Cervantes, Menard in Borges
Roger Chartier
Collège de France, Pariz, Francija chartier@ehess.fr
Razprava obravnava Borgesovo zgodbo »Pierre Menard, avtor Kihota« z biografskega, avtobiografskega, alegoričnega, kritičnega, estetskega in bibliografskega gledišča. V vseh teh kontekstih se zgodba izkaže za bodisi eksplicitno ali pa implicitno samonanašalno, saj v vsej primerih bere sebe v razmerju do svojega avtorja, izdaje in bralstva.
Ključne besede: Borges, Jorge Luis / Don Kihot / Cervantes / branje / fikcija / pastiš
UDK 821.134.2(82).09Borges J.L.
Moja namera, da bi povedal kaj novega o zgodbi, ki je nedvomno eno najbolj komentiranih, analiziranih in interpretiranih besedil 20. stoletja, je precej brezupna.
Vseeno moram poskusiti. Tega se bom lotil s pristopom, ki ga je uporabljala sholastika, namreč z odkrivanjem sedimentiranih smislov v »Pierru Menardu, avtorju Kihota«, zgodbi, ki jo je Borges označil za »halfway house between the essay and the true tale«, »vmesni korak med esejem in pravo zgodbo« (Borges in di Giovanni, 'An Autobiographical' 171). Razlika bo v tem, da v nasprotju s sholastiki svojega branja ne bom utemeljil na štirih svetopisemskih smislih (zgodovinskem, analogičnem, moralnem in anagogičnem), temveč bom iz »Pierra Menarda« izluščil šest drugih smislov: biografskega, refleksivnega, alegoričnega, kritičnega, estetskega in bibliografskega.
1. Prvi smisel je biografski. Zgodba je bila objavljena v maja 1939 reviji Sur, nato pa leta 1941 vključena v knjigo z metaforično botaničnim naslovom à la Antonio de Torquemada: Eljardin de senderos que se bifurcan (Vrt razcepljenih stez). V spisu »An Autobiographical Essay« (»Avtobiografski esej«), ki ga je narekoval Normanu Thomasu di Giovanniju, je Borges zgodbo povezal z nezgodo z dne 24. decembra 1938, po kateri je obležal brez zavesti in sposobnosti govora:
It was on Christmas Eve of 1938 — the same year my father died — that I had a severe accident. I was running up a stairway and suddenly felt something brush my scalp. I had grazed a freshly painted open casement window. In spite of first-aid treatment, the wound became poisoned, and for a period of a week or so I lay
sleepless every night and had hallucinations and high fever. One evening, I lost the power of speech and had to be rushed to the hospital for an immediate operation. Septicemia had set in, and for a month I hovered, all unknowingly, between life and death. (Much later, I was to write about this in my story "The South.") When I began to recover, I feared for my mental integrity. [...] A bit later, I wondered whether I could ever write again. I had previously written quite a few poems and dozens of short reviews. I thought that if I tried to write a review now and failed, I'd be all through intellectually but that if I tried something I have never really done before and failed at that it wouldn't be so bad and might even prepare me for the final revelation. I decided I would try to write a story. The result was "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote." (Borges in di Giovanni, 'An Autobiographical' 170-171)
(Na božični večer leta 1938 — tega leta mi je umrl oče — sem doživel hudo nesrečo. Drvel sem dol po stopnicah in nenadoma začutil, da me je nekaj podrgnilo po glavi. Udaril sem ob pred kratkim prebarvano okensko krilo. Kljub prvi pomoči se je rana inficirala in ves teden sem s halucinacijami in visoko vročino bedel v postelji. Neke noči pa niti govoriti nisem več mogel in morali so me odpeljati v bolnico na nujno operacijo. Imel sem sepso in ves mesec sem se boril med življenjem in smrtjo. Precej pozneje sem to izkušnjo opisal v zgodbi »Jug«. Ko sem začel počasi okrevati, sem se zbal, da sem izgubil vse umske sposobnosti. [...] Cez čas sem se začel spraševati, ali bom še lahko kdaj pisal. Dotlej sem napisal že precej pesmi in desetine kratkih recenzij. Zdelo se mi je, da bo, če v tistem trenutku poskusim napisati recenzijo in pri tem pogorim, to moj umski konec, če pa poskusim napisati nekaj, česar doslej še nisem, in pri tem pogorim, ne bo tako hudo in me bo to celo utrdilo ter pripravilo na končno razkritje. Odločil sem se torej napisati zgodbo. Nastal je »Pierre Menard, avtor Kihota«.)
