Que nada se sabe

Jorge Luis Borges

La luna ignora que es tranquila y clara

Y ni siquiera sabe que es la luna;

La arena, que es la arena. No habr� una

Cosa que sepa que su forma es rara.

Las piezas de marfil son tan ajenas

Al abstracto ajedrez como la mano

Que las rige. Quiz� el destino humano

De breves dichas y de largas penas

Es instrumento de Otro. Lo ignoramos;

Darle nombre de Dios� no nos ayuda.

Vanos tambi�n son el temor, la duda

Y la trunca plegaria que iniciamos.

�Qu� arco habr� arrojado esta saeta

que soy? �Qu� cumbre puede ser la meta?

Where nada is known

Jorge Luis Borges

The moon knows not that it's calm and clear

And doesn't even know that it's the moon;

The sand, that it's the sand. Nothing in truth

Knows its form is unique and queer.

The ivory pieces are just as far

From abstract chess as is the hand

That moves them. Perhaps destiny's strands

of short felicity and long misery are

Instruments of Other.We know not;

To give it the name of God helps us not.

Also in vain are fear and doubt

And the truncated prayer we trouble about.
What the bow that shot this arrow

that I am? What summit could be the goal?

*

Translation: Frank Thomas Smith