Fictions by J.L.Borges

Artwork by Maria Paula Villa

FICCIONES by Jorge Luis Borges

One book, many stories taking us to different worlds. This book was able to transport the reader through not just different stories and scenarios, but also through feelings and emotions that encourage the imagination.

Image 1 - Based on: ‘El jardin de los senderos que se bifurcan’

[…] The garden of the branching paths is a huge riddle, or parable, whose theme is time; that hidden cause forbids mentioning her name. (Translation to English)

[…] El jardin de los senderos que se bifurcan es una enorme adivinanza, o parábola, cuyo tema es el tiempo; esa causa recóndita le prohíbe la mención de su nombre. (Original text in Spanish)

Image 2 - Based on: ‘Las ruinas circulares’

The outsider dreamed of being in the center of a circular amphitheater that was in some way the burned temple: clouds of students weary the stands; the faces of the latter hung from many centuries away and at a stellar height […]. (Translation to English)

El forastero se soñaba en el centro de un anfiteatro circular que era de algún modo el templo incendiado: nubes de alumnos nos fatigaban las gradas; las caras de los últimos pendían de muchos siglos de distancia y a una altura estelar […]. (Original text in Spanish)

Image 3 - Based on: ‘La biblioteca de Babel’

The universe (which others call the Library) is made up of an undefined, and perhaps infinite, number of hexagonal galleries, with vast ventilation shafts in the middle, fenced by very low railings. (Translation to English)

El universo (que otros llaman la Biblioteca) se compone de un número indefinido, y tal vez infinito, de galerías hexagonales, con vastos pozos de ventilación en el medio, cercados por barandas bajísimas. (Original text in Spanish)

Idealists argue that hexagonal rooms are a necessary form of absolute space, or at least of our intuition of space. (Translation to English)

Los idealistas arguyen que las salas hexagonales son una forma necesaria del espacio absoluto o, por lo menos, de nuestra intuición del espacio. (Original text in Spanish)