Fikcija o pisatelju, ki izvirno ustvarjanje zamenja za ponovno izmišlja-nje že napisanega dela, je torej nekakšno obrnjeno ogledalo usode Borgesa, ki se je lotil preskušanja svojih zmožnosti pisanja tako, da je žanre, v katerih se je že poskusil (poezijo, recenzije, članke), zamenjal za literarni žanr, v katerem ni še nikoli pisal: za nekaj, kar ni ne esej ne zgodba — ali pa je oboje hkrati.
2. Ob tem se odpira možnost drugega, avtobiografskega branja. V tem oziru je zgovoren katalog devetnajstih knjig, ki sestavljajo »[v]idno delo« (»[l]a obra visible«) (Borges, »Pierre Menard, avtor« 23; »Pierre Menard, autor« 444) Pierra Menarda — kakor sholastika Bogu pripisuje devetnajst atributov. Katalog namreč na ludističen način povzema Borgesovo bibliografsko izkušnjo iz časa, ko je bil zaposlen kot glavni pomočnik v knjižnici revnega predela Buenos Airesa, zadolžen predvsem za razvrščanje in katalogizacijo dotlej knjižnično neobdelanih knjig. Vsa dela, ki jih je napisal Pierre Menard, so besedila, ki bi jih lahko napisal tudi Borges, in so pastiši njegovih lastnih del. Tako v bibliografiji Pierra Menarda naletimo na avtorje, dela in teme, ki so Borgesa spremljali pred letom 1939 in po
njem: Ars magna generalis Ramóna Llulla, univerzalno govorico Leibniza ali Wilkinsa, problem Ahila in želve, francoska pesnika Paul-Jeana Touleta in Valéryja. Tudi zapiski Pierra Menarda so podobni Borgesovim: »Recuerdo sus cadernos cuadriculados, sus negras tachaduras, sus peculiares símbolos tipográficos y su letra de insecto.« (Borges, »Pierre Menard, autor« 450 op. 1), »Spominjam se njegovih karirastih zvezkov, črnih prečrtavanj, posebnih tipografskih znamenj in drobčkane pisave.« (Borges, »Pierre Menard, avtor« 30 op. *)
Ta refleksivna razsežnost »Pierra Menarda« pa sega onkraj pastiša. V pogovorih z Jamesom Irbyjem iz leta 1962 (pogovori so bili objavljeni leta 1964 v zborniku Cahier de lHerne, posvečenem Borgesu) Borges poudari, da so njegove zgodbe »le robni zapisi k drugim knjigam (Borges, J. Luis Borges 398). Tudi številna besedila, leta 1944 zbrana v Namišljenostih, so zato ponovno napisana obstoječa dela: Martín Fierro Joséja Hernándeza v »Koncu«, De Quincyjev Juda Iškarjot v »Treh razlagah Jude«, Kafkov »Prometej«; Kafkovo »Preobrazbo« je Borges prevedel leta 1938, tik za prevodi dveh knjig Virginie Woolf.
Toda Borges ni pisec zgodbe »Pierre Menard, avtor Kihota«. Besedilo je leta 1939 napisal Menardov prijatelj, ki je imel enake antiprotestantske, antisemitske in antiprostozidarske nazore kakor Menard. Borges namreč za bivališče Pierra Menarda ni po naključju izbral Nîmesa, mesta, ki so ga od druge polovice 16. stoletja naprej pestili konflikti med protestanti in katoliki. Prav tako ni naključje, da je besedilo izpod peresa Menardovega prijatelja opremljeno z letnico nastanka 1939, ko je bila zgodba tudi objavljena. Borges je prav dobro vedel, da je bilo politično gibanje Charlesa Maurrasa Francoska akcija, ki je s svojimi antisemitskimi in antirepublikan-skimi prepričanji srdito napadalo vlado Ljudske fronte, ki jo je od leta 1936 naprej vodil Léon Blum, v Provansi zelo uspešno.
3. Mogoče je predlagati tudi alegorično branje »Pierra Menarda«. Na to je namignil tudi sam Borges, ko je leta 1967 v pogovoru z Georgesom Charbonnierjem rekel o Pierru Menardu tole:
Il y a chez lui un excès d'intelligence, un sens de l'inutilité de la littérature ; l'idée qu'il y a déjà trop de livres, que c'est un manque de politesse ou de culture que d'encombrer les bibliothèques avec des livres nouveaux ; une sorte de résignation enfin. (Charbonnier 111)
(V njem najdemo čezmerno bistroumnost, občutek o neuporabnosti književnosti, misel, da obstaja preveč knjig in da trpanje knjižnic z novimi knjigami priča o pomanjkanju olike ali omike, navsezadnje pa v zgodbi srečamo tudi vdanost v usodo.)
