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THE SEARCH OF/FOR : AND TRANSLATION BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

Sergio Waisman

a busca de Averroes”1 tells the story of a day in the work of the twelfth- Lcentury Arab philosopher Averroes, in his efforts to translate the Greek . More precisely, “La busca de Averroes” is the imagined story of a day in the work of Averroes, as the narrator and his own creative efforts to imagine Averroes emerge at the conclusion of the ficción to demand a re- consideration of the storytelling itself. In particular, a rereading of the text reveals numerous details connected to translation and difference: from the beginning, names and places and words are translated, each time un- derscoring the distance between source and target, the changes through time and across space, and also significantly between the Middle and Far Eastern languages of the story and the Spanish in which the narrator nar- rates the version that we read. In the process, Borges’s text explores the limits of narrative and translation, and perhaps of language itself, in any act of reading or imagining an . Known as “The Commentator,” Averroes lived in Al-Andalus from 1126 to 1198, reaching his highest achievements translating and commen- tating the works of Aristotle. Western as we know it today owes a great deal to Averroes for the inheritance of Aristotle, and with him the core of Greek thought. “La busca de Averroes” revolves around Averroes’s

1 “La busca de Averroes” was first published in the journalSur in June 1947; it was then included in Borges’s El Aleph in 1949.

Variaciones Borges 32 » 2011 110 Sergio Waisman 2 (1: 582)—andaswe come tosee theeven larger constraints of thediffer discussion here is“Lostraductores de culean andQuixotic as hissubject’s, we could say. The text thuscreates very equivocation. words, “tragedy” and“comedy,” which and hefindsfrom thebeginning elsewhere, es that he faces, the difference between texts, languages, historic periods, ence between hisworldview andtheclassical original—manages tobethe expanded toaseries when we realize, asreaders, thatwe undertake an that he has undertakenexplaining a task analogous to Averroes’s: as Her attempts and finallyinability to accurately his translateinto two and religions, can bebetter understood ifwe read the and Averroes Aristotle. wasimagining in Thus doesreading and imagin analogous Borges task imagining in asBorges Averroes, imagining isin his attempts Averroes toimagine Aristotle). (imagining The parallel is as atranslator of Aristotle, andthatwhich Borges isseeking tocross in a parallel between thedistances thatAverroes musthave hadtocross Borges’s othertexts on translation. The mostgermane of these for our Borges’s voice—emerges attheendof the spite a distance of fourteen centuries and his ignorance of Syriac and Greek throughout the the European translations of thecollection theory, Borges repeatedly questions the concept of originality, often find translation: aprocess flawed in potentialyet rich andpossibilitiesin its ing potentialitying where othersfindloss. its “creative Inverting many infidelities.” of thebasic tenets of translation is afallacy, andthatthemeritof atranslation, paradoxically, resides in ing in Borges in ing become synonymous withtranslation—or better yet, mis- monly knownEnglish asthe in not necessarily inferior to originals, that the concept of a “definitive text” primary agent thetransmittal in of theGreek Aristotle. See my Averroes’s struggles toovercome theapparently unbridgeable distanc In “Lostraductores de But Averroes isnottheonly thetext, translator in asthenarrator—in Borges andTranslation 2 in hisessays in on Borges thetopic argues thattranslations are Poetics . The text raises thequestion of how Averroes, de Las 1001Noches . Arabian Nights Las 1001Noches ,” for example, Borges compares Alf Layla wa-Layla Alf ficción —beginning with Galland’s withGalland’s —beginning asatranslator of sorts, ” (1935). As Idetail ficción —most com alongside ------“foreignness” of theoriginal can beinterpreted aspartof anOrientalist “To celebrate Mardrus’s fidelityistoomit Mardrus’s soul, itistonot even 4 3 Nights version of 1704-1717. Inhisdiscussion of Richard F. Burton’s version of which we shouldbeconcerned” which itwas produced. London. Borges tells usthatBurton makes countless substitutions; that ent: from thirteenth-century Arabia, thiscase, in tonineteenth-century of thetranslation, asBorges sees it, its liesin of theoriginal, butalsoof thecultural political power of thesocietyin of translation English orFrench, into atranslation thatdomesticates the and especially those hemosthighly praises, domesticate the he completely rewrites several of thestories; andthatheundertakes nu Borges doesnotdenythattheEuropeans