Los Espejos

[from Jorge Luis Borges's El Hacedor, 1960]

Los espejos
                                      The Mirrors

Yo que sentí el horror de los espejos
                                      I who felt the horror of mirrors
No sólo ante el cristal impenetrable
                                      not only face to the glass, impenetrable
Donde acaba y empieza, inhabitable,
                                      where starts & ends, uninhabitable,
un imposible espacio de reflejos
                                      an impossible reflecting space,

Sino ante el agua especular que imita
                                      but faced with the specular water that imitates
El otro azul en su profundo cielo
                                      the blue other in its profound sky
Que a veces raya el ilusorio vuelo
                                      that at times traces the illusory flight
Del ave inversa o que un temblor agita
                                      of an upside-down bird or that a tremor shakes

Y ante la superficie silenciosa
                                      & faced with the silent pose
Del ébano sutil cuya tersura
                                      of ebony whose own smoothness
Repite como un sueño la blancura
                                      repeats like a dream the whiteness
De un vago mármol o una vaga rosa.
                                      of vague marble or a vague rose.

Hoy, al cabo de tantos y perplejos
                                      Today, at the end of so many puzzled
Años de errar bajo la varia luna,
                                      years astray beneath the fitful moon,
Me pregunto qué azar de la fortuna
                                      I ask myself what hazard of fortune
Hizo que yo timiera los espejos.
                                      would make me fear mirrors.

Espejos de metal, enmascarado
                                      Metal mirrors, masked
Espejo de caoba que en la bruma
                                      mahogany mirror erasing
De su rojo crepúsculo disfuma
                                      in the haze of its red evening
Ese rostro que mira y es mirado,
                                      that face that watches & is watched,

Infinitos los veo, elementales
                                      I see them infinite, elemental
Ejecutores de un antiguo pacto,
                                      executors of an ancient pact,
Multiplicar el mundo como el acto
                                      to multiply the world like the act
Generativo, insomnes y fatales.
                                      of generation, sleepless & fatal.

Prolongan este vano mundo incierto
                                      They prolong this vain uncertain world
En su vertiginosa telaraña;
                                      in their vertiginous web;
A veces en la tarde los empaña
                                      at times in the afternoon the breath
El hálito de un hombre que no ha muerto.
                                      of a man who hasn’t died erases them.

Nos acecha el cristal. Si entre las cuatro
                                      The glass watches us. If a mirror hangs
Paredes de la alcoba hay un espejo,
                                      on one of my four bedroom walls,
Yo no estoy solo. Hay otro. Hay el reflejo
                                      I’m not alone. There’s an other. There’s the reflection
Que arma en el alba un sigiloso teatro.
                                      composing at dawn a secret drama.

Todo acontece y nada se recuerda
                                      Everything happens & nothing is remembered
En esos gabinetes cristalinos
                                      in those glass cabinets
Donde, como fantásticos rabinos,
                                      where, like fantastic rabbis,
Leemos los libros de derecha a izquierda.
                                      we read books from right to left.

Claudio, rey de una tarde, rey soñado,
                                      Claudio, king for an afternoon, dreamer king,
No sintió que era un sueño hasta aquel día
                                      didn’t feel he was a dream until that day
En que un actor mimó su felonía
                                      an actor mimed his felony
Con arte silencioso, en un tablado.
                                      with silent art, a tableau.

Que haya sueños es raro, que haya espejos,
                                      That dreams happen is rare, that mirrors are,
Que el usual y gastado repertorio
                                      that the usual & used-up repertoire
De cada día incluya el ilusorio
                                      of every day includes the profound
Orbe profundo que urden los reflejos.
                                      illusory orb that casts reflections.

Dios (he dado en pensar) pone un empeño
                                      God (I have come to think) labors
En toda esa inasible arquitectura
                                      at all that inaccessible arquitecture
Que edifica la luz con la tersura
                                      that edifies light with the softness
Del cristal y la sombra con el sueño.
                                      of glass & the shadow with dreaming.

Dios ha creado las noches que se arman
                                      God has created nights that compose
De sueños y las formas del espejo
                                      dreams & the forms in the mirror
Para que el hombre sienta que es reflejo
                                      so that man might feel he's reflection
Y vanidad. Por eso nos alarman.
                                      & vanity. That’s what alarms us.