Ponovno ustvarjanje Don Kihota — se pravi, že napisane knjige — lahko razumemo tudi kot alegorično podobo sveta, zasičenega s knjigami, sveta, ki se utaplja v knjigah. V tem smislu je »Pierre Menard« obrnjena podoba »Babilonske knjižnice« ali, bolje povedano: »Pierre Menard« je »pretirana potrtost« (»depresión excesiva«), ki je prišla za navidezno »neizmerno srečo« (»extravagante felicidad«), »[k]o so razglasili, da hrani Knjižnica vse knjige« (»[c]uando se proclamó que la Biblioteca abarcaba todos los libros«) (Borges, »Babilonska« 52—53; »La Biblioteca« 468).
4. Kritično branje bi izpostavilo eksperimentalno razsežnost obravnavane zgodbe, ki se podobno kakor zgodba »Zrcalo in maska« sprašuje o variacijah smisla teksta, ki je v svoji dobesednosti sicer stalen. »Pierre Menard« spada skupaj s predgovoroma Celestine in Don Kihota v tisto družino besedil, ki razglabljajo o raznovrstnih prvinah, ki ustvarjajo različne smisle istega dela: denimo starost, življenjske okoliščine, razpoloženje bralstva in poslušalstva. Borges pa kot bistveno spremenljivko vpelje časovno razdaljo. V tem smislu je najslikovitejša izjava o »zgodovini, materi resnice« (»la historia, madre de la verdad«), katere smisel je od Nietzscheja ali Williama Jamesa naprej popolnoma drugačen:
Es una revelación cotejar el Don Quijote de Menard con el de Cervantes. Este, por ejemplo, escribió (DonQuijote, primera parte, noveno capítulo):
... la verdad, cuya madre es la historia, émula del tiempo, depósito de las acciones, testigo de lo pasado, ejemplo y aviso de lo presente, advertencia de lo por venir.
Redactada en el siglo diecisiete, redactada por el »ingenio lego« Cervantes, esa enumeración es un mero elogio retórico de la historia. Menard, en cambio, escribe:
... la verdad, cuya madre es la historia, émula del tiempo, depósito de las acciones, testigo de lo pasado, ejemplo y aviso de lo presente, advertencia de lo por venir.
La historia, madre de la verdad; la idea es asombrosa. Menard, contemporáneo de William James, no define la historia como una indagación de la realidad sino como su origen. La verdad histórica, para él, no es lo que sucedió; es lo que juzgamos que sucedió. Las cláusulas finales — ejemplo y aviso de lo presente, advertencia de lo por venir — son descaradamente pragmáticas. (Borges, »Pierre Menard, autor« 449)
(Pravo odkritje doživimo, če primerjamo Menardovega in Cervantesovega Don Kihota. Cervantes je, na primer, napisal /Don Kihot, I. knjiga, 9. poglavje/:
... resnice, ki ji je mati zgodovina, ta tekmovavka časa, shramba dejanj, priča preteklosti, zgled in svet sedanjosti, nauk za prihodnost.
To naštevanje, napisano v sedemnajstem stoletju s peresom »ničvrednega genija« Cervantesa, je preprosta retorična hvalnica zgodovine. Menard pa, obratno, zapiše:
... resnice, ki ji je mati zgodovina, ta tekmovavka časa, shramba dejanj, priča preteklosti, zgled in svet sedanjosti, nauk za prihodnost.
