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In 1955 Jorge Luis Borges became director of Argentina's National Library just as a hereditary eye disease was leaving him almost completely blind. He wrote about the irony of being given books and darkness at the same time in 'Poem of the Gifts', and ran the library until 1973, dictating his poems, essays and stories.

Jorge Luis Borges

Literature

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Borges's sight had been failing for years, and the same inherited disease had blinded his father. He said blindness was not the black night people imagine: he lived in a luminous haze in which he could still make out some colours, above all yellow. He was appointed to the library after the fall of Juan Perón's government, which in 1946 had pushed him out of a modest job at a Buenos Aires municipal library. In 'Poema de los dones' ('Poem of the Gifts') he wrote of the irony of being granted the books and the night together. Unable to read or write by hand, he dictated his work, first to his mother, Leonor Acevedo, and later to friends and secretaries.

Türkçe oku
Jorge Luis Borges 1955'te Arjantin Ulusal Kütüphanesi'nin müdürü olduğunda, kalıtsal bir göz hastalığı yüzünden neredeyse tamamen kör olmak üzereydi. Kitaplarla karanlığın ona aynı anda verilmesindeki ironiyi “Armağanlar Şiiri”nde anlattı. Kütüphaneyi 1973'e kadar yönetti; şiirlerini, denemelerini ve öykülerini başkalarına yazdırarak üretmeyi sürdürdü.

Borges'in gözleri yıllardır zayıflıyordu; aynı kalıtsal hastalık babasını da kör etmişti. Körlüğün insanların sandığı gibi kapkara bir gece olmadığını söylerdi: ışıklı bir sisin içinde yaşıyor, bazı renkleri, en çok da sarıyı hâlâ seçebiliyordu. Kütüphaneye, Juan Perón hükümeti devrildikten sonra atandı; aynı hükümet 1946'da onu Buenos Aires'teki bir belediye kütüphanesindeki mütevazı işinden uzaklaştırmıştı. “Poema de los dones” (Armağanlar Şiiri) adlı şiirinde, kitaplarla gecenin ona aynı anda bağışlanmasındaki ironiyi anlattı. Artık okuyup yazamadığı için eserlerini önce annesi Leonor Acevedo'ya, sonra dostlarına ve sekreterlerine yazdırdı.

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Background reading: Jorge Luis Borges
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