A tweet from @jnaanam reminded me of this wonderful poem by Borges: Talismanes: https://www.poeticous.com/borges/talismanes?locale=es. One of those poems that begin very simply and suddenly end up leaving you in tears towards the end.

Alasteir Reid translated this poem in the New Yorker issue of August 8, 1977. Strangely, he missed out a line, which unbalances the poem. The spanish original has 19 lines, and it "hinges" on the 10th line. Reid translation has 17 lines and it "hinges" on the 9th line.

The line that is missed out is "Una piedra y un abanico" - A stone and a fan. An easily forgotten line.

The 10th line in spanish is "Un globo terráqueo de madera que me dio Cecilia Ingenieros y que fue de su padre." The 9th line in English in Alasteir Reid's translation is "A stick with a curved handle with which I walked on the plains of America, in Colombia and in Texas".

The poem goes from a simple description of things in Borges library, slowly inwards to what Borges most loves.. the voice of macedonio fernandez, the love or the conversation of a few people, and the darkness- which could be his blindness, or his depression.

The move from outer to inner landscape occurs in the 10th line, with Cecilio Ingenieros' gift to Borges. The line with his walking stick is already quite personal and cannot be the turning point for the poem. It could be a rare printing error in the New Yorker as well.

And who was Macedonio Fernandez whose voice is among the most important memories for Borges? Borges himself recounts in an essay in 1985: (in spanish). https://elpais.com/diario/1985/07/04/opinion/489276009_850215.html

Also, What does this movement from outer to inner landscape within the same poem remind one of? Sangam poetry...and the move from Puram to Akam. The following paragraphs were paraphrased from AKR's essay in Poems of love and war or what I remembered of it. Apologies for errors.