Monday, July 23, 2012

Sunday poem: Jorge Luis Borges

BARUCH SPINOZA

Like golden mist, the west lights up
The window. The diligent manuscript
Awaits, already laden with infinity.
Someone is building God in the twilight.
A man engenders God. He is a Jew
Of sad eyes and citrine skin.
Time carries him as the river carries
A leaf in the downstream water.
No matter. The enchanted one insists
And shapes God with delicate geometry.
Since his illness, since his birth,
He goes on constructing God with the word.
The mightiest love was granted him,
Love that does not expect to be loved.

                          Jorge Luis Borges
                         (translated by Yirmiyahu Yovel)