The zahir by jorge luis borges my friend borges once described a zahir, which in buenos aires in 1939 was a coin, a tencentavo piece, with the letters n and t and the numeral 2 scratched crudely in the obverse. One of the most frequently cited lines from the work of jorge luis borges comes from the conclusion of the 1951 essay the fearful sphere of pascal. Cuento completo del escritor argentino jorge luis borges. Contents a universal history of iniquity 1935 preface to the first edition preface to the 1954 edition the cruel redeemer lazarus morell the improbable impostor tom castro. What is the zahir this object that can take many forms and that consumes the people who find it.
In buenos aires the zahir is a common twentycentavo coin into which a razor or penknife has scratched the letters n t and the number two. Jorge luis borges translated by andrew hurley allen lane the penguin press published by the penguin group. Coelho paulo paulo coelho the zahir a novel of obsession translated from the portuguese by margaret jull costa o mary, conceived wi. The situation of jorge luis borges is, however, quite different. It may be that universal history is the history of the different intonations given a handful of. Only jorge luis borges, the acclaimed master of metaphysical brevity, can. O god, i could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space. June 1993 john ashbery, jorge borges, sidney burris, yiorgos chouliaras, philip cohen, dante, paul jones, pierre martory, william matthews, philip miller, david ricks.
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