3 Poems - Borges
For my ongoing course titled 'Labyrinthine Dreams' on Jorge Luis Borges's stories and poetry, we're reading three poems for class discussion.
Here are the poems: Rubaiyat, Someone and The Enigmas.
For my ongoing course titled 'Labyrinthine Dreams' on Jorge Luis Borges's stories and poetry, we're reading three poems for class discussion.
Here are the poems: Rubaiyat, Someone and The Enigmas.
The teleology of architecture is ruin. The fate of empires is to lay waste. Those cities turn to dust, By the marauding armies of horses, And elephants, and men in armour. Armour of greed and hierarchy, Of memories of loss. The granite boulders carved into monuments, Only to be ground
Silent runes and arabesque Tell a story Kafkaesque Of a riverman When the river dried A doorman When the doors closed A clergyman When lies arrived A swordsman When they won A spokesman And lied some more An everyman. Silent runes and arabesque Tell a story Kafkaesque Of found treasures
I had nothing to give to that old woman. Who begs at the lights, She gave me instead, Embers and cinders; Decay and suffering; A life unredeemed; Infinite infamy and inquity, I have it all She gave me more, and old poem too. Yanked out like a spasm. A poem
There was a time when I found pilgrimages to be an unnecessary exertion. One could find all that is to see within one's self. And perhaps that may be true. But I have found myself to be going on pilgrimages. Sometimes, I know I am going on one.