluso llegó a firmar sus propias obras con el nombre de su marido.

Argentine poet, 1860-1899

in Borges story, Argentine newspaper with Fascist leanings, edited by Ernst Palast, probably based on the nationalist periodical Crisol, to which Ernesto Palacio contributed

Argentine dairy industry, founded in 1889.

Parodi : “lechería”: un establecimiento donde se sirven bebidas o postres hechos a base de productos lácteos. En Buenos Aires, en todos los barrios existían las lecherías “La Martona”, empresa de la familia de Bioy. ‘Lechería’ aparece también en “Signo” §5; “Amistad” §1.

Baronius, 1586

wind gods in the Vedas

Sackville-West study, 1929

English metaphysical poet, 1621-78

German social philosopher, 1818-83

Work by May Sinclair, 1919.

Barrie, 1920

state in United States

Pérez Zelaschi, short stories, 1949.

Mariana Grondona, 1971

Zorrilla, 1838.

Argentine critic and writer, 1878-1916, author of studies of Almafuerte, Ghiraldo, Herrera y Reissig, and of Spanish literature

character in Bustos Domecq, perhaps related to Horacio Alberto and Rau Mascarenhas, prominent Argentine businessmen

Vilaseco poem

Parodi : término que se aplica a quienes se disfrazan para Carnaval.

English poet, 1878-1967

Negulesco film, 1944

town in north central Uruguay where a battle took place in 1904, resulting in the defeat and death of Aparicio Saravia

Fishburn and Hughes : "A decisive battle on 1 September 1904 in northern Uruguay between the rebel forces of Aparicio Saravia and the National Army; Saravia was defeated and mortally wounded." (126)

English author and politician (1865-1948). Author of The Four Feathers , among other works. 

detective, character in Gardner novels

Spanish author and political figure, 1872-1934

Parodi : Jaume Maspons y Camarasa (1872-1934) fue Secretario General del Departamento de Agricultura de la Comunidad de Barcelona de 1909 a 1934; director del periódico regionalista La Veu del Vallès ; presidente de la Federación Agrícola Catalana-Balear; autor de Agremiació agrícola: notes històriques (1906); del capítulo dedicado a la agricultura en Geografía General de Catalunya , compilada por Albert Martin en 1913, y otros títulos de obras similares.

Swinburne poem

Poe story, 1842

Máscaras a medida, Pierre Mac Orlan, 1937

state in United States

French scholar of Islam, 1883-1962

French nationalist writer, 1888-1970

Scottish literary scholar, 1822-1907, editor of Milton and De Quincey

character from The Pilgrim’s Progress

Stevenson novel, 1889

character from Bunyan's Pilgrim’s Progress

US poet and biographer, 1868-1950, author of the Spoon River Anthology

Argentine poet, 1901-76, author of Luz de provincia, Tierra amanecida, Conocimiento de la noche and other works

Fishburn and Hughes : "A poet, essayist and journalist, a member of the group of writers identified with the avantgarde literary magazine Martín Fierro, which published some of Borges's early work." (126)

Arab historian, geographer and philosopher, d. 956, author of The Golden Meadows

Argentine scholar, c. 1810-1877, author of Curso de lengua universal, 1861

Echeverria short story, written in 1841, published in 1871

Buenos Aires neighborhood

town in province of Buenos Aires

small river in Buenos Aires, also known as the Riachuelo, that empties into the River Plate at the Boca del Riachuelo

early tango by Prudencio Aragon

Silva Valdés poem

avenue in Tucumán

Martínez Estrada poem

Gospel of Matthew in New Testament

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (King James Version), which serves as the title of a Borges poem in El otro, el mismo

St. Matthew the Evangelist

Fishburn and Hughes : "Three Versions of Judas, CF 165: Matthew 10:7-8 reads: 'And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.' CF 165: Matthew 12:31 reads: 'Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.' Matthew 6:7 reads: 'But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.' The Theologians, CF 203: Matthew 6:12 is part of the Lord's prayer. Matthew 11:12: the full verse reads: 'And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.'" (126)

wizard in Mabinogion

Wilkins treatise, 1648

Kasner and Newman, 1940

US Puritan clergyman and writer, 1663-1728, author of The Wonders of the Invisible World

US Puritan clergyman, 1639-1723

street in Buenos Aires

Parodi : “la calle Matheu”: así llamada en honor a Domingo Matheu (1765-1831), vocal de la Primera Junta de Gobierno en 1810. Esta calle se extiende desde el barrio de San Cristóbal hasta el de Parque Patricios.

