گمان کردن، رؤیا دیدن و نوشتن: سی گفتگو با بورخس

Conversations #1

by Jorge Luis Borges, ویدا فرهودی (Translator), Osvaldo Ferrarri

بورخس می‌گوید که یونان حدود ۵۰۰ سال پیش از میلاد زیباترین نهاد جهان، یعنی گفت‌وگو، را به دنیا هدیه کرد. این کتاب نیز نمونه‌‌ای از این گفت‌وگوها در زمینه ادبیات، فلسفه و سیاست است.

Genres: Literature, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Spanish Literature

290 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1985

About the author

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl. Fictions) and El Aleph (transl. The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magic realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."

Reviews

[Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sí, el libro parece algo permanente en todo caso, se espera ese destino, y se lo lee además de otro modo, ¿no? El diario se lee, bueno, para el olvido; la radio se oye efímeramente, pero el libro se lee con una especie de respeto."

Dialogar con Borges debe haber sido para cualquier lector o escritor una experiencia sin ningún tipo de comparación.
En este volumen junto al poeta y ensayista Osvaldo Ferrari nos adentramos en esa sabiduría y erudición de Borges que supera a cualquier hombre normal.
La diversidad de temas tratados es impresionante y en cada uno de ellos el maestro jamás decepciona en sus afirmaciones, recuerdos y enseñanzas.
Borges habla sobre el diálogo mismo, el humor, su relación con el público, la literatura realista fantástica, Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, la política, la poesía gauchesca, Henry James, la historia, su revista Sur, el amor, su madre Leonor Acevedo Suárez, la memoria, el modernismo, Rubén Darío, el cuento policial, Alonso Quijano, Sócrates, el culto de los libros, la filosofía, el budismo, los prólogos, Gustave Flaubert, la inteligencia del poeta, Almafuerte, Virginia Woolf, Victoria Ocampo, el feminismo y su libro de poemas Los conjurados.
Y todo esto en tan solo 243 páginas.
¡Qué hombre excepcional!
Nadie. Nadie supera a Borges.

[Katia N · Rating 4 out of 5]

This the first volume out of three volumes of these conversations initially recorded for an Argentinian radio. Borges is an old man around 85 years of age and blind for the 30 of them. Inevitably the conversations are sort of "Borges-light". I didn't not need to focus that much as I do when I read his work. But it is fun to be a part of such a friendly and intelligent conversations nevertheless. The topics are wide from Kafka and Henry James to Melonga, Borges's work, friends, his travels and anything in between.

But I think there are two ideas I will remember the most. Both of them about quotations. The first one the sentence by Carlyle:

"Universal history is a text that we are reading and writing continuously and in which we are also written."

Borges thought it was "terrible" because "That means not only we are writing symbols but also that we are symbols - we are symbols written by Something or Someone." I do not think it necessary needs to be read that way. It might be just that we are so interconnected that the famous "butterfly effect" becomes more and more pronounced. In any case, I liked the quote.

Another one is related to Borges memory. He said: "something that should alarm me although I am not alarmed, and that is this - I tend to remember what I have read and to forget my actions and all that which has actually happened to me." He quoted Emerson:

"Life itself becomes a quotation".

Interestingly, I remember reading A History of Books Murnane's view on the books he has read or kept in his shelves. He actually tends to remember less what the book was about but what exactly was happening with him, what he was thinking about when he read it. Often he does not remember a book at all, just a sentence in it or an image it has brought to his mind. Another way of looking at a quotation.

I think all of us-readers might have an opinion on the subject and what a "life as a quotation" might mean.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his later years, Jorge Luis Borges conducted numerous interviews. This book, Conversations, Volume 1, was conducted on an Argentinian radio program hosted by Osvaldo Ferrari. It is not so interesting as many other similar works because it was for a local audience, which involved discussing many issues not known to the world at large, such as the works of Leopoldo Lugones, Gaucho literature, Macedonio Fernandez, the three blind Librarians of the National Library in Buenos Aires, and lunfardo.

Still, a little more than half the dialogs are of general interest; and all are interesting to me. I look forward to reading the second volume soon.

