"Borges: Manuscript Poem, Signed * Together with the First Appearance in Print" by Borges, J. L - 1953

Mateo XXV, 30. Original manuscript, signed by the author. Single sheet (10 x 7.625 inches; 255 x 194 mm.).

A FINE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT OF ONE OF THE NICEST AND COMPLEX POEMS BY BORGES. This poem is a skeptical allusion to the "Parable of the talents". In the Parable of the talents of the Gospel of Matthew 25,14-30, he tells us about a man who called his servants and gave them according to his abilities five talents, another two and another one, the first one gained five more, the second won two more and the third dug a hole in the ground and hid it. The master punished the latter by taking away the talent and gave it to the one who had ten talents.

Full translation in English follows:

Matthew XXV, 30

The first bridge at Constitucion, and at my feet

The rumble of trains threading their iron mazes.

Smoke and whistles rose up in the night

That all of a sudden was the night of Doomsday. From the hidden horizon,

From the core of my being, an infinite voice

Spoke these things (these things, not these words,

Which are my poor timebound attempt to translate

One single word:

-- Stars, bread, libraries east and west,

Playing cards, chessboards, galleries, skylights and cellars,

A human body to walk the earth,

Fingernails growing at night and after death,

Forgetful shadow, mirrors intently multiplying images,

Cadences of music, most yielding of all the forms of time,

The Brazil and Uruguay borders, horses, mornings,

A bronze weight and a copy of the Grettirsaga,

Algebra, fire, the cavalry charge at Junin in your blood,

Days more crowded than Balzac, the fragrance of honeysuckle,

Love and the eve of love and unbearable recollections,

Dreams like buried treasure, rich contingency,

And memory, not to be gazed on without vertigo,

All this was given you, and also

The ancient bread of heroes:

Betrayal, defeat, humiliation.

We have lavished the ocean on you, all in vain,

In vain the sun, that Whitman saw with marvelling eyes;

You have wasted the years and they have wasted you,

And still, you have not written the poem.

*(Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986): Mateo XXV, 30 (Matthew XXV, 30), 1953, from El otro, el mismo, 1964).

[Together with]

*La Nación. 2a Sección. Artes -- Letras / Bibliografia. Buenos Aires: 15 November 1953.

First appearance in print of above poem. Broadsheet folio of four pages, folded three times horizontally, once vertically. (RF 1133) (X99X001364). (LL 373)