Professor Borges - A Course on English Literature

poems.
    It reads like this:
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me;
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
Bajo el vasto y estrellado cielo,
Cavad la tumba y dejadme yacer ahí.
Viví con alegría y muero con alegría,
Y me he acostado a descansar con ganas.
Sea éste el verso que ustedes graben para mí:
Aquí yace donde quería yacer;
Ha vuelto el marinero, ha vuelto del mar,
Y el cazador ha vuelto de la colina.
    In English the lines vibrate like a sword, the sharp sounds predominate from the very first line, with the triple alliteration at the end of the last line. It is not written in the Scottish dialect, but one can hear the Scottish music. Then there are, in Stevenson’s work, love poems, poems dedicated to his wife. There is one in which he compares God to a craftsman and says that He has made her to suit him like a sword. Then, he has poems about friendship, poems about landscapes, poems in which he describes the Pacific Ocean, and others in which he describes Edinburgh. Those poems are more pathetic because he writes about Edinburgh, about Scotland and its Highlands, knowing that he will never return there, that he is condemned to die in the Pacific.

EPILOGUE 1

    I believe that the phrase “obligatory reading” is a contradiction in terms; reading should not be obligatory. Should we ever speak of “obligatory pleasure”? What for? Pleasure is not obligatory, pleasure is something we seek. Obligatory happiness! We seek happiness as well. For twenty years, I have been a professor of English Literature in the School of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Buenos Aires, and I have always advised my students: If a book bores you, leave it; don’t read it because it is famous, don’t read it because it is modern, don’t read a book because it is old. If a book is tedious to you, leave it, even if that book is
Paradise Lost
—which is not tedious to me—or
Don Quixote
—which also is not tedious to me. But if a book is tedious to you, don’t read it; that book was not written for you. Reading should be a form of happiness, so I would advise all possible readers of my last will and testament—which I do not plan to write—I would advise them to read a lot, and not to get intimidated by writers’ reputations, to continue to look for personal happiness, personal enjoyment. It is the only way to read.
— JORGE LUIS BORGES

AFTERWORD

    “I love teaching, especially because when I am teaching, I am learning,” Jorge Luis Borges said in many interviews. 1 A little earlier he had referred to teaching as “one of the few delights left to me.” And there is no doubt about the double pleasure it gave Borges to be in front of a class.
    Such pleasure can be felt in this book, which brings together a complete course given by the writer in the Department of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires in 1966. At that time, Borges had already been teaching for several years at this institution. He had been hired as a professor of English and North American Literature in 1956, chosen over another applicant in spite of never having received a university degree. 2 On several occasions, Borges expressed—in that tone of his infused with his sense of humor and full confidence in his own ability—his surprise at this appointment.
    In his
Autobiografía
, after mentioning his appointment as the director of the National Library in 1955 Borges explains: “The following year I received a new satisfaction, by being named professor of English and North American literature at the University of Buenos Aires. Other candidates had sent detailed accounts of their translations, articles, conferences, and other accomplishments. I limited myself to the following declaration: ‘Without realizing it, I have been preparing for this position my entire life.’ That simple statement had the desired effect. They hired me, and I spent twelve happy years at the university.” 3
    The course published in this book presents us with a Borges who had already spent ten years dedicated to teaching, not only his university classes but also various courses he gave in institutions such as the Argentine Association of English Culture. It also shows us a different facet of Borges than does a literary text or an interview, or even a lecture.