Zgodovina, mati resnice; misel je osupljiva. Menard, sodobnik Williama Jamesa, opredeljuje zgodovino ne kot iskanje resnice, temveč kot njen izvor. Zgodovinska resničnost zanj ni tisto, kar se je zgodilo; tisto je, za kar domnevamo, da se je zgodilo. Sklepni del — zgled in svet sedanjosti, nauk za prihodnost — je nesramno pragmatičen. /Borges, »Pierre Menard, avtor« 29—30/)
Pierre Bourdieu je nekoč izjavil: »Knjiga se spreminja, čeprav se ne spreminja, saj se spreminja svet.« (Bourdieu in Chartier 236) Borgesova zgodba je povsem prežeta s to idejo. Produkcijo smisla pripiše bralcu, branju, recepciji: »El texto de Cervantes y el de Menard son verbalmente idénticos, pero el segundo es casi infinamente más rico.«; »Cervantesovo in Menardovo delo sta na besedni ravni istovetni, a slednje je skorajda neskončno bogatejše.« (Borges, »Pierre Menard, autor« 449; »Pierre Menard, avtor« 29) In tako vpeljuje temo o vnazajšnjem konstruiranju predhodnika:
Componer el Quijote a principios del siglo diecisiete era una empresa razonable, necesaria, acaso fatal; a principios del veinte, es casi imposible. No en vano han transcurrido trescientos años, cargados de complejísimos hechos. Entre ellos, para mencionar uno solo: el mismo Quijote. (»Pierre Menard, autor« 448)
(Napisati Don Kihota v začetku sedemnajstega stoletja je bil razumen, potreben, nemara usodnosten podvig; na začetku dvajsetega je skorajda nemogoč. Niso zaman pretekla tri stoletja, polna zelo zamotanih dogodb. Ce med njimi navedemo le eno: sam Don Kihot. /»Pierre Menard, avtor« 28/)
Fikcija vabi k urjenju v anahronističnem branju:
Menard (acaso sin quererlo) ha enriquecido mediante una técnica nueva el arte detenido y rudimentario de la lectura: la técnica del anacronismo deliberado y de las atribuciones erróneas. Esa técnica de aplicación infinita nos insta a recorrer la Odisea como si fuera posterior a la Eneida y el libro Le jardin du Centaure de madame Henri Bachelier como si fuera de madame Henri Bachelier. Esa técnica puebla de aventura los libros más calmosos. Atribuir a Louis Ferdinand Céline o a James Joyce la Imitación de Cristo ¿no es una suficiente renovación de esos tenues avisos espirituales? (»Pierre Menard, autor« 450)
(Menard je /nemara nehote/ z novo tehniko obogatil zakrnelo in nepopolno umetnost branja: s tehniko premišljenega anahronizma in napačnega prisojanja. Ta tehnika, katere aplikacij je brez konca, nas napeljuje, da prelistamo Odisejo, kot da je kasnejša od Eneide, in knjigo Kentavrov vrt Madame Henri Bachelier, kot da bi jo napisala Madame Henri Bachelier. Ta tehnika siplje prigode v najbolj spokojne knjige. Mar ne obnovimo dovolj njenih pretanjenih duhovnih svaril, če pripišemo Hojo za Kristusom Louisu Ferdinandu Célinu ali Jamesu Joyceu? /»Pierre Menard, avtor« 31/)
Alberto Manguel se spominja, kako zelo je Borges užival v tehniki ana-hronističnega branja:
Tovrstne subverzije so ga na moč zabavale. »Predstavljajmo si,« je govoril, »da je Don Kihota mogoče brati kot detektivski roman. En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme ... [(Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote 27) V nekem kraju v Mana, ki se njegovega imena ne maram spominjati ... (Cervantes Saavedra, Veleumni 23.) — Prev. op.] Avtor trdi, da se ne želi spomniti imena vasi. Zakaj? Kateri ključ poskuša s tem zabrisati? Kot bralci detektivskega romana bi že morali nekaj posumiti, kajne?« In prasnil je v smeh. (Manguel 84)
5.	Estetsko branje »Pierra Menarda« opredeljuje sleherno pisanje kot vselej že prepis(ov)anje. Pierre Menard se ne loti transkripcije Don Kihota, ne modernizira ga, ne istoveti se z njegovim avtorjem. Hkrati zavrača tako mehanično kopiranje dela kakor ustvarjanje sodobnega Don Kihota in jalov poskus biti Cervantes. Prizadeva si, da bi »v tujem jeziku ponovi[l] knjigo, ki že obstaja«, »en una idioma ajeno un libro preexistente« (Borges, »Pierre Menard, avtor« 30; »Pierre Menard, autor« 450). Od tod izhaja tudi skrajna in absurdna vrsta estetike literarnega ustvarjanja kot ponavljanja — estetike, za katero se zavzema Borges. V pogovoru z Georgesom Charbonnierjem Borges pove, da si ta zgodba prizadeva pokazati, »da ničesar ne iznajdemo, da delamo s spominom ali, ustrezneje rečeno, da delamo v pozabi«, »qu'on n'invente rien, qu'on travaille avec la mémoire ou, pour parler d'une façon plus précise, qu'on travaille dans l'oubli« (Charbonnier 113).