Masnavi, work by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, the greatest of the Persian Sufi poets, 1207-1273

legends of ancient Celtic knights used in medieval romances

character in Borges poem

French newspaper

French painter, sculptor and lithographer, 1869-1954

Borges anthology, 1970

main square in Montevideo

mentioned in Suárez Lynch novella

Parodi : “Huya, Mattaldi: mis padrinos visitarán mañana su pesebre”: la mención de Mattaldi parece aludir a una localidad del sur de la provincia argentina de Córdoba, renombrada en la época de las acciones de Modelo por la cría de ganado vacuno.

Prize given by the University of Oxford.

US literary critic, 1902-1950, author of The Achievement of T. S. Eliot and of numerous other works on James, Emerson and others

name in the Bible, mentioned in Christopher Smart poem

street in Montevideo

Argentine playwright and writer, 1884- 1917

Methuselah, in Bible, man who lived 969 years

birthplace of Hermann Sudermann

Tennyson poem, 1855

British writer on military strategy, author of Notes on the Evolution of Infantry Tactics, War and the World's Life and other works

Fishburn and Hughes : "An English military historian, author of The Evolution of Strategy , technical essays, and studies of the great military campaigns of the past such as Leipzig, Jena and Ulm. Maude also translated Clausewitz." (126)

British novelist and playwright, 1874-1965

French short-story writer and novelist, 1850-1893

Fishburn and Hughes : "An ancient kingdom in north Africa corresponding now to north Morocco and central Algeria. The kings of Mauretania became Roman vassals as early as the second century BC. Two centuries later Mauretania was annexed to the Roman Empire by the Emperor Claudius and divided into two provinces. The Inmortal: in the fourth century, during the tetrarchy of Diocletian, Mauretania and other regions of north Africa were the scene of rebellions against the Roman army led by Maximian, the Emperor's colleague." (127)

French writer, 1885-1970

French writer, pseud. of Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog, 1885-1967

French writer, 1868-1952, monarchist leader of Action Française

Austrian philosopher and writer, 1849-1923, author of Wörterbuch der Philosophie and other works

Hapsburg emperor of Mexico, 1832-67

Name given in the Antología de la literatura fantástica to an excerpt from Joyce's Ulysses .

Nepalese queen, Buddha's mother

ship which brought Pilgrims to Massachusetts in 1620

US film director, 1891-1968, director of The Petrified Forest and many other films

street in Buenos Aires, running from the Casa Rosada and Plaza de Mayo to the Congreso

main square in Buenos Aires, surrounded by the Casa Rosada, the Cabildo, the Central Bank, the Cathedral and several ministry buildings

Parodi : nombre con que se designa la antigua Plaza Mayor del Buenos Aires colonial; está ubicada en el sitio en que fue fundada la ciudad. Rodeada por el Cabildo, la Catedral y la Casa de Gobierno, tradicionalmente ha sido y sigue siendo el escenario de los grandes acontecimientos de la historia nacional y de manifestaciones políticas.

province of Iran

Ukrainian military officer, subject of an 1819 Byron poem

friend of Macedonio Fernández

Argentine writer, author of La congestión del tráfico, 1931 and other works

Argentine modernist poet, author of Los vencidos, 1910

Fishburn and Hughes :"A political organisation formed in 1833 to advance Rosas's Federalist leadership. At first respectable, it soon became Rosas's secret police. Its name, 'ear of corn', was chosen to suggest the values of countrymen as opposed to townsmen. Rosas's enemies claimed that it was más horcas ('more gallows'), and it became a by-word for intimidation, vandalism and brutality. After Rosas's fall, it was abolished and its leaders executed. CF 380: The English translation gives 'Rosas's posses'." (127)

