Colorful Camini Tory, sexy tango girls pass by from time to time. They are the most charming scenery here. This dance, which originated at the end of 19, combines Indian poetry style, European melody and African rhythm. At first, it came from the bottom of society. Even today, tango still retains those characteristics and strong market elements, which may be an important reason for its charm. The woman's high-slit skirt and the friction and entanglement between the male and female dancers' thighs are for flirting, while the reason for turning around and shaking her head quickly is to guard against the sneak attack from behind the opponent or rival in love. In the movie, Leslie Cheung and an Argentine dancer dance on the black and white chessboard floor of a bar in the dim light. Such a scene appeared in every pub I visited at night. Although the protagonists are different, the scenes are strikingly similar, and once even the dance music was the same. Such scenes are often reminiscent of Borges's words: tango is a three-minute love of a lonely person.
I searched for a long time, but I couldn't find the famous poet who wrote this poem, and then I went to find his love. I thought, "This scene often reminds people of Borges' sentence: Tango is a three-minute love of a lonely person. "This should be the author's evaluation of Borges' love!
Borges's love
Argentine writer Borges is known as Shakespeare in the 20th century. He has reached the top of the world in poetry, novels and prose. Comparatively speaking, Shakespeare only dabbled in poetry and drama. However, despite Borges' bookish temperament and reputation, he is not abstinent. On the contrary, he is very good at seducing beautiful young women, and he can easily fall in love and enjoy short-lived passions again and again.
In Borges' debut novel Passion in Buenos Aires, several poems involve emotional issues, especially Saturday, which is the most direct. The subtitle is dedicated to Concepcio Guerrero, his first official girlfriend, or his fiancee. He was 24 years old that year. If it weren't for his family going to Europe, his father provided him with a livelihood, and he didn't want to give up poetry to make a living, Borges might have married her. So there was such a scene. On the eve of his reluctant return to Europe, he wrote in a poem:
I can't live without you, just like a matador can't live without cruelty.
A year later, when Borges returned to Buenos Aires, the fire of love in his heart had been extinguished. When Passion was reprinted, he abbreviated the name in the subtitle to C.G. Since then, we have never seen his love poems.
A few years later, when Borges visited a critic who moved from Santo Domingo in the Caribbean in the suburb of Buenos Aires, he met two beautiful women. One is the critic's wife, and the couple had to leave their home just because the Dominican dictator fell in love with her; The other is a girl of 17 years old. As a result, Borges fell into unrequited love. Until 40 years later, she became a widow. Borges, who was nearly 70 years old, married her, which was his first marriage. This marriage lasted only three years, and there was no happiness at all, and his second marriage was in the last fifty days of his life. During his single life of more than half a century, Borges met many women in the intellectual world, especially in the 1940s, which was his prime. Almost all these women are related to literature, and there are more than a dozen names, some of which are recorded because of Borges' dedication. For example, Cecilia was mentioned at the beginning of the postscript of the collection of short stories in Alef, saying that she provided most of the fantasy plots. Another example is Estner. Her first interest was movies, and she wanted to be an actress. After meeting Borges, she decided to become a writer. They often talk all night and leave many affectionate letters. Borges gave her a short topic.
A few years before Borges bid farewell to single life (he was already a famous European writer at that time), an old friend bluntly asked him why he seldom or even wrote about love. This question surprised him. After thinking for a while, he replied, "I pay too much attention to love in my private life, so I can't talk about it in my works." The friend then asked, "I have seen you surrounded by women." He replied tactfully, "well, I didn't write this topic out of humility." In response to another thorny questioner, Borges revealed, "I am a little sad to find that I have been thinking about this or that woman all my life. I thought I was visiting different countries and cities, but there was always a woman like a screen between me and the scenery. " Later, an American raised a sharper and more essential question, that is, why his works are so expressive. Borges is still evasive about this. "I think the reason is that I think too much." When he realized that such an answer would not be satisfactory, he went on to explain, "or, another reason is that the topic has been exhausted." Obviously, Borges, who left no descendants, avoided answering.
Most biographers believe that the first night Borges spent with his father in Geneva had a decisive influence on his later life. Like Garcia Marquez and many other Latin American writers, his virginity was lost in a brothel, but it was probably a failed and extremely unpleasant experience, so he was very dissatisfied with Freud himself. According to Estena's later memories (when Borges was in her forties and she was in her twenties), no matter how much they loved each other, the shadow of that distant foreign night always existed and could not be erased. According to Estner, a psychiatrist once asked her to cooperate, in order to eliminate the shadow that has hung over Borges for a long time. Of course, this history was firmly denied by Borges himself, only in a novel "The Other" written in his later years. He mentioned the name of the square where the brothels in Geneva are located. But it does not rule out the possibility that his ex-girlfriend deliberately exaggerates in order to improve her popularity or promote one of her books. According to her, when Borges proposed to her one day, the answer was: As a disciple of Bernard Shaw, she could not marry a man who had not slept in advance. Perhaps many affairs that can be seen everywhere but have no results have finally fulfilled Borges.
I made a special trip to Geneva in the summer of 2002. I didn't remember the name of the square that Borges will never forget. On the contrary, I found Borges' tomb in a cemetery without walls in the city, scattered in a messy rectangle paved with stones. A stone tablet with an arched upper part is written with his name and date of birth and death, even without occupation, identity and nationality, like the final destination of a bachelor.
Cai Tianxin, Professor of Mathematics Department of Zhejiang University. The main literary works are poetry anthology "Dream of a Living World" and "Biography of North and South"; Walking with elizabeth bishop, Translation Collection, Prose Collection, Numbers and Roses.