6.	Estetika pisanja kot prepis(ov)anja odpira novo vprašanje in predlaga zadnje — bibliografsko branje. Pierre Menard ponovno ustvari Don Kihota. Toda katerega Don Kihota? Don Kihota iz kastiljske izdaje s konca 19. in z začetka 20. stoletja, ki jo je Menard bral v Nîmesu? Don Kihota Garnierjeve izdaje, ki jo je Borges v Buenos Airesu bral kot otrok? Don Kihota izdaje princeps, ki jo je objavil Francisco de Robles in ki so jo tiskali v madridski tiskarni Juana de la Cueste ob koncu leta 1604 in v kateri manjka epizoda, kjer Sanču Pansi ukradejo osla in ga nato dobi nazaj? Ali pa poznejšo različico s Cervantesovimi dodatki za madridsko ponovno izdajo v letih 1605 in 1608? V teh različnih izdajah in številnih drugih pa Cervantesovo besedilo nikoli ni stalno. Včasih se spreminja celo njegov dobesedni pomen, v vseh primerih pa se spreminja njegova materialnost — namreč raba ločil, zapis besed, razdelki knjige, zapis na straneh, prisotnost ali odsotnost ilustracij. Na podlagi predpostavke, da je Don Kihotbil in bo vedno isti vse od Cervantesovega prvega zapisa naprej, Borges popolnoma odpravlja te neskončne variacije. Skok iz resničnosti v nemogoče sanje o delu, ki je vedno istovetno s seboj.
Prevedla Varja Balžalorsky
LITERATURA
Borges, Jorge Luis, in Norman Thomas di Giovanni. »An Autobiographical Essay«. Borges, The Aleph And Other Stories 1933—1969. Ur. in prev. Norman Thomas di Giovanni v sodelovanju s Jorge Luisom Borgesom. New York: Bantam Books, 1971. 135—185. Borges, Jorge Luis. »Babilonska knjižnica«. Borges, Izbrana dela: Namišljenosti. Prev. Aleš Berger. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 2001. 49—56.
---. »La Biblioteca de Babel«. Borges, Obras completas 1923—1972. Ur. Carlos V. Frías.
Buenos Aires: Emecé editores, 1974. 465—471.
---. J. Luis Borges. Ur. Dominique de Roux in Jean de Milleret. Pariz: Editions de L'Herne,
1964.
---. »Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote«. Borges, Obras completas 1923—1972. Ur. Carlos V.
Frías. Buenos Aires: Emecé editores, 1974. 444—450.
---. »Pierre Menard, avtor Kihota«. Borges, Izbrana dela: Namišljenosti. Prev. Aleš Berger.
Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 2001. 23—31. Bourdieu, Pierre, in Roger Chartier. »La lecture : une pratique culturelle«. Pratiques de la
lecture. Ur. Roger Chartier. Marseille: Rivages, 1985. 217—239. Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. Don Quijote de la Mancha. Ed. Francisco Rico. Madrid: Alfaguara, 2004.
---. Veleumni plemič don Kihot iz Manče. Prev. Niko Košir. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba,
1972.
Charbonnier, Georges. Entretiens avec Jorge Luis Borges. Pariz: Gallimard, 1967. Manguel, Alberto. With Borges. Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2004.
Cervantes, Menard and Borges
Roger Chartier
College de France, Paris, France chartier@ehess.fr
The article examines Borges's 'Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote'from the biographical, autobiographical, allegorical, critical, aesthetic and bibliographical perspective. In all these contexts, the story reveals itself as either explicitly or implicitly self-referential, reading in each instance itself in its relation to the author, the publication and the reader.
Keywords: Borges, Jorge Luis / Don Quixote / Cervantes / reading / fiction / pastiche
UDK 821.134.2(82).09Borges J.L.
My intention to say something new about the story that is undoubtedly one of the most commented upon, analysed and interpreted texts of the twentieth century, is quite hopeless.
Nonetheless I have to give it a try. I will approach the problem in a scholastic manner, trying to uncover the sedimented senses of the story 'Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote', which was characterised by Borges as 'a halfway house between the essay and the true tale' (Borges and di Giovanni, 'An Autobiographical' 171). However, unlike the scholastics, I shall not ground my reading in the four Biblical senses (the historical, the analogical, the moral and the anagogical), but shall rather excavate from 'Pierre Menard' six different senses: the biographical, the reflexive, the allegorical, the critical, the aesthetic and the bibliographical.
