Monday, February 23, 2015

The Suicide - Jorge Luis Borges

The Suicide

Not a star will remain in the night.
The night itself will not remain.
I will die and with me the sum
Of the intolerable universe.
I’ll erase the pyramids, the coins,
The continents and all the faces.
I’ll erase the accumulated past.
I’ll make dust of history, dust of dust.
Now I gaze at the last sunset.
I am listening to the last bird.
I bequeath nothingness to no-one.

English Translation by A.S. Kline. Source : http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Spanish/Borges.htm

My Tamil translation of the poem is published in this week's  Padhaakai e magazine. Since readership of my blog is pitiable and I needed some critical editorial inputs, I am sending my translations to Padhaakai.com. You can read them (5 poems and 1 short story so far) here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How are you translating Borges when you don't know Spanish?

Meanwhile, Borges' translator, the man who knows Spanish and actually has some integrity about his work, does not get even the courtesy of mentioning his name.

Chenthil said...

Anon, I have given the source of the English translation below the poem. Agree that I missed putting up A S Kline's name though.

How do you know that I don't know Spanish?

Chenthil said...

Anon, I saw that I missed sending the English source link to Padhaakai.com. Have rectified it there.