Dreamtigers: Jorge Luis Borges

Are there any authors that really challenge your brain? Your intellect? That both blow you away and also make you really confused?

That’s Jorge Luis Borges for me. He is a true genius, writing poetry, short stories, essays… Born in 1899 in Argentina, he started his career writing surrealism and later moved into writing about existentialism. His fictional works are often Magical Realism, and I find them mind blowing. His essays are engrossing, but can be a bit difficult, especially if your brain isn’t clear. Right now, I’m reading through his collection On Mysticism. I started the essay “A New Refutation of Time” during a shitty week, and without a clear mind, I don’t think I’ve understood it fully (especially with all of the allusions he makes). This one, I’ll have to reread.

One really interesting thing is that he started losing his eyesight early in life. By the age of 55, he had lost his sight. Imagine that as a writer and librarian… no sight? That had to have been torture. It could also have changed the way he saw things (not just literally), which is what developed his imagery and magical realism.

But, what I really wanted to mention is his book Dreamtigers. This poetry collection was my introduction to Borges; I don’t remember what class the poem “Dreamtigers” was assigned, but I knew I had to have the collection.

“In my childhood I was a fervent worshiper of the tiger: not the jaguar…” is the first line of the poem. He then goes on to a beautiful description of tigers. It’s in his imagery that I always get lost. Little lines like “I judged the vast encyclopedias and books of natural history by the splendor of their tigers”. He moves from childhood to adulthood, from real tigers to those of his dreams: “This a a dream, a pure diversion of my will; and now that I have unlimited power, I am going to cause a tiger.” Brilliant.

Part 1 of this collection (which this poem falls into) are all prose poems. They have the typical blockiness of paragraphs, but his writing is so light, that the form becomes weightless, adding to the imagery.

If you haven’t explored Borges, do it. Grab this book and lose yourself in his blind world.