1. The first sense is biographical. The story was published in the journal Sur in May 1939, and in 1941 it appeared in a collection in whose title contains a botanical metaphor a la Antonio de Torquemada, El jardin de senderos que se bifurcan ('The Garden of Forking Paths'). In 'An Autobiographical Essay', dictated to Norman Thomas di Giovanni, Borges relates the story to an accident that occurred on 24 December 1938, leaving him unconscious and unable to speak:
It was on Christmas Eve of 1938 — the same year my father died — that I had a severe accident. I was running up a stairway and suddenly felt something brush my scalp. I had grazed a freshly painted open casement window. In spite of first-aid treatment, the wound became poisoned, and for a period of a week or so I lay sleepless every night and had hallucinations and high fever. One evening, I lost the
power of speech and had to be rushed to the hospital for an immediate operation. Septicemia had set in, and for a month I hovered, all unknowingly, between life and death. (Much later, I was to write about this in my story "The South.") When I began to recover, I feared for my mental integrity. [...] A bit later, I wondered whether I could ever write again. I had previously written quite a few poems and dozens of short reviews. I thought that if I tried to write a review now and failed, I'd be all through intellectually but that if I tried something I have never really done before and failed at that it wouldn't be so bad and might even prepare me for the final revelation. I decided I would try to write a story. The result was "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote." (Borges and di Giovanni, 'An Autobiographical' 170—171)
A fictional work about a writer who abandons his original creative power and reinvents an already written work is therefore a kind of inverted mirror of the fate of Borges, who tested his ability to write by abandoning the genres with which he had already been familiar (poetry, reviews, articles) in order to adopt a literary genre in which he had never written before: something that is neither an essay nor a story — or that is both.
2. This opens up the possibility of a different, autobiographical reading. In this sense, one might focus on the catalogue of nineteen books that comprise '[t]he visible oeuvre ('[l]a obra visible') (Borges, 'Pierre Menard, Author' 88; 'Pierre Menard, autor' 444) of Pierre Menard — in the same manner as scholasticism ascribes nineteen attributes to God. In a ludist fashion, the catalogue summarises Borges's bibliographical experience from the time when he worked as a principal assistant librarian in a poor district of Buenos Aires, and was primarily responsible for the cataloguing of books. All the texts written by Pierre Menard might as well be written by Borges, and are pastiches of Borges's own works. So, in Pierre Menard's bibliography one comes across authors, works and themes that obsessed Borges before and after 1939: Ars magnageneralis by Ramón Llull, the universal language of Leibniz or Wilkins, the problem of Achilles and the tortoise, the French poets Paul-Jean Toulet and Valéry. Pierre Menard's notes, too, are similar to those of Borges: 'Recuerdo sus cadernos cuadriculados, sus negras tachaduras, sus peculiares símbolos tipográficos y su letra de insecto.' (Borges, 'Pierre Menard, autor' 450n1); 'I recall his square-ruled notebooks, his black crossings-out, his peculiar typographical symbols, and his insect-like handwriting.' (Borges, 'Pierre Menard, Author' 95n3)
This reflexive dimension of 'Pierre Menard', however, goes even beyond pastiche. In an interview conducted by James Irby in 1962 (and published in the 1964 volume Cahier de l'Herne dedicated to Borges) Borges emphasises that his stories are 'but notes to other books' (Borges, J. Luis Borges 398). This is why many of the texts collected in Fictions in 1944, are rewritings of already existing works: rewritten are José Hernández's Martín
Fierro (in 'The End'), De Quincy's Judas Iscariot (in 'Three Versions of Judas') and Kafka's 'Prometheus'; Borges translated Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' in 1938, immediately after having translated two books by Virginia Woolf.
Yet Borges is not the author of the story 'Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote. The text was written in 1939 by a friend of Menard's who had the same anti-Protestant, anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic views as Menard. It is no accident that for the residence of Pierre Menard, Borges chose Nîmes, a city torn by conflicts between Protestants and Catholics since the second half of the sixteenth century. And it is no accident that the text written by Menard's friend is dated 1939, the year of the publication of the story. Moreover, Borges knew very well that Charles Maurras's political movement Action Française, which had a strong anti-Semitic and anti-Republican orietation and directed its attacks the Popular Front government with Léon Blum as its leader since 1936, was very successful in Provence.