whose translations hecompares, Edward Said. For of Burton’s particular, in see, for example, speak of Mardrus. Itishisinfidelity, hiscreative andjoyfulinfidelity, with Kabbani, andCarbonell Cortés. from Argentina, andnotatall from thecenter of empire. Inthehistory from one context andreadership toanother, when these are vastly differ the tic acculturation andaway tochallenge notonly thesupposed supremacy tion can represent anappropriation from theMetropolis through linguis talism—is complicated bythefact thatheisspeaking from themargins, these Near Eastern storiesmight suggest thatheisassuming anOriental raries back home. The fact thatBorges approves of suchacculturation of ist position. twist, asurprising in thatthese changes are actually for thebest. The merit not in hisliteralnessnot in andsupposed fidelity,in hiscreative but infidelities: mis-translation thediscussion ismostclearin of the1889French version merous alterations, omissions, andinterpolations. Borges thenconcludes, project of cultural . by J.C. Mardrus, when Borges argues thatMardrus’s accomplishment lies OnAnglo-American domesticatingtranslation, see Venuti, Niranjana, andCheyfitz. The translators of the As hepresents hisarguments “Los traductores in de Nights in their efforts in tomake themmore interesting for theircontempo ,

Borges takes on thequestion of how atext shouldbetranslated 3 Buttheissue withBorges—the issue withBorges’s Orien Arabian Nights 4 In Latin America, InLatin however, such atransla ( OC are very muchtheOrientalists studiedby 1: 240; mytranslation). infidelities . The value of such Las 1001Noches Arabian ,” ------111 The Search of/for Averroes 112 Sergio Waisman “La busca deAverroes” works withAverroes’s peripheral yet dynamic rela “Borges reclama esamarginalidad, justifi c The interactions “Labusca deAverroes” in are complex, asBorges (the This isconsistent characteristics withthemain of acertain “Hispanic Ori 5 cia inevitable deesamarginalidad aceptada yasumida: declararse marginal —es decir South America in opening dialoguesSouth Americaopening in anddiscourses of andtotheOther. South American writer, working from one periphery: Argentina constantly emphasizes therole of reading andourrole asreaders this in central member of anddefining Western civilization),in aprocess that with European traditions, and, on alarger scale, America’s Latin peripheral works theorigins of Occidental traditions, here theform in of thefounda entalism,” asJuliaKushigian hasstudiedit, which: 6 yet dynamic relationship withtheWest. Borges reclama esamarginalidad, justific le isdrawn parallel in toBorges’s own peripheral yet dynamic relationship sophisticated web of cultural political relationships. roes addstoacomplex, destabilizing Orientalism from Borges’s South. roes. Inthissense, Borges’s valorization of andidentification with Aver ters andperipheries pastandpresent, Averroes’s relationship withAristot tionship withAristotle; and, on alarger scale, Islam andtheArab world’s the historyof Western civilization, aswell asthepotential of theedge of tional ish Andalusia) imagining Aristotle (the foundationalish Andalusia) imagining Greek Aristotle, a Averroesines (theArab thinker, working from anotherperiphery: Moor ism, function as(mis-translators) precursors of Borges. ButsodoesAver peripheral yet dynamic relationship withtheWest. Inaremapping of cen panoamericana. Mejor: para todaliteratura lateral… Lairreverencia parece consecuen Onthehistoryof Argentine Orientalism, see Civantos. As SylviaMolloy has said, her analysis in of “Elescritor argentino tradición”: y la Interestingly, Galland, Burton, Mardrus, all in theirblatant Oriental Borges’s “more thoughtful approach,” touse Kushigian’s phrase, re denial of andopenness totheOther. (10) distinguishes amomentary of itself in opposites blending andinterani approach thatvalues adialogue of , reflecting on antithetical reflects notsomuchapolitical posture toward theOrient renderedin innumerable oppositional structures butis, rather, amore thoughtful mation of images grounded arespect in for diversity. This Orientalism Poetics , totheforefront while bringing therole of Arabic thinkers in ����������������������������������������������� ndola plenamente,ándola para literatura todala his 6 5 ) imag ------“tragedy” and “comedy” Arabic, into Averroes actually encounters several group of children playing outsidehisbalcony anddoesnotrealize that 7 Poetics deliberadamente deese centro, para verlo mejory—sifuera necesario— para burlarse de él” (60-61).de él” existencia del centro tradicional y a definirse con respecto aél, pero también aalejarse excéntrico— equivale aconstituir uncentro mismacircunferencia, enla areconocer la dy,” for Averroes, are signs devoid of meaning; they are mere signifiers contexts meaning. producing