interwoven with poems and stories by borges are these stunning, surreal representations of books as objects of art and mystery. while none of them "illustrate" the text, they follow a parallel theme.

the imagination behind these compositions is both uplifting and a little scary. the notion of a text composed completely of small beetles opens all sorts of interesting possibilities. my only complaint is the binding- this would have made a beautiful hardcover.

As with Borges' writing, there is nothing quite like this stunningly original, evocative collection of photographs. The images contain all the elements for which the writer was so admired: paradox, beauty, and elemental simplicity. If you have any reverence for books as objects, or as vessels for meaning, then you should possess this "secret" book.

Featured in the photographer's epilogue is the claim that he began juxtaposing items such as snakes, skulls, and hands with mysterious books in Latin, Greek, Spanish and other languages before connecting his photographic inspiration with the literary inspiration of Borges. Once he understood the connection, however, it seems the influence of Borges contaminated him; several photographs not only capture Borges's enthusiasm for the enigmas within books and words, they quote the Argentine master within them. Therein lies my favorite aspect of this wonderful book: the photographer's particular fascination with secret books overlaps with yet remains distinct from Borges's particular fascination with the same subject, creating--as with Edward Fitzgerald and Omar Khayyam--a dialogue that is more beautiful and valuable together than apart.

Lastimosamente pertenezco al grupo de las personas que considera la poesía increíblemente aburrida y esotérica. Nunca me puedo concentrar en seguir las ideas del autor y aún menos entenderlas. Este libro es para mi tanto la excepción como la regla. Si bien no pienso presumir que he entendido lo que Borges quería trasmitir en cada uno de sus poemas, si me fue posible concentrarme en ellos y dejarme sorprender por lo que evoca. Tal vez lo que me impacta es la completa ausencia de humor en cualquiera de ellos. Parece que la vida lo sorprende y angustia tanto que le es imposible burlarse de ella, cada línea esta impregnada de una devoción religiosa a algo. Como ese tipo de reuniones donde las personas se sienten tan importantes (por ejemplo los banqueros) que quien sonríe es sospechoso de algo - de que no se - pero de algo!

En otras palabras es claro que no estamos leyendo nada tonto ni sensiblero; es impactante y de alguna manera nos llama a despertarnos de la cotidianeidad pero tan denso que es difícil saborearlo. No es un libro para días de sol. En realidad solo debe ser abierto si esta dispuesto a que le digan una y otra vez que nada es lo que parece ser. Y tal línea de pensamiento no cuadra en aquellos momentos donde todo nos importa un jopo.

Es importante poder contar con una edicion que reuna la obra poetica de uno de los escritores mayores de la literatura hispanoamericana del siglo XX y de todos los tiempos. La edicion es excelente y por supuesto, los poemas tambien. Leer a Borges es indispensable para cualquiera que aspire a tener un minimo de cultura literaria en estos momentos.

I can really only comment on two poems in this book because my Spanish is not very good. The two poems I speak of are I and II of "Two Enlgish Poems" and they are two of my favorite poems. They read almost like wedding vows only they are those of a dark poet to an unknown (probably not a single person.) If you can check this book out of a library, then do by all means and run on your way. Better yet, wait for a Borges fall night and stroll under the wet moonlight. Just don't miss it.

Jorge Luis Borges build up himself a Literary Man, he readed all books that worth to be readen, but Borges did not build up a Poet, his destiny was to become a poet, and he honour this destiny, Obra Poetica is a Boook of books -in the same way that El Cantar de los Cantares, really means-, and Borges Th Poet of poets. Obra Poetica holds the treasure of magic, of sadness,and often the gold of joy, this book teach what a Poet should be (verbigratia what a Man should be). A reader must deserve the privilege of piering into this book. (Spanish version) Jorge Luis Borges se erigió a si mismo como un hombre de letras, leyó asi mismo todos los libros que merecen ser leidos; pero lo que Borges no hizo fue erigirse poeta; su destino fue, ser un poeta y Borges honró ese destino. Obra Poética es el Libro de libros -a la manera del Cantar de los Cantares- y Borges el Poeta de poetas. Obra Poética encierra el tesoro de la magia, el tesoro de la tristeza y a menudo el oro de la dicha, este libro enseña lo que un poeta debe ser (verbigracia lo que un Hombre debe ser): El lector debe merecer el privilegio de asomarse a este libro.

