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Jorge Luis Borges
October 31, 2004

 

Ajedrez

I.

En su grave rincón, los jugadores
rigen las lentas piezas. El tablero
los demora hasta el alba en su severo
ámbito en que se odian dos colores.

Adentro irradian mágicos rigores
las formas: torre homérica, ligero
caballo, armada reina, rey postrero,
oblicuo alfil y peones agresores.

Cuando los jugadores se hayan ido,
cuando el tiempo los haya consumido,
ciertamente no habrá cesado el rito.

En el Oriente se encendió esta guerra
cuyo anfiteatro es hoy toda la tierra.
Como el otro, este juego es infinito.

 

II.

Tenue rey, sesgo alfil, encarnizada
reina, torre directa y peón ladino
sobre lo negro y blanco del camino
buscan y libran su batalla armada.

No saben que la mano señalada
del jugador gobierna su destino,
no saben que un rigor adamantino
sujeta su albedrío y su jornada.

También el jugador es prisionero
(la sentencia es de Omar) de otro tablero
de negras noches y blancos días.

Dios mueve al jugador, y éste, la pieza.
¿Qué Dios detrás de Dios la trama empieza

Chess

I.

In their serious corner, the players
 move the gradual pieces. The board detains them until dawn in its hard

compass: the hatred of two colors.
Within, the forms emit a severe magic: Homeric rook, gay knight,
warlike queen, king solitary,
oblique bishop, & pawns at war.

Finally, when the players have gone in,
and time has eventually consumed them, surely the rites then will not be done.

In the east, this war has caught fire.
Now the whole earth is its provenance. Like that other, this game is eternal.

II.

Tenuous king, slant bishop, furious queen, direct rook and crafty pawn
over the  black & white terrain

Seek and engage their armed campaign. They do not realize the dominant hand of the player rules their destiny.
They do not know an adamantine fate governs their choices and their journey.

The player, too is captive of caprice
(the sentence is Omar's) on another
board of black nights and white days.

God moves the player,
the player, in turn,  the piece. But which god beyond God begins the round of dust and time and dreams and dying?

 

Jorge Luis Borges  (August 24, 1899 - June 14, 1986)

Argentine poet, author and essayist; professor of English at the University of Buenos Aires and director of the National Library.
 

 


 

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