Translated by Kevin KleinFor an instant, eternity was precisely that: an instant. The universe, something small and intimate, something that with strange fragility drifted away from the word infinite. An improvised sky furrowed by artificial stars; galactic lanterns, boats floating in the abyss, lights splashing the darkness, revealing it. I sensed that you were there, gravitating in the night among the gleam in the amber glow of the lamps. I supposed that Borges would imagine this instant was every single instant, that each light was all the lights. I understood that I knew less of the meanderings of time than the distant features of your face or the unfathomable mechanisms of memory. For an instant, I forgot the contours of my own countenance. For just a moment I thought I remembered the exact time of my creation: the precise instant when my deep darkness turned to light: a tiny radiance, almost imperceptible, that tore forever the ethereal veil of the night. Now I know that You are the living origin of radiance. I am still a fragile flicker, not yet finished with birth.
All the Lights
Translated by Kevin KleinFor an instant, eternity was precisely that: an instant. The universe, something small and intimate, something that with strange fragility drifted away from the word infinite. An improvised sky furrowed by artificial stars; galactic lanterns, boats floating in the abyss, lights splashing the darkness, revealing it. I sensed that you were there, gravitating in the night among the gleam in the amber glow of the lamps. I supposed that Borges would imagine this instant was every single instant, that each light was all the lights. I understood that I knew less of the meanderings of time than the distant features of your face or the unfathomable mechanisms of memory. For an instant, I forgot the contours of my own countenance. For just a moment I thought I remembered the exact time of my creation: the precise instant when my deep darkness turned to light: a tiny radiance, almost imperceptible, that tore forever the ethereal veil of the night. Now I know that You are the living origin of radiance. I am still a fragile flicker, not yet finished with birth.