Professor Borges - A Course on English Literature

cheek of flame
The tears dried quick; she stopped at last and said:
“O knights and lords, it seems but little skill
To talk of well-known things past now and dead.
“God wot I ought to say, I have done ill,
And pray you all forgiveness heartily!
Because you must be right such great lords—still
“Listen, suppose your time were come to die,
And you were quite alone and very weak;
Yea, laid a dying while very mightily.
“The wind was ruffling up the narrow streak
Of river through your broad lands running well:
Suppose a hush should come, then some one speak:
“‘One of these cloths is heaven, and one is hell,
Now choose one cloth for ever, which they be,
I will not tell you, you must somehow tell.’”
    Or, rather:
    [Here Borges translates the sixth and seventh stanzas, and he translates various lines below.]
“
Oye, supón que ha llegado la hora de tu muerte,
y tú estuvieras muy solo y muy débil;
y estarías muriendo mientras
el viento está agitando la alameda, está agitando
la corriente del río que atraviesa bien tus amplias tierras;
imagínate que hubiera un silencio,
“Hush” is a difficult word to translate—
y que entonces alguien hablaría
.
    Excuse me, I was wrong: the angel speaks before he is seen by the dying man.
Una de las telas es el Cielo, y la otra el Infierno,
elige para siempre un color, cualquiera de los dos,
yo no te lo dire, tú de algún modo tienes que decirlo.
    [
The student continues reading
.]
“‘Of your own strength and mightiness; here, see!’
Yea, yea, my lord, and you to ope your eyes,
At foot of your familiar bed to see
“A great God’s angel standing, with such dyes,
Not known on earth, on his great wings, and hands,
Held out two ways, light from the inner skies
“Showing him well, and making his commands
Seem to be God’s commands, moreover, too,
Holding within his hands the cloths on wands;
“And one of these strange choosing cloths was blue,
Wavy and long, and one cut short and red;
No man could tell the better of the two.
“After a shivering half-hour you said,
‘God help! heaven’s colour, the blue’; and he said, ‘hell.’
Perhaps you then would roll upon your bed,
“And cry to all good men that loved you well,
‘Ah Christ! if only I had known, known, known’;
Launcelot went away, then I could tell,
“Like wisest man how all things would be, moan,
And roll and hurt myself, and long to die,
And yet fear much to die for what was sown.”
    In other words:
“
Tú tienes que decirlo sabiéndolo por tu propia fuerza
y por tu propio poderío,
Sí, sí, mi señor
—Morris uses archaic words—
que tú
abrieras los ojos
y al pie de tu cama familiar verías
un gran angel de Dios de pie, y con tales matices
desconocidos en la Tierra en sus grandes alas y manos
”
    The angel is very real and very strong.
“
Y los brazos extendidos, y la luz desde los cielos ulteriores mostrándolo bien.
”
    The angel is not nebulous, but rather extremely vivid.
“
Y eso hacía que sus órdenes parecieran de Dios
Y teniendo en sus manos la telas sobre varas
Y una de esas extrañas telas para elegir era azul,
ondeada y larga y la otra breve y roja
”
    He gives the more vivid color to the cloth that is shorter, for balance.
“
Nadie podia decir cuál era la major de las dos.
”
    Then, after half an hour, more than shaking—shivering—he says:
“
Dios me salve, el color del cielo es el azul.
”
Y el angel dice: ‘Infierno.’
Entonces tú te revolverías sobre tu lecho,
Y dirías, invitarías a todos los hombres buenos que te quieren:
“Ah, Christ! If only I had known, known, known.”
    Here, the final syllables are slightly stressed, as they are in Rossetti.
    In the next class, we will look at Morris’s most important books,
The Earthly Paradise
, among others.

CLASS 23

    "THE TUNE OF THE SEVEN TOWERS," "THE SAILING OF THE SWORD," AND THE EARTHLY PARADISE, BY WILLIAM MORRIS. THE ICELANDIC SAGAS. THE STORY OF GUNNAR.

    FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1966
    Let us continue today with our discussion of the work of William Morris. Now, before considering his two greatest works, we could read some of the poems in his first book,
The Defence of Guenevere
.
    Would any of you like to continue as we did in the last class, and rather than read a fragment, read a short poem from the book?
    We can look at a poem called “The Tune of Seven Towers.” 1 It is a transparent poem, essentially musical, though it does have a plot. There is a women we can assume to be very beautiful called