British literary critic and journalist, 1877-1952

British politician and man of letters, 1859-1936, translator of 466 quatrains by Omar Khayyam

Jamaican-American poet, 1889-1948, active in Harlem Renaissance

Norris novel, 1899

British Theosophist, 1834-1933, founder of the Quest Society

Shakespeare comedy, 1603-04

Mecca, holy city of Islam, in Saudi Arabia

“como Meccano desarmado”. A very popular children´s game using metal strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles and gears, with nuts and bolts to connect the pieces. It enables the building of working models and mechanical devices. (Mentioned in Bustos Domecq story.)

region in north central Germany

Mastronardi poem

Euripides tragedy

in Greek mythology, princess of Colchis, skilled in magic and sorcery

Cullen collection of poems, including translation of Euripides play, 1935

character in Bustos Domecq story

Parodi : supuesta familia de Fray Bentos que alquiló a Souza una vieja casona, donde vive hasta su muerte.

city in Colombia

powerful family in Florence during the Renaissance

Ker, 1912

city in Saudi Arabia

Middle East

Carlos Páez Vilaró book on history of Afro-Argentines and Afro-Uruguayans, 1971

Descartes treatise on metaphysics, 1641

Mediterranean Sea

Vaihinger, 1852

character in Ariosto

knife-fighter in Buenos Aires

in Greek mythology, most famous of the three monstrous Gorgon sisters

Avenue in Buenos Aires

Mephistopheles, one of the many names for the devil

British historian, 1903-1958, author of Mussolini in the Making

German literary scholar, 1856-1915, author of Der Reim and works on German and French poetry

German art critic and novelist, 1867-1935

Austrian philosopher and psychologist, 1853-1920

Fishburn and Hughes : "An Austrian philosopher who, in his theory of objects, or Über Gegendstandstheorie (1904), distinguished between objects that have 'existence' as physical objects and those that 'subsist' in our mind as concepts or theoretical entities, maintaining that the latter also have a form of existence. Accordingly he defined 'object' ( Gegenstand ) as that to which a mental act should be directed. Meinong's 'subsistent world' is illustrated by his example of the golden mountain which, though not present in the physical world, has a substantive existence as the product of our imagination." (127)

Parodi : “la razón social Meinong y Cía”: la supuesta sociedad, ubicada sobre la Avenida Belgrano y dedicada a la importación de tabaco, lleva el nombre de su fundador, don Alejandro Meinong, que evoca el del filósofo y psicólogo austríaco Alexius Meinong (1853-1920), conocido por su teoría de los objetos, los existentes y los subsistentes, e.d. los que no existen pero que es dable concebir de algún modo. Las coincidencias no se agotan en el apellido compartido: se afirma que don Alejandro llegó a la Argentina desde Viena, ciudad en la que había estudiado Alexius; lleva barba, como su homónimo austríaco; como él, era ciego; en el sótano de la calle Belgrano se manifiesta un objeto imposible, otra de las categorías de los objetos de Meinong.

German scholar of Icelandic poetry, 1863-1948, author of Die Kenningar der Skalden, 1921

author of La policia por dentro, 1913

Emecé´s two volumes of detective and crime stories edited by Borges and Bioy Casares.

alleged author of the Vidas y obras de Molinero, though this article is included in the Nuevos cuentos de Bustos Domecq

Parodi : “A instancias reiteradas del autor, que se llama Mejuto”: el cuento es presentado como un “curioso informe” que Bustos Domecq se limita a publicar ya que el supuesto autor sería un tal “Mejuto”. En el Diccionario de Bioy, hay una mención del apellido Mejuto que parece aludir directamente al Mejuto de “Deslindando”, el poeta que emplea el lenguaje con absoluta independencia de toda norma: “Bucear: Me complazco en estampar aquí un dicho que siempre le oigo al señor Mejuto: “El que bucea se estropea”. (A último momento me aseguran que Mejuto quiere más bien significar: “El que boxea se estropea”).”

