{"id":15278,"date":"2014-06-12T01:03:13","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T00:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=15278"},"modified":"2022-07-08T12:00:24","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T11:00:24","slug":"borges-and-the-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2014\/06\/12\/borges-and-the-cats\/","title":{"rendered":"Borges and the cats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"borges1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

To a cat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mirrors are not more wrapt in silences
\nnor the arriving dawn more secretive;
\nyou, in the moonlight, are that panther figure
\nwhich we can only spy at from a distance.
\nBy the mysterious functioning of some
\ndivine decree, we seek you out in vain;
\nremoter than the Ganges or the sunset,
\nyours is the solitude, yours is the secret.
\nYour back allows the tentative caress
\nmy hand extends. And you have condescended
\nsince that forever, now oblivion,
\nto take love from a flattering human hand.
\nYou live in other time, lord of your realm \u2014
\na world as closed and separate as dream.<\/p>\n

Jorge Luis Borges (translated by Alastair Reid, 1977)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are many tigers in the writings of Borges\u2014the poem above is from a collection entitled The Gold of the Tigers<\/em>\u2014so it’s no surprise that the author would pay his respects to their domestic relatives. Regarding translations (and this is something I’ve noted before), those by Anthony Kerrigan, Alastair Reid, Norman Thomas di Giovanni and others were made with the author’s approval, and sometimes with his collaboration. The more recent translations by the Borges estate are poor in comparison.<\/p>\n

Many more photos of cats with their writers may be seen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"borges4.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Grove Press, 1994.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"borges2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"borges5.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Debolsillo, 2011.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"borges6.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Invasion, a film by Hugo Santiago<\/a>
\n\u2022 Spiderweb, a film by Paul Miller<\/a>
\n\u2022 The Library of Babel by \u00c9rik Desmazi\u00e8res<\/a>
\n\u2022 Books Borges never wrote<\/a>
\n\u2022 Borges and I<\/a>
\n\u2022 Borges documentary<\/a>
\n\u2022 Borges in Performance<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To a cat Mirrors are not more wrapt in silences nor the arriving dawn more secretive; you, in the moonlight, are that panther figure which we can only spy at from a distance. By the mysterious functioning of some divine decree, we seek you out in vain; remoter than the Ganges or the sunset, yours … Continue reading “Borges and the cats”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[42,27,12],"tags":[6095,6096,1483,1004],"class_list":["post-15278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-borges","category-photography","tag-alastair-reid","tag-anthony-kerrigan","tag-jorge-luis-borges","tag-norman-thomas-di-giovanni"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-3Yq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}