anddetermining in cause hisworldview aconceptual doesnotinclude framework thatwould examples of these very same dramatic concepts, butdoesnotrecognize of course. of thesubtletiesof “Labusca deAverroes.” The irony of the overt entrance onto thestage of thetext asthenarrator totell usof hisin ability to imagine andrecreateability toimagine Averroes. This limitation, thenarrator tells allow himtointerpret themassuch. he witnessed isaform China of the“tragedy” in discussed Aristotle’s in scheme,” and“paradigm” “Labusca deAverroes.” in Borges’s text highlights thedefinitive role of cultural andsocio-historical story. paragraph Inthelast of “La busca deAverroes,” Borges makes an significations. As Jon Stewart hasobserved: “[Averroes] isultimately lim failed search suggests thatthere are certain fundamental differences be that evening, Averroes alsofails torecognize, like everyone else atadinner their game isprecisely thekind of play-acting involved “drama.” in Later them asthesolution heseeks. thestory, Earlyin Averroes observes a tween languages andcultures thatare too large toovercome. Inthis way, to which Averroes, attheendof Borges’s story, finally attachesincorrect ited totheepistemological categories of hisculture” (327). Averroes’s ics have pointed out, party, thatthestorytraveler Abulc 8 See, for example, Stewart andBalderston. See Dapía for adiscussion of theconcepts of “context,” “framework,” “conceptual Averroes cannot read these examples as“tragedy” or“comedy” be The implications of thisremapping are revealed aswe navigate some But Averroes’s failed search for Aristotle, we know, isonly partof the . The event that Abulc See alsoSarlo. 7 isthatasheponders how totranslate thewords ásim witnessed turnsout to be a dramatic play, 8 The words “tragedy” and“come ásim recounts of anevent that ficción , ascrit ------113 The Search of/for Averroes 114 Sergio Waisman America and We note, too, the Orientalism of Borges’s sources, and especially of hispri 9 Orientalist translators from “Lostraductores de Orientalism actually challenges thetraditional East-West political andcul central figurein European Orientalism through much of the nineteenth century. See especially Said 130-50. OnLane’sOrientalism, see Said 160-67. es’s storyinvolves two searches andtheiranalogous, parallel apparent other words, totranslate—Aristotle: Search” stems from Renan’s lusia) align adialectical in relationship withthe center andbecome pro lish Orientalists studied by Said. In fact, Borges’s Orientalism suggests a us, isvery muchakin toAverroes’s andrecreate—in toimagine inability lated as“Averroes’ Search,” failures. The titleof the story captures thisambiguity Spanish, in as “La tagonists thatcenter’s—i.e., in Western civilization’s—foundational core. tural power relationships established bythetraditional French andEng mary source, Renanandhis1861 new alignment, which one in apparently unrelated peripheries (South narrator’s search for Averroes. Although the busca deAverroes” Borges displaces andtransforms hissources. busca As Fishburn andHughesstate: “Much of what issaidabout[Averroes] “Averroes’ in This realignment is doublyefficacious if we keep that Borgin mind Averroes, que encerrado en el sospechado loqueesunteatro, noera másabsurdo queyo, queriendo ever having suspected what atheater is, was nomore absurd thanI, want Lane ydeAsín Palacios. ( Renan, LaneandAsín Palacios. ( En la historiaanteriorEn la quise narrar elproceso deunaderrota…. Recordé a In theforegoing story, Itriedtonarrate theprocess of adefeat…. Iremem ing to imagine Averroes toimagine ing withnoothersources thanafew fragments from me.ing Ifelt thatAverroes, what wantingtoimagine adrama iswithout a Averroes,imaginar otro sin material que unos adarmes de Renan, de meaning of thetermsmeaning mí. SentíqueAverroes, loqueesundrama haber queriendoimaginar sin nificadolas de voces tragedia y comedia….la obra Sentíque de se burlaba bered Averroes who, theorbof closed Islam, within could never know the de

Averroes” denotes bothAverroes’s search for Aristotle rioplatense Spanish; anArabMoorish philosopherin Anda Averroès et l’Averroïsme tragedy a more accurate, thoughadmittedly awkward OC 1: 587-88) and Averroès etl’Averroïsme. ámbito del Islam, nunca pudo saberelsig Labyrinths comedy …. Ifelt thatthework was mock ” (24). As Said details, Renanisa 155) ficción Las 1001Noches has been well trans 9 Again, aswiththe ,” in “La ,” in Borges’s and the ------“La busca deAverroes.” The levels of mediation, from Aristotle to Aristotle 10 11 (and itswriter) byareader/translator whose only access isthrough other Averroes thatwere available tohimwere translations Latin of Hebrew translations of a The entire story, fact, in isstructured asaseries of searches for andof atext The distance between each