river in Laos and Vietnam

German scholar and humanist, 1497-1560, author of Loci communes rerum theologicarum

Darío poem in Cantos de vida y esperanza, 1905

Argentine ambassador in imaginary Estado Occidental, character in Borges story

criminal in Buenos Aires

Spanish poet and playwright, 1754-1817

Argentine poet, writer, and educator, 1889-1958, cousin of Borges

Uruguayan lawyer and historian, 1850-1939, author of Semblanzas de pasado, relative of Borges's father

African king in Camões's Os Lusíadas

Melissus, Greek philosopher and admiral of Samos, last important member of the Eleatic school, 5th century B.C.

"king of the city," Carthaginian name for Baal

British officer, magistrate of Mpika, author of various books on Africa

Ascasubi, see Santos Vega

Portuguese writer and political figure, 1608-1666

town in northeastern Uruguay

Fishburn and Hughes : "A town in north-eastern Uruguay." (127)

one of Greek muses, who presides over tragedy

Parodi : “Melpómene y Talía”: las musas de la tragedia y de la comedia, según la mitología griega.

town in Leicestershire, England

Fishburn and Hughes : "A town north east of Leicester, popular among the English upper classes as a centre of foxhunting." (127)

bay on western coast of Greenland

US novelist, poet and short-story writer, 1819-91, author of Moby Dick, Pierre, Bartleby the Scrivener, Billy Budd and many other works

early Middle High German poem, probably written in Hirsau around 1070, about death and the peril of damnation

Flemish painter, born in Germany, 1430-1494

Conan Doyle, collection of short stories, 1894.

Wilkie Collins, 1848.

Excerpt from Memorabilia (1923) by George Loring Frost.

Quevedo sonnet

Persian collection of lives of poets: see Templo del Fuego

Farid ud-din Attar

Mastronardi memoir, 1967

José Sixto Alvarez, under pen name Fabio Carrizo, 1897

Book by Felipe Amadeo Lastra publised in 1965 (Editorial Huemul, Buenos Aires).The actual title of this work is Recuerdos del 900 

Ssa-Ma Ch'ien's Historical Record, a history of China from the earliest ages to about 100 B.C., including chapters on customs, the calendar, astrology and other subjects

Arthur Miller play, 1955

character in Hitchcock film The Thirty-Nine Steps

city in Tennessee

Fishburn and Hughes : "The largest city in Tennessee, on the Mississippi. In the 1820s it was undergoing rapid commercial and industrial growth." (127-28)

Wells novel, 1923

Hemingway collection of short stories, 1927

Spanish poet and prose writer, 1411-1456, author of the Laberinto de fortuna and other works

Milinda of Buddhist tradition, Bactrian king of the Indo-Greeks, ruled 155-130

French symbolist writer, character in Borges story, author of Les problèmes d'un problème, Don Quijote and numerous other works, associated with Dr. Pierre Menard, French expert on graphology

Fishburn and Hughes : "A fictional character, perhaps drawn from Louis Menard (1822-1901). In an article by the symbolist writer Rémy de Gourmont (which Borges probably read), Louis Menard is described as a master of parody. He attempted to rewrite some of the lost Greek tragedies, including Aeschylus' Prometheus bound , and, as a hoax, wrote a piece which he attributed to Diderot. Like the fictional Pierre Menard, he indulged in anachronistic readings, thinking of Shakespeare when reading Homer, linking Helen with Hamlet and imagining Desdemona at Achilles' feet (see Emir Rodríguez Monegal, J orge Luis Borges: a Literary Biography 123 and Daniel Balderston, Out of Context , 149-50)." (128)

gaucho

Menzius, Chinese thinker, 372-289

US editor, author and critic, 1880-1956, author of The American Language and other works

a jeweler in Bustos Domecq story

German composer, 1809-47

Portuguese explorer and writer, c. 1509-83

Portuguese writer invented by the Cenáculo group, composed of Eça de Queiroz and others, to whom they attributed a book called Poemas do Macadame