3.	One can also suggest an allegorical reading of 'Pierre Menard'. Borges himself alluded to it in 1967, when he said to Georges Charbonnier the following about Pierre Menard:
Il y a chez lui un excès d'intelligence, un sens de l'inutilité de la littérature ; l'idée qu'il y a déjà trop de livres, que c'est un manque de politesse ou de culture que d'encombrer les bibliothèques avec des livres nouveaux ; une sorte de résignation enfin. (Charbonnier 111)
(There is in him an excess of intelligence, a sense of uselessness of literature; a thought that there are too many books, that the packing of libraries with new books betrays a lack of courtesy and refinement; and finally, a kind of resignation.)
One could also understand a reinvention of Don Quixote — that is, of a book already written — as an allegorical image of a world saturated with and drowning in books. In this sense 'Pierre Menard' is the inverted image of 'The Library of Babel'; more precisely, 'Pierre Menard' is the 'disproportionate depression' ('depresión excesiva') that has followed the apparent 'unbounded joy' ('extravagante felicidad') that arose '[w]hen it was announced that the Library contained all the books' ('[c]uando se proclamó que la Biblioteca abarcaba todos los libros') (Borges, 'The Library' 115-116; 'La Biblioteca' 468).
4.	A critical reading would emphasise the experimental dimension of the story, which, much like the story 'The Mirror and the Mask', deals with the question of possible variations of the sense of a text that remains stable at the literal level. Like the prologues to Celestina and Don Quixote, 'Pierre Menard' belongs to the family of texts that reflect on various elements that produce different senses of a given work, for example, the age, the situation and the disposition of the readers and the audiences.
Yet Borges introduces the temporal difference as a crucial variable. So, the most spectacular example is the sentence about 'history, the mother of truth' ('la historia, madre de la verdad'), whose sense has become utterly different after thinkers such as Nietzsche or William James:
Es una revelación cotejar el Don Quijote de Menard con el de Cervantes. Este, por ejemplo, escribió (DonQuijote, primera parte, noveno capítulo):
... la verdad, cuya madre es la historia, émula del tiempo, depósito de las acciones, testigo de lo pasado, ejemplo y aviso de lo presente, advertencia de lo por venir.
Redactada en el siglo diecisiete, redactada por el 'ingenio lego' Cervantes, esa enumeración es un mero elogio retórico de la historia. Menard, en cambio, escribe:
... la verdad, cuya madre es la historia, émula del tiempo, depósito de las acciones, testigo de lo pasado, ejemplo y aviso de lo presente, advertencia de lo por venir.
La historia, madre de la verdad; la idea es asombrosa. Menard, contemporáneo de William James, no define la historia como una indagación de la realidad sino como su origen. La verdad histórica, para él, no es lo que sucedió; es lo que juzgamos que sucedió. Las cláusulas finales — ejemplo y aviso de lo presente, advertencia de lo por venir — son descaradamente pragmáticas. (Borges, 'Pierre Menard, autor' 449)
(It is a revelation to compare the Don Quixote of Pierre Menard with that of Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes, for example, wrote the following [Part I, Chapter IX]:
... truth, whose mother is history, rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, exemplar and adviser to the present, and the future's counselor.
This catalog of attributes, written in the seventeenth century, and written by the 'ingenious layman' Miguel de Cervantes, is mere rhetorical praise of history. Menard, on the other hand, writes:
... truth, whose mother is history, rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, exemplar and
adviser to the present, and the future's counselor.
