Obscure Tango: Borges on tango
Obscure Tango: Borges on tango
" Musically, the tango ought not to be important; its only importance is that which we give to it. This reflection is correct, but perhaps applies to everything. For example, to our own personal death or to the woman who disdains us... The tango can be debated, and we have debates over it, but it still encloses, as does all that which is truthful, a secret." Jorge Luis Borges
http://www.tangonoticias.com/articles/articles2003/may03/may03_history.htm
Borges was not speaking of the dance in this passage in his essay “Historia del tango”. He was principally writing about the music though the passages about the brothels do hint at that other activity practiced there ... tango dancing.
My paperback copy of LABYRINTHS bears on the flyleaf the date Oct. 1968. When I was young I did that, signed and dated a book when I purchased it. I’m now glad I did as it fixes the month when I most likely first read Borges. I am more grateful to Argentina for Borges then for tango though I don’t know what esteem his countrymen hold for him. Borges is for the centuries. His art has duration that seems denied to dance, though I suppose film and video now give the possibilities for some dance performances to endure.
Dancers as well as musicians and those who listen to the music have an access to the secret tango encloses. I believe this secret has touched me from time to time and then withdrew. It is not something I have any concept of, nor words for. Borges art is using words to summon an understanding beyond the reach of language. I feel such awe and affection for him. He produced such marvels of the story teller’s art. Like Shakespeare he was a sage who used the arts to transmit transcendent truth in a medium of popular entertainment.
If it weren’t for verbs I might try to learn Spanish, but as I have been soundly defeated by Latin, French, and German verbs I have no reason to believe that I would be any match for Spanish verbs. I have no facility for languages. Oh, I could learn some new names and adjectives even though I’m gender challenged when it comes to words, but those squirmy, slithering, shape shifting verbs never fail to elude and shame me. I do from time to time read tango lyrics in translation, just as I read Borges in translation, and dance a translation of tango.
When Alicia Pons graciously danced two tangos with me I learned how badly tango has been translated here. The tango danced here is very low wattage, like a flashlight running on a single battery. Alicia’s tango was full of power, thousands of watts coursed through her heart and poured forth to me and left me stunned, blasted with visions of a tango danced in BsAs full of passionate energy and feeling. Tango that is a statement of the soul and not merely a statement of skill. I’ve even thought of visiting BsAs though I hate traveling, but tango is perhaps not my path to my soul. It may just be an adjunct activity. Like a character in a Borges story I wait to embrace my destiny.
" Musically, the tango ought not to be important; its only importance is that which we give to it. This reflection is correct, but perhaps applies to everything. For example, to our own personal death or to the woman who disdains us... The tango can be debated, and we have debates over it, but it still encloses, as does all that which is truthful, a secret." Jorge Luis Borges
http://www.tangonoticias.com/articles/articles2003/may03/may03_history.htm
Borges was not speaking of the dance in this passage in his essay “Historia del tango”. He was principally writing about the music though the passages about the brothels do hint at that other activity practiced there ... tango dancing.
My paperback copy of LABYRINTHS bears on the flyleaf the date Oct. 1968. When I was young I did that, signed and dated a book when I purchased it. I’m now glad I did as it fixes the month when I most likely first read Borges. I am more grateful to Argentina for Borges then for tango though I don’t know what esteem his countrymen hold for him. Borges is for the centuries. His art has duration that seems denied to dance, though I suppose film and video now give the possibilities for some dance performances to endure.
Dancers as well as musicians and those who listen to the music have an access to the secret tango encloses. I believe this secret has touched me from time to time and then withdrew. It is not something I have any concept of, nor words for. Borges art is using words to summon an understanding beyond the reach of language. I feel such awe and affection for him. He produced such marvels of the story teller’s art. Like Shakespeare he was a sage who used the arts to transmit transcendent truth in a medium of popular entertainment.
If it weren’t for verbs I might try to learn Spanish, but as I have been soundly defeated by Latin, French, and German verbs I have no reason to believe that I would be any match for Spanish verbs. I have no facility for languages. Oh, I could learn some new names and adjectives even though I’m gender challenged when it comes to words, but those squirmy, slithering, shape shifting verbs never fail to elude and shame me. I do from time to time read tango lyrics in translation, just as I read Borges in translation, and dance a translation of tango.
When Alicia Pons graciously danced two tangos with me I learned how badly tango has been translated here. The tango danced here is very low wattage, like a flashlight running on a single battery. Alicia’s tango was full of power, thousands of watts coursed through her heart and poured forth to me and left me stunned, blasted with visions of a tango danced in BsAs full of passionate energy and feeling. Tango that is a statement of the soul and not merely a statement of skill. I’ve even thought of visiting BsAs though I hate traveling, but tango is perhaps not my path to my soul. It may just be an adjunct activity. Like a character in a Borges story I wait to embrace my destiny.
posted by obscure tango at 8:34 PM
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