Parodi : Carlos Fradique Mendes es un personaje literario creado por los escritores portugueses Eça de Queiroz (1846-1900) y Ramalho Ortigão (1836-1915), que apareció por primera vez en El misterio de la carretera de Sintra (1870). Sus creadores dotaron a Fradique de una biografía y una personalidad que ponen al descubierto su dandismo, el gusto por los viajes, lo novedoso, lo extravagante y exótico, el esteticismo poético, la tendencia a la aventura, al escándalo y la rebeldía; y lo dotaron también de una obra literaria que se inaugura en 1870 con Poemas del Macadame y se continúa en 1900 con la Correspondencia de Fradique Mendes y las Cartas inéditas de Fradique Mendez, publicadas tras la muerte de Eça, en 1929.

French Parnassian poet, critic and novelist, 1841-1909

Parodi : Catulle Mendès (1841-1909), poeta, crítico teatral y novelista, uno de los fundadores del Parnaso literario. Aunque cuenta con una amplia obra en prosa que incluye novelas, novelas cortas, cuentos, teatro, ensayos y libretos de ópera, es célebre sobre todo por sus poemarios ajustados a la estética parnasiana. En Borges 922, comentando un poema de Mendès, dice Borges: “Parece que esos cromos bobos de Catulle Mendès corresponden a una intención filosófica..., lo que los vuelve peores aún”.

Peruvian poet, 1903-73

pseud. of Evaristo González Méndez, 1888-1955, Argentine avant-garde poet, editor of the magazine Martín Fierro and author of Palacios de ensueño

Argentine poet and journalist, 1843-1897

Buenos Aires notary public, friend of José Hernández

Bloy collection of stories, 8 vols., 1898-1920

Excerpt from Le Cornet à dés by Max Jacob, 1916. 

friend of Macedonio Fernández

Afro Argentine tango songwriter (1866-1913)

Argentinian tango composer, 1868 - 1913.

city and province in western Argentina

Groussac historical study, 1916

Spanish conquistador, founder of Buenos Aires, c. 1487-1536

Menelaus or Menelaos, brother of Agamemnon and husband of Helen in Homeric poems

Salvadoran writer, 1932-2000, author of Cuentos breves y maravillosos, book of stories with apocryphal Borges preface, though interestingly Bioy's diary reveals that Borges and Bioy read and liked the book after they heard about the fraudulent preface

Spanish philologist, specialist on medieva Spanish language and literature, 1869-1968

Spanish literary historian, 1856-1912

Parodi : (1856-1912) erudito español, filólogo, historiador y crítico de las ideas y de la literatura. Menéndez y Pelayo dedicó muchos años de su vida al rastreo y recopilación de romances viejos, caballerescos, fronterizos e históricos.

Mencius, Chinese philosopher, d. c. 314 BC

Parodi : referencia a Mencio (c. 371-c. 288 a.C.), fundador de la filosofía del confucianismo. Viajó por China durante años difundiendo esta doctrina y adoctrinando a los gobernantes sus obligaciones frente a los súbditos.

second member of Spanish trio of Fulano, Mengano and Sutano

Fishburn and Hughes : "German for 'set theory': a mathematical term designating the theory of G. Cantor (1829-1920) on the relationship between finite numbers and infinitude. Cantor examines the comparisons of infinite collections, starting from the observation of the equivalences in a series such as 1,2,3,4 which could equally express, or be expressed by, 2,4,6,8, so that 1 could be represented by 2, 2 by 4, 3 by 6 and so on. Thus any integer can represent all its multiples and all its multiples can be elevated to multiple power, so that 1 may be 6036 and also 6036 squared, and so on. Furthermore 1 can undergo equal fragmentation. The point ultimately arrived at is that any one cardinal number may be symbolic of any other, and of all others and, by extension, of infinitude; moreover there are a host of potentially infinite numbers. This theory led Cantor to the paradoxical conclusion that the universe is composed of an infinitude of points, as is a yard of the universe, or a fraction of that yard, making the most infinitesimal point on earth symbolic of the macrocosm. Borges discuses this theory in Etern . 77-9. In the Mengenlehre , the aleph denotes a higher power than that of finite numbers. It also talks of a plurality of alephs." (128)