History, the mother of truth! — the idea is staggering. Menard, a contemporary of William James, defines history not as a delving into reality but as the very fount of reality. Historical truth, for Menard, is not 'what happened'; it is what we believe happened. The final phrases — exemplar and adviser to the present, and the future's counsellor — are brazenly pragmatic. [Borges, 'Pierre Menard, Author' 94])
Pierre Bourdieu once said, 'A book changes even though it does not change, since the world changes.' (Bourdieu and Chartier 236) This idea runs throughout Borges's story. The production of sense is up to the reader, the reading and the reception: 'El texto de Cervantes y el de Menard
son verbalmente idénticos, pero el segundo es casi infinamente más rico.'; 'The Cervantes text and the Menard text are verbally identical, but the second is almost infinitely richer.' (Borges, 'Pierre Menard, autor' 449; 'Pierre Menard, Author' 94) What is put forward is the theme of a retrospective construction of the precursor:
Componer el Quijote a principios del siglo diecisiete era una empresa razonable, necesaria, acaso fatal; a principios del veinte, es casi imposible. No en vano han transcurrido trescientos años, cargados de complejísimos hechos. Entre ellos, para mencionar uno solo: el mismo Quijote. ('Pierre Menard, autor' 448)
(Composing the Quixote in the early seventeenth century was a reasonable, necessary, perhaps even inevitable undertaking; in the early twentieth, it is virtually impossible. Not for nothing have three hundred years elapsed, freighted with the most complex events. Among those events, to mention but one, is the Quixote itself. ['Pierre Menard, Author' 93])
Fiction invites us to practice anachronistic reading:
Menard (acaso sin quererlo) ha enriquecido mediante una técnica nueva el arte detenido y rudimentario de la lectura: la técnica del anacronismo deliberado y de las atribuciones erróneas. Esa técnica de aplicación infinita nos insta a recorrer la Odisea como si fuera posterior a la Eneida y el libro Le jardin du Centaure de madame Henri Bachelier como si fuera de madame Henri Bachelier. Esa técnica puebla de aventura los libros más calmosos. Atribuir a Louis Ferdinand Céline o a James Joyce la Imitación de Cristo ¿no es una suficiente renovación de esos tenues avisos espirituales? (Tierre Menard, autor' 450)
(Menard has [perhaps unwittingly] enriched the slow and rudimentary art of reading by means of a new technique — the technique of deliberate anachronism and fallacious attribution. That technique, requiring infinite patience and concentration, encourages us to read the Odyssey as though it came after the Eneid, to read Mme. Henri Bachelier's Le jardin du Centaure as though it were written byMme. Henri Bachelier. This technique fills the calmest books with adventure. Attributing the Imitatio Christi to Louis Ferdinand Céline or James Joyce — is that not sufficient renovation of those faint spiritual admonitions? ['Pierre Menard, Author' 95])
Alberto Manguel recalls how thoroughly Borges enjoyed practicing the technique of anachronistic reading:
He amused himself with such subversions. 'Imagine,' he would say, 'reading Don Quixote as if it were a detective novel. En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme ... [(Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote 27) In a village of La Mancha, whose name I have no intention to recall ... (Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote 17) — Translator's note.] The author tells us he doesn't want to remember the name of the village. Why? What clue is he concealing? As readers of a detective novel we are meant to suspect something, no?' And he would laugh. (Manguel 84)
5.	An aesthetic reading of 'Pierre Menard' always defines any writing as rewriting. Pierre Menard does not attempt to transcribe Don Quixote, he does not modernise it, he does not identify with its author. He refuses mechanical copying of the work as well as producing a contemporary Don Quixote or vainly trying to be Cervantes. He dedicates himself 'to repeating in a foreign tongue a book that already existed', 'en una idioma ajeno un libro preexistente' (Borges, 'Pierre Menard, Author' 95; 'Pierre Menard, autor' 450). Hence his radical and absurd kind of the aesthetics of literary creation as repetition — the aesthetics demanded by Borges. Talking to Georges Charbonnier, Borges affirms that this story tries to demonstrate 'that one invents nothing, that one works with one's memory or, more precisely, that one works in oblivion', 'qu'on n'invente rien, qu'on travaille avec la mémoire ou, pour parler d'une façon plus précise, qu'on travaille dans l'oubli' (Charbonnier 113).
6.	The aesthetics of writing as rewriting opens up a new question and proposes a final, bibliographical reading. Pierre Menard reinvents Don Quixote. But which Don Quixote? The Don Quixote of the Castilian edition of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which Menard read in Nîmes? The Don Quixote of the Garnier edition, which Borges read as a child in Buenos Aires? The Don Quixote of the princeps edition, which was published by Francisco de Robles and printed in Juan de la Cuesta's print shop in Madrid towards the end of 1604 and in which the episode of the theft and the retrieval of Sancho Panza's donkey is missing? Or perhaps the later edition containing Cervantes's additions for the Madrid reeditions of 1605 and 1608? In all these and in many other editions Cervantes's text is never constant. Sometimes it is the very literal meaning that changes, however, what is always changeable is its material aspect, i.e., the use of punctuation, the spelling, the division of the book into sections, the inscriptions on the pages, the presence (or absence) of illustrations. Taking as a starting point the presupposition that Don Quixote has always been and will eternally remain what it was when Cervantes first wrote it, Borges completely abolishes such infinite variations. This is a jump from reality into an impossible dream of a work that is always identical to itself.
Translated by Jernej Habjan
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