reader, text, andcontext mustbetraversed commentary madeupon Arabic translations of Syriac translations of Greek originals” (204). defined byhis/herprocess of Borges.reading This emphasis on reading, very far from Averroes, for Renan too worked on translations of transla an Other. His/heridentityisconstituted of thesearch itself. This search, are always positedandbydifference. in The original, theelusive, Aristotle, his search for/translation of Aristotle, justasBorges’s narrator isdefined Pierre Menard’s Palacios” ( lations. Averroes searches for Aristotle, butheisforced towork “on the Desire, search, process, difference, identity: these are theelementsatplay in for Averroes, but, aswe have seen, thenarrator acknowledges thattheonly this desire for theOther, leadsone toconfront, andtoreside, difference. in translation of atranslation” ( texts: all subjective mediations worked through translations of trans translation English of might the title in be“The Search of/for Averroes”. tions. in this case,in flashes as real and as fictionally constructed as Cervantes in is shown to be culturally and linguistically determined, where languages imagining, andrecreating theOthertransforms thereader aleading into translation byJames E. Irby, from which Iquotethisarticle. in The more recent to theetymology of thetext. translation byAndrew Hurley isstrong andnoticeable for thedetail andattention paid in “La busca deAverroes”in isdisplaced andnecessarily reconfigured. material available tohim is“afew fragments from Renan, LaneandAsín protagonist theconstruction in of meaning. At thesame time, meaning by hisprocess of imagining/recreatingAverroes. Likewise, thereader is by a process of translation that seemsinevitable defined by its failure: As DanielBalderston explains, theOrientalist Renanwas himself The reader/translator/writer exists theprocess only in of searching for As Balderston has found, Renan himself remarks at one point: “That the works of The storyhasbeen translated as“Averroes’ Search”; theexcellent thisincludes 11 Renan’s distance from his subject reminds us that every search ↔ ↔ Labyrinths Averroes Don Quixote 155). ↔ Renan . Labyrinths ↔ Borges 149). Similarly, Borges searches ↔ reader. Averroes isdefinedby Averroes 10 - -

115 The Search of/for Averroes 116 Sergio Waisman Averroes. distance asitdoesproximity. Aseries of refractions enacted through mis- version to the next, is otherness itself—one’s own otherness. As seen in ed Aristotlefrom Arabic Al-Andalus, through translations of translations. fixed center. To the extent that“Labusca de Averroes” isaboutthe search of writing, of translation. Butitisalso a process thatdeteriorates that and bythedisappearance of thenarrator once heceases about tothink has reached hisincorrect interpretation of thewords tragedy andcomedy, along theway, suggest avertiginous circulation of texts, aconfusion that an aesthetics of mis-translation, when Borges thenarrator says: ofNear “La busca de Averroes,”the beginning the text at such itself points Pathos yes, butalsobeauty, thebeauty of processes asin of mis-transla Borges alsoimpliesthelimitations of ourworldview. This move destabi Borges’s hall of deceptive mirrors, the foundational text of , lizes the notion of , or of the Modern Occident, as a lows Borges to recreate Averroes from Argentina, just as Averroes recreat ured bythedisappearance of Averroes front in of themirror right after he rewritings, iswhat andre-imaginings produces meaning, andwhat al the translation, which in what one repeatedly encounters, from one (per-) to Borges tous, through Renanandtheothertranslations of translations tion thatputtexts motion anddelight in difference in anddisplacement. is only temporarily resolved theprocess during of reading: of imagining, process isabandoned. In“Labusca deAverroes,” thisdeterioration isfig The passage from one text andcontext totheothercreates asmuch Poetics By displaying Averroes’s cultural, linguistic, andhistoric constraints, Averroes, ignorant of Syriac andof Greek, was working withthetransla Averroes, ignorante delsiríaco y delgriego, trabajaba sobre traducción la gración deunmédico árabe alospensamientos deunhombre dequienlo de unatraducción. ( separaban catorce siglos; dificultades alas intrínsecas debemosañadirque Pocas cosas másbellas ymáspatéticas registrar Few more things beautiful andmore pathetic are recorded historythan in tion of atranslation. ( this Arab physician’s dedication tothethoughtsof amanseparated from him byfourteen centuries; difficulties totheintrinsic we shouldaddthat , isthusdeterritorialized. The very process of multiple readings, OC Labyrinths 1: 582) 149) la historiaqueesa consaá la ------Cervantes. The text, reread after we incorporate ourhori into theending which hedoesandnotquite belong, afoundation heglimpses