'Boast of Quietness' - Jorge Luis Borges

Kiran Desai begins her Booker winning novel, ‘Inheritance of Loss’ by quoting the following poem by Jorge Luis Borges. He is an Argentine writer and poet. He became blind at the age of fifty due to a hereditary condition. He began his writing career with publication of poems and journal essays. His first collection of poetry was published in 1923. Know more about his life: Jorge Luis Borges

BOAST OF QUIETNESS
Writings of light assault the darkness, more prodigous than meteors.
The tall unknowable city takes over the countryside.
Sure of my life and death, I observe the ambitious
and would like to understand them.
Their day is greedy as a lariat in the air.
Their night is a rest from the rage within steel, quick to attack.
They speak of humanity.
My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty.
They speak of homeland.
My homeland is the rythym of a guitar, a few portraits, an old sword,
the willow grove's visible prayer as evening falls.
Time is living me.
More silent than my shadow, I pass through the loftily covetous multitude.
They are indispensible, singular, worthy of tomorrow.
My name is someone and anyone.
I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away
he doesn't expect to arrive.

JORGE LUIS BORGES

Apart from relating the poem to the theme of the novel, we need to give it a thought otherwise too. The poem is a beauty in itself. We need not necessarily analyse a literary work on the basis of the literary devices used like similes, metaphors, oxymorons etc. Sometimes the beauty must be realized in terms of the meaning of the lines. The universal appeal of a poem lies in the fact that while reading it every person feels as if the poem expresses his own personal feelings. I felt the same while reading the above poem and which is why I liked it. I have never read this poet earlier (none of his translations), neither did I know about his life and writing career. The lines that I liked the most are: "Time is living me./ More silent than my shadow, I pass through the loftily covetous multitude."

Life is an endless journey and we come across so many things and literary works which we remember for all times to come. And remember its not the whole thing that we recollect, it is always a special line or an incident. Down the line after a few years, who knows you might find yourself recalling the lines:

My name is someone and anyone.
I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away
he doesn't expect to arrive.