The Aleph and Other Stories
(Penguin Classics) by Jorge Luis
Borges
The Path You Are To Take Is Endless
Full of philosophical puzzles and supernatural surprises, these stories
contain some of Borges’s most fully realized human characters. With
uncanny insight he takes us inside the minds of an unrepentant Nazi, an
imprisoned Mayan priest, fanatical Christian theologians, a woman
plotting vengeance on her father’s killer, and a man awaiting his assassin
in a Buenos Aires guest house. This volume also contains the hauntingly
brief vignettes about literary imagination and personal identity collected in
The Maker, which Borges wrote as failing eyesight and public fame
began to undermine his sense of self.
Personal Review: The Aleph and Other Stories (Penguin
Classics) by Jorge Luis Borges
I was surprised to find when I picked up this book that it is not the same
selection of stories as the earlier published THE ALEPH AND OTHER

STORIES 1933-1969, translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in
collaboration with Borges himself. Instead, it is a translation of two volumes
published by Borges in Argentina, THE ALEPH and THE MAKER (EL
HACEDOR), translated by Andrew Hurley.
As for the stories themselves, I can say only that they are some of the
most magical tales written in the last hundred years, perhaps even ever.
Stories like "The Immortal," "Story of the Warrior and the Captive Maiden,"
"The Zahir," and "The Aleph" are worthy of being read over and over again.
Since I already have these stories in other form by other translators, I
wanted to determine how good Hurley's translation is. To that end, I'll
compare some of my favorite passages. Let's start with the title story in the
Hurley translation:
"Under the step, toward the right, I saw a small iridescent sphere of almost
unbelievable brightness. At first I thought it was spinning; then I realized
that the movement was an illusion produced by the dizzying spectacles
inside it. The Aleph was probably two or three centimeters in diameter, but
universal space was contained inside it, with no diminution in size. Each
thing (the glass surface of a mirror, let us say) was inifinite things, because
I could clearly see it from every point in the cosmos."
Here di Giovanni with the same paragraph:
"On the back part of the step, toward the right, I saw a small iridescent
sphere of almost unbelievable brilliance. At first I thought it was revolving;
then I realized that this movement was an illusion created by the dizzying
world it bounded. The Aleph's diameter was probably little more than an
inch, but all space was there, actual and undiminished. Each thing (a
mirror's face, let us say) was infinite things, since I saw it distinctly from
every angle of the universe."
I'd say that Hurley did a workmanlike job, but I like di Giovanni, especially
with "the dizzying world it bounded," much more idiomatic than "the
dizzying spectacles inside it." Now here's Hurley with "A Biography of
Tadeo Isidoro Cruz":
"As Cruz was fighting in the darkness (as his body was fighting in the
darkness), he began to understand. He realized that one destiny is no
better than the next and that every man must accept the destiny he bears
inside himself."
From di Giovanni's "The Life of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz":
"Cruz, while he fought in the dark (while his body fought in the dark),
began to understand. He understood that one destiny is no better than
another, but that every man must obey what is within him."

Again, I accept the Hurley, but prefer di Giovanni."Every man must obey"
is simpler, more idiomatic than "every man must accept the destiny."
One complaint I have against both translations is that neither bothers to
provide translations of quotations from the Latin. This is particularly
disturbing in the case of "Story of the Warrior and the Captive Maiden," in
which two four-line excerpts are taken from a Latin tomb of a Lombard
warrior that turn out to be quite interesting. I finally had to turn to Thomas
Hodgkin's THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE to
find the whole epitaph Englished.
In summary, it is better to read Hurley than not to read Borges at all; but,
given the chance, I would prefer di Giovanni by a slight margin.
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