I happened to read Borges's story "Mutations" last night. This passage really struck me as being relevant to the historical investigations I'm conducting right now.
"Cross, rope and arrow, traditional tools of mankind, abased or exalted now to the status of symbols; I don't know why they surprise me so, when there is not a single thing in this world that forgetting doesn't erase or memory doesn't alter and when no one knows into what images the future will translate him."
"Cruz, lazo y flecha, viejos utensilios del hombre, hoy rebajados o elevados a símbolos; no sé por qué me maravillan, cuando no hay en la tierra una sola cosa que el olvido no borre o que la memoria no altere y cuando nadie sabe en qué imágenes lo traducirá el porvenir."
[Photo: One of Uruguay's former presidents as seen in the Office of the President, Plaza Independencia.]
Comments