Dreamtigers (1960)

Borges gives us short sections of brief prose meditations/stories and poems. In both sections, he gives us some obvious hints as to what he's up to, but more is hidden. I read several pieces four and five times and had different reactions to some of them each time. Not a book to sit down and read through, but very rewarding if you put in some effort at recognizing his allusions and contemplating his suggestions and meanings. ( )

Borges is always said to be immersed in literature, to be a product of literature itself, and he certainly imagines himself that way. But is "literature" the right word for what crowds his imagination? The literature that appears is often in the form of the fantasized lives of prominent authors (Shakespeare's retirement, Cervantes's double). Most of the allusions are to myths, legends, and stories, from the Greeks onward, with a smattering of non-Western sources. These are airy figures, signs of eternity, archetypes, emblems of infinite time and space. They are more like the allusions in Cavafy or than the allusions in, say, Milosz. Borges wasn't swimming in an ocean of literature, but drowning in an ocean of philosophy and myth.

It helps to re-imagine Borges without the supposed erudition. If you subtract away the proper names, what remains? Dreams and secret signs of deep time, deep fame, deep cultural oblivion. It is vastly romantic, at times very close to bombast. The strongest pieces in this book are brief stories without any ponderous cultural weight (a spectacular page called "The Captive") and honest reflections on the disproportion between his enormous desire for fame and his withered private self ("Borges and I").

I don't think I'll be returning to Borges anytime soon. The Pessoa of "Do Livro do Desassossego" is far more honest and careful, less easily seduced by fame, and less likely to find solace in celestial fantasies and the supposedly rich loam of deep culture. ( )

[close] This is more than the sum of its parts. It is in fact a meditation on death and how to live in the face of it.It catches you unawares, makes you feel alive. The translations are excellent, although the poetry section is a lttle weaker than the prose as poetry dates much more quickly and I feel now it needs a more contemporary translation. This is the only reason it doesn't get the full five stars from me. ( )

I read a book while sitting in 24C in a big metal flying tube. A book written by Borges or dreamed by Borges or maybe it was just my dream, a dream about Homer or Shakespeare. It may also have just been symbols that I glanced at that only I could decipher in my own simple way. Could be the symbols were just forgotten memories or the stripes of tigers or falling rain. I dreamed this book. And I dreamed that I saw the face of Borges.

'A man sets himself the task of portraying the world. Through the years he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms instruments, stars, horses, and people. Shortly before his death, he discovers that that patient labyrinth of lives traces the image of his face.'

I touched a face sitting in 24C in a big metal flying tube... ( )

"Of all the books I have delivered to the presses, none, I think, is as personal as the straggling collection mustered for this hodgepodge, precisely because it abounds in reflections and interpretations." -- Borges, Epilogue of Dreamtigers

I Love love love Borges. This is a nice, short collection in two parts (first part short prose fiction, second part poetry). I highly recommend you check out http://thefloatinglibrary.com/borges/ where you can read the whole book (for free) online! ( )