J. L. Borges on English

In 1977, Jorge Luis Borges, one of the most influential 20th century Spanish-language writers, told William F. Buckley his reasons for feeling, age 78, that English was 'far finer' than his native tongue.

“Every writer creates his own precursors”, Borges wrote in an essay on Kafka. “His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.” Borges’ own influences range from Paul Valery to Arthur Schopenhauer, from Dante to Beowulf and the Kabballah. He translated Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, James Joyce, William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, André Gide, Franz Kafka and epic poems from Old English and Old Norse. He admired Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lewis Carroll, Joseph Conrad and the stories of Henry James and Ring Lardner.

“What Borges did was the ultimate high-low fusion,” says critic Marcela Valdes, “mixing pulp material – detective stories, sci-fi scenarios – with architectural structures and philosophical preoccupations. He loved Buenos Aires, but the world he created in his fiction was essentially a world made out of a library.”

Borges’ preoccupations and innovations are splendidly displayed in Ficciones. He was an early genre blender, for instance. The Garden of Forking Paths, framed as a 1916 deposition by Dr Yu Tsun, a Chinese spy descended from a Hunnan governor who “abandoned all to make a book and a labyrinth,” is “an enormous guessing game, or parable, in which the subject is time,” and a detective story. Its first US publication was in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

[adameywinter]

I love a man who is eager to explain well what he means to say.

[gemmeldrakes]

This is the first time I've ever heard a native speaker of a romance language praise the English Language.

[peterplful]

For anyone curious, the reason why "loom over" and "asomarse" are not exactly the same is a rather small subtlety in meaning. "Loom over" is perceived more as a state of being, a posture or position someon has over something/someone, while "asomarse" is perceived more as an action undertaken, one is passive and the other more active, plus loom has a darker/threatening undertone, at least in my uninformed opinion.

[muthusid]

I love how he gives so many specific examples to illustrate what he’s saying.

[afritimm]

Funny there is no disclosure here that the unseen interviewer is William F. Buckley, Jr (I recognize the voice).
He was fluent in Spanish from childhood due to Hispanic nannies in connection with his father's
longtime business in Mexico and Venezuela. Buckley actually taught Spanish part-time as an undergrad at Yale.

[jorged]

I am Argentinian and speak English and German, and I agree with Borges about the beautiful english language, but there is one thing that I love about spanish that kind of balances the disadvantage in a way: we have two words for "to be", or "sein" in german. We have "Ser" and "estar", and it is wonderful. They change the meaning dramatically, even they are actually talking about the being. Germans and Englishspeakers always struggle with that because they literally never had the linguistic oportunity to imagine a difference. I think that "ser" and "estar" possibility for "to be" is wonderful, it is an irreplaceable linguistic feature, very profound and absolutely necessary once you know it. I feel the lack of them a lot when speaking in german or english

[deleran]

I think what some find confusing about this, and what he is attempting to explain, is that when he says that English us "finer" than Spanish, he doesn't mean the common definition of fine: "good". He is using "fine" like "fine-toothed comb": that English allows for more precision and subtlety.

[theoderic_l]

All languages have their unique beauty. But, as a Chinese, I must say that I have a particular love for the etymology of English words. Perhaps no language in the world can boast such a diverse vocabulary sourced from Germanic, Romance, Greek, and many other language families. This, and the grammatical flexibility Borges recognized here, makes English remarkably flexible and complex. It also makes it one of the most difficult languages to master.

[wschroder]

I have been raised as a bilingual speaker (EN-SP) and just by chance I have just found this video of none other than the great Borges proving my point... thank you for this.

[tomconnolly]

As an Irishman I legit thought this man was Irish. His accent sounds like that of the auld fellas in rural Galway

[autentyk]

Greatest thing I will have heard all year. I am an English philology graduate living and working in Spain.

[theredreceivers]

I think all languages have their merits, but it is nice as a native English speaker to hear my language being spoken of in this flattering way. Usually I hear people say they prefer Spanish or Italian, etc. because of the way it sounds, or they will mention some expression or word in another language that is untranslateable in English and act like that makes its so much more soulful or unique, etc. I mean every language has words that are hard to translate succinctly, as does English I'd imagine hahah.

[redhidinghood]

I am a slavic language (bosnian) speaker and I agree. The sheer wealth of words english has enables you to be much more specific and detailed when expressing yourself. It also helps with science since natural (or social) phenomena often need to be described discreetly and with as little ambiguity as possible and english enables this through its vocabulary.

[j.c.rodsil]

Im a Portuguese native speaker and english is my fav language. Not by the reasons he used, but by its structural simplicity, words comb and universal use.

[heynicolettox]

I wasn't as surprised by Borges as I was by the interviewer's quick translation "asomar". I'm a professional translator and native speaker of Spanish and I didn't come up with that one.

[nolaughingmatter]

I wish I can hear this level of refinement and knowledge more often in society today. Things have become so dumbed down.

[Katnip]

Borges was a fascinating writer and thinker…wish there were more books of his to enjoy!

⭐️ 📚 ⭐️

[ronrice]

It is nice having French and German mixed together in the English language. The blending of germanic and romance languages makes English uniquely flexible, no doubt about that!

[nobodyknows]

Spanish is one of the most beautiful language all around the world. That's my opinion

[mvfcs]

"Beyond my anxiety, beyond this writing,
the universe waits, inexhaustible, inviting."

[-Borges
(last two lines from "Poem Written in a Copy of Beowulf")]