20 years since the death of Borges
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Wednesday June 14, 2006 01:33
by iosaf
It might not seem it, but 20 years have passed since the death of Jorge Lluis Borges in Geneva on the 14th of June 1986.
He shared the Nobel Prize for literature with Samuel Beckett.
He learnt Japanese at 90 and was thought by everyone to be very brainy.
His father was an anarchist. He had a wonky eye. Everyone loved him & humoured him.
The cruelest thing you could say about him was "sure he didn't get out enough & spent too much time on the mammy & the demonologies"
With respect I'd like to publish a translation of one of his wonderful little pieces the title of which is :-
The Banshee
"Nobody seems to have laid eyes on her, this woman of fairies. She is less a form than a shriek of horror that haunts the Irish nights (and according to Sir Walter Scott’s Demonology & Witchcraft of the mountainous regions of Scotland. By 'neath the windows of the visited house, she forebodes the death of any member of the family. It is a privelage of celtic blood without any saxon, latin or nordic mix. The Banshee is also to be heard in Wales and Brittany. Her shrieking is called keening."
Jorge Lluis Borges (August 24, 1899 – June 14, 1986)
commemorative acts are to be held in both Buenos Aires his birth place in Argentina
& his death place in Switzerland the city of Geneva.
(you wouldn't want to judge Borges on that little translation of mine.... start with Aleph go to Z, begin your new generation's history. He really was a great writer. No-one has a bad word to say about him, not even the ex-girlfriends who managed to pop up once the mammy died, (and they never seemed as gilt edged as Yoko Ono).
argentine coverage :-
http://www.noticiasurbanas.com.ar/tapa.shtml?sh_itm=a76...fb74b
everyone from Senators to school kids will be encouraged to walk around the same town (or whats left of it) that the great writer lived in.
If you'd like to take part phone this Argentine number for more info 4323-9413
swiss coverage :-
http://www2.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.wml?siteSect=10...89000
algerian coverage :-
http://www.lanouvellerepublique.com/actualite/lire.php?...esh=1
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the series "death of so&so"
http://indymedia.ie/openwire?story_title=the%20death%20of
the series "so&so is dead"
http://indymedia.ie/openwire?story_title=%20is%20dead
we don't really have a birth section yet