"I'm Gerardo, Jorge," Diego said to Borges. And the Argentine replied: "What Gerardo?" And the poet from Santander specified: "Diego." To which the blind writer asked again with no little delay, as if not remember him, as not wanting to remember:
"Who are you, Gerardo or Diego?"
This Monday, the author of
El libro de arena
could well have said referring to the former Prime Minister: "Who are you, Rodríguez or Zapatero? ».
Who knows what Jorge Luis Borges was thinking and not saying, with
that lopsided smile, the gone look and the newly ironed suit.
"Teacher, I have written a book in homage to you, I have titled it
I am not going to betray Borges
, what do you think?" "How can he betray me if we don't know each other?" The ageless man could have said as well.
Who did speak was José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, president of the Government between 2004 and 2011, to defend his book. It is actually a
99-page
booklet
with numerous excerpts
from the Buenos Aires writer. Zapatero confessed himself
"an intruder"
for the publication of
I am not going to betray Borges
(Huso publishing house), but he was overcome by passion: "Literature almost ends in him."
By way of introduction, Rodríguez Zapatero read the first sentences of
El Aleph
, the story that the politician prefers above all.
After that, he looked at the audience that surrounded him, smiling and somewhat enraptured, including his wife,
Sonsoles Espinosa
;
Miquel Iceta
, Minister of Culture and Sports ("Tell me, Iceta, are you Minister of Culture or Sports?"), And former Minister
Pepiño Blanco
, among others.
«Borges explains life, the logic of plenitude,
the serenity to assume old age.
Only love can impose itself on the Universe.
But Borges wrote little about love », the former president was saying, in conversation with Luis García Montero, director of the Cervantes Institute.
When political sympathies were addressed, it was not known what to say, because if it is true that
Borges's sympathies for Pinochet
were recognized
,
emphasis was placed on his anti-Peronism, on his youthful sympathy for the Russian Revolution and for the allies in World War II .
"He was not passionate about contemporary politics," said Zapatero.
Who, perhaps to get out of the quagmire, remembered, always smiling, what Borges said about
Peronism: "They are neither good nor bad, they are incorrigible"
, to the laughter of the respectable.
Although Zapatero compared him with Bach, in the chapter dedicated to the two the connection is not clear.
Yes, on the other hand, they spoke of what time meant for the writer (Zapatero) and of irony and skepticism (García Montero).
The politician fervently read his most admired poem,
The causes
, the host defended another,
The rain
, and there was also talk, and not only, of Borges' fascination with tigers and the color yellow, motifs of the drawing on the cover of
I am not going to betray Borges
(which costs nine euros).
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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