from of boxes Chinese underscores theimportance of thereader every in step of of his story—as the French Symbolist Pierre Menard is to the Golden Age again. In this case, Borges is as close to the Arab Averroes—close at least in as hisdouble. Andinsteadof saying Averroes here we can alsosay Aristotle, about Borges. Averroes figures not only asBorges’s precursor, but actually act of the act reading—in of reading equivocally anotherlanguage in and an uncertain outside—literally before amirror (1: 587)—thatattimes and misinterpretation. Borges, himself working from hisspecificSouthAmerican edge, brings Borges’s text. of Averroes, Reading anArab working Moorish in Iberia, in like Averroes, atranslator forced towork withimperfect tools ashesought languages andeverything thatcomes withlanguages, between Eastand side looking andback in and, asBorges’s zon, hovers on theborder andchronicling, between imagining between feels like theinside, orlike apaththatmight leadinside, especiallythe in for Borges. The reader imagined of thefuture isenacted thereading of in for theorigins of literary theory, of Aristotle’s to recreate original afading thatheimagines, we might imagine the creation andtradition. of meaning thecreation ours—into ofreading—including the through aseries of translations of translations, replete withequivocation recovering, andrewriting the atimagining the process him, of imagining of re-telling him, theimaginative in telling that leadusfrom Borges’s narrator toPierre Menard toCervantes andback to reveal itself, butnever quite does. toward atext thatisalways abouttoreveal itself. That about isimminently rewriting itslightly off one’s own—intheact in of from translating and in agamein reflections of shifting anddisplacements tothe similar ones imagining, isatthevery core of Western civilization. Acivilization to reader the future.ined in Borges plays this role for Averroes, as we play it possibility of fixing suchanorigin. Borges shows usthatourattempts at Averroes necessarily approached Aristotlefrom anedge, from theout Whatever we might say aboutAverroes we can for themostpartsay It isnothard why toimagine Borges would beinterested someone in Poetics ficción Poetics , can only beundertaken suggests, for animag ficción , itisabouttheim itself. This series Borges - - - - 117 The Search of/for Averroes 118 Sergio Waisman America, like every act of reading andwriting, isatransformative event West, between pastandpresent, between Muslim andJudeo-Christian differences are placed motion, in Averroes’s asin search for Aristotle, or worldviews. The text, otherwords, in hovers on anequivocal border of of theperiphery. Andwe say acknowledgment of difference andloss; transformation potentiality into and peripheries. Translation America Latin isinnovation in asresistance: herently linked todifference culture, in religion, historic timeperiod, and and gain. As “Labusca deAverroes” illustrates, difference language in isin Borges’s search for Averroes—in thesearch of/for Averroes—they are also the reading and imagining of thedistancethe reading andimagining between them, when texts and thus toone’s worldview. These are distinctions certainly limiting, butin anaccountthat includes of thedistances anddifferences between center transforming major discourses theemerging andlegitimizing in-betweenness. be full of potential. We conclude, then, withtheimportance of equivocation asameansof mis -translation because translation Latin in The George Washington University Sergio Waisman - ---. ---. Works cited Abadi, Marcelo. “Averroes ysutrémula esclava pelirroja.” Molloy, Sylvia. Carbonell Cortés, Ovidio. Civantos, Christina. Cheyfitz, E. Kushigian, Julia. Kabbani, Rana. Fishburn, Evelyn andPsiche Hughes. Borges, Jorge Luis. Balderston, Daniel. “Borges, Averroes, Aristotle: The Poetics of Dapía, Silvia. “The Myth of theFramework Borges’ in ‘Averroes’ Search.’” Labyrinths: Selected Stories andOtherWritings Collected Fictions Arab Immigrants, andtheWriting Identity of 1996. 1979. Variaciones Borges York: Modern Library, 1983. With Borges, Paz, andSarduy Tempest toTarzan Hispania Selected Papers From the9 Interpreting, Prague, September 1995 Borges Kralova, andBarbara Moser-Mercer. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1998. 63-70. of New York Press, 2006. Duckworth, 1990. Strategies.”Defamiliarizing 7(1999): 166-77. The Poetics Imperialism: of Translation andColonization from The 79.2(1996): 201-07. Las letras deBorges Europe’s Mythsof Orientalism intheHispanic Literary Tradition: InDialogue . Trans. Andrew Hurley. New York: Viking, 1998. Obras completas Between Argentines andArabs: Argentine Orientalism, . 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New York: , 1978. . London andNew York: . London andNew York: Philosophy and .