Borges - Jorge Luis Borges

Argentine poet and writer. Born into a wealthy family in Buenos Aires, he was familiar with British literature from an early age under his father's guidance. In 1914, he moved to Europe with his family to study, and was exposed to the avant-garde art movement of the time. After returning to the United States in 1921, he was recognized as a poet with his collections of poems about Buenos Aires, "The Frenzy of Buenos Aires" (1923) and "The Notebook of San Martín" (1929). He then devoted himself to prose, which beautifully combined his vast knowledge with his bold imagination, and his works include the fantastical collections of short stories "The Legends" (1944) and "El Aleph (The Immortal)" (1949), as well as the extensively cited and corroborated collections of essays, "Dispute" (1932), "The Eternal History" (1936), and "The Inquisition Continues" (1952). As the author states, "World history is the history of metaphors," he brings the ideas of infinity and repetition into the finite, building his own literary universe. He subsequently published works such as the poetry collections The Creator (1960), Others and Oneself (1967), Praise of the Underworld (1969), and Tigers in Gold (1972), as well as the short story collections Brodie's Report (1970), The Book of Sand (1975), Borges Lectures (1979), and the collection of essays Seven Nights (1980).

[Eiichi Kimura]

"The Villains, translated by Nakamura Kenji (1976, Shobunsha)" ▽ "The Inquisition, translated by Nakamura Kenji (1982, Shobunsha)" ▽ "The Dictionary of Imaginary Creatures, translated by Yanase Naoki (1974, Shobunsha)" ▽ "Reading Borges, by Shibusawa Tatsuhiko et al. (1980, Kokusho Kankokai)" ▽ "Latin American Literature 1: Strange Tales, translated by Shinoda Kazushi (1983, Shueisha)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

アルゼンチンの詩人、作家。ブエノスアイレスの裕福な家庭に生まれ、幼いころから父親の薫陶を受けてイギリスの文学書に親しむ。1914年、家族とともにヨーロッパに移住して勉学に励む一方、当時の前衛的芸術運動の洗礼を受ける。21年に帰国のあと、ブエノスアイレスの風物詩集『ブエノスアイレスの熱狂』（1923）、『サン・マルティンの手帖(てちょう)』（1929）などにより詩人として認められる。その後、散文に精力を注いだが、該博な知識と大胆な想像力とがみごとに融合し、作品には幻想的短編集『伝奇集』（1944）、『エル・アレフ（不死の人）』（1949）、また博引旁証(ぼうしょう)の評論集『論議』（1932）、『永遠の歴史』（1936）、『続審問』（1952）などがある。「世界史とはいくつかの隠喩(いんゆ)の歴史である」という作者のことばからもうかがえるように、有限のなかに無限と反復の観念を持ち込み、独自の文学的宇宙を築き上げる。その後も詩文集『創造者』（1960）、詩集『他者と自身』（1967）、『幽冥礼讃(ゆうめいらいさん)』（1969）、『群虎黄金』（1972）、短編集『ブロディーの報告書』（1970）、『砂の本』（1975）、あるいは『ボルヘス講演集』（1979）、評論集『七夜』（1980）などの著作を発表している。

［木村榮一］

『中村健二訳『悪党列伝』（1976・晶文社）』▽『中村健二訳『異端審問』（1982・晶文社）』▽『柳瀬尚紀訳『幻獣辞典』（1974・晶文社）』▽『渋澤龍彦他著『ボルヘスを読む』（1980・国書刊行会）』▽『篠田一士訳『ラテンアメリカの文学1　伝奇集』（1983・集英社）』

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