[Awrixa · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب خوبی بود و احساس می‌کنم نیاز هست که چند سال بعد دوباره بخونمش. اینکه درباره موضوعات مختلف صحبت شده بود برام جذاب بود ولی مشکلی که داشتم باهاش این بود که از نویسندگان و شاعرهای زیادی صحبت کرده بود که من نمیشناختمشون و آثاری ازشون نخونده بودم، به همین علت بعضی جاها متوجه موضوع نمیشدم.

[پیمان عَلُو · Rating 5 out of 5]

بورخس در مقدمه‌ی این کتاب میگه: حدود ۵۰۰سال پیش از آغاز تاریخ مسیحی،یونان،زیبا‌ترین بنای تاریخ جهان یعنی گفتگو را به عالم هدیه کرد.در شرایطی که کره‌ی خاک را مسائلی چون،اعتقاد،اطمینان،آرای دینی،لعنت‌ها و دعاها،ممنوعیتها،فرامین،تکفیرها،استبداد‌ها،جنگ‌ها و پیروزی‌ها احاطه کرده بود،به ناگاه -و معلوم نیست چگونه-
مشتی یونانی،سنت غریب گفتگو را رواج دادند.
‏

اما چه لذتی بالاتر از خوندن گفتگوهای خورخه لویس بورخس .
لذت خوندن هر گفتگو…
هر جواب بورخس به سوالات…
هر جمله…
هر کلمه…
هر طنازی بورخس…
هر تیکه…
بنابر مقدمه‌ی بورخس واقعا از یونانی‌ها متشکرم
:)

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is based on a series conversations Borges had on Argentine radio. The conversations are uneven. When he discusses other authors Borges is at his best. Discussing politics he becomes a little more dull.

[Nina]

متن پشت جلد:
"بورخس خود در پیشگفتار این کتاب می گوید که یونان حدود 500 سال پیش از میلاد، زیباتربن نهاد جهان، یعنی گفتگو را به دنیا هدیه کرد. کتاب حاضر نیز نمونه ای از این گفتگوها در سطحی متعالی و آموزنده و دلنشین است.
اسوالدو فراری، مصاحبه گر کتاب، برخی از ویژگیهای گفتگوی بورخس را عبارت می داند از: نگرش جهانی در تمام زمینه ها، آزادیِ اندیشه، رویارویی با هرگونه تعصب، اراده در جهت تقسیم کنجکاوی با دیگران، و توجه به روح، قریحه، الهام و خاطره ی پیشینیان، و برقراری محاوره و تبادل نظر.
او می نویسد: دیدگاه های بورخس، به رغم بلندای کنونی عمرش، تازه ترین و هیجان انگیزترین دیدگاه ها هستند."

چقدر دلنشینه این آدم. چقدر حسِ خوب و مثبتی داره. "کتابخانه ی بابل" خوندم بعد این گفتگوها رو و ده برابر علاقه ام بهش بیشتر شد.
میرم که بقیه ی کتاباشو بخونم. از اوناس که کلی چیزای تاریخی و افسانه ها و اسطوره ها تو داستانای هیجان انگیز بهت میده بخونی کیف کنی.

عنوان گفتگوها اینا هستن:
1-درباره ی گفتگوها
2-هزل یا شوخ طبعی
3-بورخس و جمع
4-گمان گونگی
5-ادبیات واقع گرا و ادبیات تخیلی
6-کونرا، ملویل و دریا
7-سیاست
8-شعر گاچو
9-هنری جیمز
10- درباره ی تاریخ
11-گروه های فلوریدا، بوئدو و نشریه ی سور
12-عشق
13-حافظه
14-مدرنیسم و روبن داریو
15-داستان پلیسی
16-آلونسکی ژانو
17-سقراط
18-ایالات متحد
19-در ستایش کتابها
20-فلسفه
21-مادر بورخس
22-پیشگفتارها
23-فلوبر
24-اروگوئه
25-شاعر و ذکاوت
26-آلمافوئرت
27-آیین بودا
28-طعم و چاشنی حماسه
29-ویرجینیا وولف، ویکتوریا اُکامپو، فمینیسم
30-مجموعه شعر هم سوگندان