neighborhood of Paris in the twentieth arrondissement

neighborhood in Paris

Bernardim de Ribeiro novel, 1554

Velázquez painting, 1656

US psychiatrist, 1893-1990, author of The Human Mind, 1930, and Man Against Himself, 1938

Icelandic name for some figure in Trojan story, perhaps Agamemnon

Antonio de Guevara work in praise of rural life, 1539

Pessoa poems about Portuguese history, 1934

the White Rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Leonhard Frank novella, 1917

personification of lying

Common Market or European Economic Community, forerunner to the European Union

fruit market in Buenos Aires

church in Buenos Aires

city in the province of Buenos Aires (and also the name of various other towns in Corrientes and in Uruguay)

Parodi : alusión a un supuesto saladero de carnes ubicado en Mercedes, ciudad de la provincia de Buenos Aires, situada a 100 km al oeste de Capital.

Shakespeare play, c.1596

one of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England

French literary monthly published from 1890 to 1965

Parodi : una revista literaria publicada con interrupciones y bajo diversos nombres desde fines del siglo xvii. Apareció mensualmente desde 1890 hasta 1965; a partir de 1995 su publicación fue retomada por las ediciones Gallimard.

the planet Mercury

Roman name for Hermes, god of commerce and messenger of the gods

Wilkins treatise on cryptography, 1641

English novelist and poet, 1828-1909, author of The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, The Egoist and other works

in Arthurian legend, magician, seer and teacher

Fishburn and Hughes : "A legendary figure, originally a Welsh poet and prophet of the sixth century, but remembered chiefly as the enchanter in the twelfth-century Arthurian romance. In Geoffrey of Monmouth's narrative Merlin is identified with a boy from an earlier tale who has no father and whose magic helps Arthur's father to win his bride. Merlin is reputed to have instituted the Round Table, and to have helped Arthur defeat his foes by his counsel and magic. He was said to possess knowledge of the past and of the future. The Faerie Queene , III, 2, refers to the mirror made by Merlin for King Ryence, which gave him the power to see all. It was in the form of a glass orb, shaped like the world, and enabled the viewer to look into the hearts of men and foresee the intentions of his enemies and the treachery of his friends." (128-29)

Parodi : “Pero a los hechos me atengo, dijera el sabio Merlino”: [Isidro] Parodi cita una supuesta frase del poderoso mago Merlín, personaje del ciclo de relatos célticos vinculados con la figura del Rey Arturo.

Buenos Aires suburb in the province of Buenos Aires

Fishburn and Hughes : "A town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, to the west of the capital." (129)

Parodi : 1) “Merlo […] Berazategui”: dos localidades del Gran Buenos Aires, situadas respectivamente al noroeste y al sureste de la capital, separadas entre sí por una distancia de unos 60 km. Berazategui aparece mencionada también en “Signo” §2; Modelo iii §4; “Fiesta” §1 y §8. Un pueblo agrícola y ganadero que a principios del siglo xx se transformó en ciudad industrial dedicada a la producción de vidrio, y también de fibras textiles artificiales y de cerámicos. Berazategui está ubicada a unos 20 km al sudeste de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, sobre el ramal ferroviario Constitución−La Plata. Cf. Modelo III §4.

