“A labyrinth of symbols… An invisible labyrinth of time.”

—  Jorge Luis Borges

The Garden of Forking Paths (1942), The Garden of Forking Paths

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Jorge Luis Borges photo
Jorge Luis Borges213
Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator… 1899–1986

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Un hombre se propone la tarea de dibujar el mundo. A lo largo de los años puebla un espacio con imágenes de provincias, de reinos, de montañas, de bahías, de naves, de islas, de peces, de habitaciones, de instrumentos, de astros, de caballos y de personas. Poco antes de morir, descubre que ese paciente laberinto de líneas traza la imagen de su cara.
Epilogue
Variant translation: A man sets himself the task of portraying the world. Through the years he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and people. Shortly before his death, he discovers that that patient labyrinth of lines traces the image of his face.
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