ترجمه اش هم به نظرم خیلی خوب بود. فقط یه مسئله ی کوچیک اینه که بحث ها یکم در سطح میمونه و خیلی عمیق نمیشه. انگار بشینی با بورخس در مورد مسائل مختلف حرف بزنی. وقتی صحبت تموم شه شاید خیلی از چیزایی که گفتین یادت بره ولی مزه ی بحث و حسی که گرفتی میمونه برات و یه وقتایی ممکنه یه چیزای کوچیک ازش یادت بیاد.

[Marzi Motlagh · Rating 5 out of 5]

انقدر نکات جالب داشت - و زیرشون خط کشیدم- که اگر بخوام به اشتراک بذارم خیلی زمان می بره. الان حوصله تایپ کردن هم ندارم. فقط بگم ۳واحد درس زندگی پاس کردم باهاش. و چقدر خوش صحبت و باهوشه این بشر. کتاب رو بی نهایت دوست داشتم و اگر عمری باقی بود و حوصله ای، برمیگردم یه سری از جملاتی که علامت زدم رو اینجا اضافه میکنم لذتشو ببرید.🍃

[Tanol Türkoğlu · Rating 5 out of 5]

İtinalı bir çeviri olmuş.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This long series of short radio interviews shows Borges in all his conversational glory. Wilde once said he put all his genius into his life, which perhaps underrated the quality of his plays. Borges certainly had enough for his stories and poems, as well as his conversation. His themes here are never entirely original but he was the first to admit his thinking was always iterative.

[Shameer Ks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was living with one of the insightful minds the world has ever seen. It is difficult to single out one or two events from the books. Two of them, however, remain etched in my mind. The one is related to my occasional flirtation--translation. He quotes an Italian saying to this effect: traduttore, traditore [Translator, traitor]. It implies that a translator betrays the original for the target. But, isn't translator, patriotic a better idea to express here. Because translators love their mother tongue so much that they fail to fall in love with a foreign tongue. We need more traitors these days.
The second event, in which I totally agree with him, is his argument that the conventional wisdom that good people are innocent and bad people are wicked is wrong. He is one should be so intelligent to be so good; whereas any foot can be so bad.

[Juanjo Conti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Más que un diálogo, como los de Osvaldo Ferrari, son una serie de preguntas divididas en bloques siendo el tema del primer bloque la Guerra de Malvinas.
En los siguientes hay algunas afirmaciones modernas. Borges dice que es feminista y que el aborto debe legislarse.

[Alejandro Ojea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listening or reading Borges' lectures or conversations is always a big pleasure. You'll always learn something new or different from any kind of topics discussed in the book

[Gints Dreimanis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borges! <3

[Maru Castelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy interesante, los 'aportes' de Ferrari no me parecieron muy utiles pero se nota que hizo los deberes y sabe mucho.

[Mauro German · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maravilloso , es como estar hablando con el mismísimo Maestro. Ahora a por el segundo volumen.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a fun read. It's an ongoing conversation in short increments. Conversations gives an insight into a world class author's opinions. It was delightful to hear two extremely intelligent people discussing literature. Borges has all this wisdom and insight for the human experience through words. After reading this book I felt like I had taken a masterclass in Argentine literature. Borges mentions many of his contemporaries and their literary accomplishments many of whom I added to my TBR list. He has a very Eurocentric outlook of everything. He enjoyed saying that Argentines are exiled Europeans and several times he claimed that Greece is the birthplace of everything.

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are conversations Borges had with Osvaldo Ferrari over the radio in 1984 or so. They were recorded and published in Borges's lifetime. Of course, they talk about a wide variety of subjects. Many of the talks are on Argentine literature and writers. Most of the writers mentioned lived in the early 20th century and were unfamiliar to me. Having read about them here, I was then able to look them up elsewhere. So I was able to expand my knowledge of Latin American literature a little bit.