2) “ el Mirador , ustedes no me dejarán mentir, está en Merlo”: Merlo es una localidad del Gran Buenos Aires, situada oeste de la provincia, a unos 30 km de la capital.

ship in Borges story about the Tichborne Claimant, really called the Bella

Argentine poet, 1923-78

Merovech, founder of the first Germanic-Frankish dynasty, king of France from 448 to 457

French writer who specialized in maritime stories, 1905-1972

US author who wrote mostly in French, 1863-1915

Parodi : Stuart Merrill (1863-1915), uno de los primeros poetas simbolistas de origen estadounidense, vivió la mayor parte de su vida en París y escribió sus poemas más conocidos en francés. Su antología de poemas en prosa ( Pastels in Prose , 1890) introdujo la nueva poesía francesa en el ambiente literario estadounidense.

two magic spells, among the earliest remains of Germanic literature, clearly revealing pre-Christian origins

Merseburg, town near Leipzig, Germany

mountain in Buddhist legend

oasis and ancient city in Central Asia, old capital of Khorasan, near Mary in Turkmenistan

Apollinaire poem

Argentine gaucho soldier

Fishburn and Hughes : "A military leader who fought in the Wars of Independence and later in the frontier wars against the Indians. In 1829, in Laguna Colorada, Mesa was successful in recruiting a small contingent to fight on the side of Rosas. It was so popular that their numbers grew daily, joined by local montoneros and friendly Indians. On 29 January they were surprised by a force under Lavalle and suffered heavy casualties. Mesa escaped with some of his men to join Rosas, but he was attacked on the way, near Pergamino, by Isidoro Suárez, who sent him to Buenos Aires where he was condemned to death and executed on 16 February 1829." (129)

ancient region, perhaps in the southern Balkans, mentioned in Jordanes's history of the Goths

Portuguese writer, 1848-1884, author of O Japão

Spanish costumbrista writer, 1803-1882

Parodi : Ramón de Mesonero Romanos (1803-1882), un escritor costumbrista español que entre 1835 y 1881 escribió varias obras sobre la vida y las costumbres matritenses. Bustos deforma intencionalmente el primer apellido del escritor y lo sustantiva como si se tratara de un apodo, ‘el Mesonero’, o de un oficio. Por otra parte, Bustos califica de “polonesa” a la novela Quo vadis ? y la atribuye a Ramón Navarro.

Spanish poet, secretary and correspondent of Quevedo

Grunberg book of poems, 1940

Aristotle treatise on metaphysics

Borges essay, 1952, not to be confused with another of the same name published in 1926

Kafka, see Verwandlung

Ovid poem

river in Umbria, site of battle between Romans and Carthaginians in 207 B.C.

Russian biologist, zoologist and protozoologist (1845-1916).

Russian microbiologist (1845-1916). He won the 1908 Medicine Nobel prize.

Darío poem in El canto errante, 1907

Gaston Rageot novel, 1933

Metrodorus of Lampsacus, Epicurean philosopher, c.331-278, or Metrodorus of Scepsis, philosopher and writer, fl. c.70 B.C.

Fishburn and Hughes : "Metrodorus of Scepsis, in Mysia, was celebrated for his powers of memory and his hatred of Rome. Pliny (7.24.1) wrote that Metrodorus perfected Simonides' art of memory so that 'a man might learn to rehearse again the same words of any discourse whatsoever, after hearing them once'. He is also referred to by Cicero, who says that 'he wrote down things he wanted to remember in certain "localities" in his possession by means of images, just as if he were inscribing letters on wax' ( De Oratore 2.360)." (129)

country, sometimes spelled Méjico by Borges

Mexico City

street in Buenos Aires where the Biblioteca Nacional was located when Borges was its director

Parodi : en la calle México, calle sobre la que también estuvo ubicado el edificio de la Biblioteca Nacional desde 1901 hasta 1992.

