Jorge Luis Borges - The Last Interview

she was expecting fifty different books! As they were all the same, she must have said to herself “
Caramba
, this man’s an impostor!
Caramba
, what a poseur!” “Yes,” he said to me, “I reproached myself; just one book!” [
Laughing
.] It would seem that she knew nothing about editions, of course. And especially that she was unfamiliar with the concept of fifty first editions.
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: Do you live on a pension?
    BORGES: Yes, I have two pensions: I was the director of the National Library, and I resigned when I heard that he had come back to power. Well, we know the story don’t we? He was called …
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: Say it! Say it!
    BORGES: What they call Cangallo now. 27 That’s it, the man who’s now known as Cangallo. I left because I couldn’t in good conscience serve him, it would be ridiculous. And then I was an English literature professor and I let go of my anger, and I have two pensions. Books don’t make enough to live on in this country; a friend of mine sadly resigned himself to writing pornography, he tried to live off the dirty words he learned in third grade, to writing about the sexual act, and he was very melancholy. Then it turned out that even these universal studies weren’t enough to make him prosperous and he’s still poor. Because pornography isn’t enough, obscenity isn’t enough to maintain oneself. Apparently not. And that means that nothing will be enough.
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: No?
    BORGES: Well, it seems that nothing is enough; everything is so difficult these days.

    LÓPEZ LECUBE: Borges, you say that you don’t read the newspapers and yet you know about everything that goes on in politics because you offer opinions on everything.
    BORGES: Well, my friends keep me informed, but I have never read a newspaper in my life. I realized that something that lasts a day can’t be very important, can it? They call them dailies, which doesn’t inspire much confidence, does it?
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: Before, you didn’t get involved in politics …
    BORGES: And I still don’t, I don’t belong to any party.
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: And yet your opinions can be harsh …
    BORGES: Yes, but for ethical reasons, not political ones. When I was young I started out as a Communist, around 1918, committed to universal brotherhood, the absence of borders, friendship between all men. And then, who knows why, I became a Radical, I was a Conservative, and now I don’t belong to any party.
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: But never a Peronist.
    BORGES: Well, I like to think that I’m a gentleman, a decent person.
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: So you’re still a committed anti-Peronist. I thought from some of the statements you’ve made that you’d forgiven a little.
    BORGES: Forgotten, not forgiven. Forgetting is the only form of forgiveness, it’s the only vengeance and the only punishment too. Because if my counterpart sees that I’m still thinking about them, in some ways I become their slave, and if I forget them I don’t. I think that forgiveness and vengeance are two words for the same substance, which is oblivion. But one does not forget a wrong easily.
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: And have you forgotten?
    BORGES: Well, I think of my mother, who was in prison for a month, my sister too, apart from what happened to me. They were imprisoned for a month and a day and if I don’t think about that, I think about how they’ve debased the country as well as ransacking it.
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: Do you know that there are writers who charge for interviews? You’re someone …
    BORGES: Well, I really have no idea how much you’re going to pay me.
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: [
Laughing
.] We can talk about that later.
    BORGES: I think nothing, don’t you? Let’s set it at zero then, is zero fine with you?
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: Of course, zero. Silvia Bullrich 28 charges in dollars.
    BORGES: Well, Silvia Bullrich is a rich woman and I’m a poor man. It’s strange that rich people are usually miserly and often greedy too. Poor people aren’t, the poor are free with their generosity. Poor people are generous, rich people aren’t. My father used to say to me that when one inherits a fortune, they inherit the conditions that led to making that fortune, meaning that rich people inherit wealth and the qualities of miserliness and greed, which it maybe requires.
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: That’s wonderful, you mean that one can’t be rich without stealing from someone?
    BORGES: I think so, property is originally a theft.
    LÓPEZ LECUBE: Property is theft?
    BORGES: The