Gulf of Mexico

original author of German encyclopedia, Meyers enzyklopädisches Lexikon

scholar of old Irish poetry

German scholar of Germanic literatures in the early 20th century

Austrian writer, pseudonym of Gustav Meyer, 1868-1932, author of Der Golem

Fishburn and Hughes : "The pseudonym of G. Meyer, an Austrian novelist who lived for many years in Prague and converted from Protestantism to Buddhism. Meyrink's interest in occultism led him to study the Cabbala, freemasonry, yoga and alchemy and to experiment with hashish. His best-known novel is Der Golem (1916), 'golem' being the Hebrew for embryo, or-anything incomplete; it is based on the medieval Jewish belief that it was possible to infuse life into a clay or wooden figure by means of a combination of letters of any one of God's names. The most famous version of this legend became that of the sixteenth-century rabbi from Prague Judah Loew, who is said to have created a golem to serve in the synagogue. Every evening the rabbi removed a vital letter of the combination, but on one occasion he forgot and the golem took over in a frenzy. This masterpiece of fantasy (of which two films were made by Paul Wegener) combines this strange legend with experiences of Meyrink's own life in Prague. It contains metaphysical themes from which Borges drew inspiration for many of his stories. Borges also wrote a long poem 'El Golem', which he considered among his best (Sel. Poems 123). In Meyrink's novel the golem can be seen to symbolise the individual who has become the automaton of modern society, instilled with a soul that is alien to himself. There are certain autobiographical links between the narrator of 'Guayaquil' and Borges. In his 'Autobiographical Essay' Borges relates that when he first learnt German he read Meyrink's book in the original and later, in 1960, discussed the legend with the Jewish scholar Gershom Scholem in Jerusalem (Aleph 134 (216)). On the same theme he has written: 'Gustav Meyrink uses this legend in a dream-like setting on the other side of the mirror and he has invested it with a horror so palpable that it has remained in my memory all these years!'" (129)

Polish town important in history of Hasidism

Lugones political work, 1917

Anglada essay

Paul Emile Victor book, probably Boréal, 1938

city in southern Florida

Conan Doyle, novel, 1888.

character in Dickens's David Copperfield

Mycenae, ancient city in the Peloponnesus in Greece

Belgian poet, 1899-1984

French romantic historian, 1798-1874, author of Introduction a l'histoire universelle and many other works

Parodi : Jules Michelet (1798-1874), historiador romántico francés, autor, entre otras muchas obras, de Introduction à l'histoire universelle. 

Italian literary scholar, author of Da Boiardo all' Ariosto, 1898, and other works

state in United States

one of the Great Lakes

name of a cat in Lope de Vega's Gatomaquia, 1634

Parodi : nombre de gato, célebre desde la Gatomaquia (1634) de Lope de Vega (1562-1635); es también el título de un tango que Carlos Gardel (cf. “Enfoque” §2) grabó en 1927. En lunfardo, el nombre ‘Micifuz’ designa a los agentes de policía.

cartoon character created by Walt Disney in 1928

Voltaire tale, 1752

Phrygian king in Greek mythology whose touch turned things to gold

region of north central United States

county in southern England

Icelandic monster

Shand poem in Ferment

Fishburn and Hughes : "The plural of the Hebrew word midrash, 'study'. The term refers to texts of scriptural exegesis which seek to discover the deeper meaning of the bible by enlarging upon the literal meaning of each detail of the scriptures." (129-30)

Shakespeare comedy, c.1596

personification of fear in Bustos Domecq story

Carriego poem, published posthumously

Raúl González Tuñón

Manuel Gálvez, 1938

French priest and publisher of theological works, 1800-1875, compiler of Patrologiae cursus completus, a work in some 300 vols.

Fishburn and Hughes : "A French priest, theologian and publisher of theological literature. His most important publication is Patrology (1844-66), a collection of 'the teachings of the Fathers of the Church' consisting of 217 volumes of ecclesiastical writings in Latin up to the time of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) and of 162 volumes of ecclesiastical writings in Greek up to 1439. The chief value of this work is that it contains texts that are not available in other editions. The introduction into Patrology of the writings of the character Aurelian is clearly apocryphal." (130)

Portuguese novelist, 1901-1980

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian artist, architect and poet, 1475-1564