Jorge Luis Borges was born in Buenos Aires in 1899. His parents, multilingual intellectuals, would soon travel to Europe with their children in the hopes of finding medical treatment for the progressive (inherited) failing eyesight that Borges' father was experiencing. Borges was a brainy, precocious, nearsighted and bookish child who was deeply attached to his sister Norah, with whom he played nearly exclusively and happily, mainly in the protected indoors of the family's library, or in the garden, and at the Buenos Aires Zoo, where Borges adored tigers most of all. (Stroking the fur of a living tiger was a lifelong dream and one that he finally attained - in old age).

Borges wrote his first short story at age six and, amazingly, at the age of nine translated Oscar Wilde's short story "The Happy Prince" from English to Spanish, publishing the story in a local newspaper. It was simply assumed that his father (also "Jorge Borges") had done the translation. Borges was educated in the classics, was multilingual, and was eventually named Director of the National Library of Argentina. The irony of being blind - and also in direct control of "800,000 volumes" did not escape him.

This book was assembled by Borges himself, in the 1960s. It's an assortment of short stories, essays, fictions and nonfictions, and poems. It is a demanding and rewarding read. Like most of his work, his human subjects here are mainly males- of history, myth, and his own invention. Women are not much included in his oevre. I add that so that readers new to Borges are informed, in advance.

He does not court the reader so much as respect readerly intelligence. As such his work sometimes initially intimidates students - and later, thrills. It stays with you, permanently.

Borges was a master of several forms, and they are here. Most of his areas of interest are 'big' themes : art, poetry, mortality, loyalty, destiny, ancient and world history. (He even wrote articles about books or other articles that, in fact, did not exist - other than for his express purposes.) In his poetry and other pieces, notions of eternity versus mortality (for example: one's knowing that one will never again open a certain beloved book, travel a familiar street, or know or see a still-living loved one) is approached with profound humility and grace. There are meditations on a variety of men and topics, among them Shakespeare, 'the Aleph,' and Shih Huang Ti, the Chinese emperor who ordered that the Wall of China be built, and "likewise ordered all books antedating him to be burned."

Borges loves details, material culture, and even minutiae, too. There is much to hang on to in these pieces. It's a deliberate and purposeful sampling of some of his work - not a "best of," since one volume of 200 pages can't really do that. His writing demands full engagement. Many of his stories lack characters of romance, drama, or overt emotionality - but have great power nonetheless.

Several of his most well-known poems are included. "The Art of Poetry," as able an explication of the meaning of art, life, and eternity as you might ever read and "The Tango," a poem about (among other things) Argentina ("The South, behind suspicious walls,/Keeps a knife and a guitar." In conclusion: "An impossible recollection of having died/ Fighting, on some corner of a suburb.")

Borges is considered to be a modern master, and this collection illustrates why.

Borges is with Joyce, Proust, and Kafka among the titans of literature of this century. This personal anthology ranks with his best work, and will be read when the second rate books, and second rate reviews, have been forgotton. Order now!

Es un libro muy bien escrito y muy respetuoso. Diria que es una investigación muy original de la obra de Borges y que estimula la lectura de Borges No se si se publicara esto porque no esta en ingles.Pero quiero expresar mi admiración por este libro.

The complex, labyrinthine writings of Jorge Luis Borges are approached in this book from a Freudian perspective by an Argentine psychoanalyst and writer. Like a detective, Woscoboinik searches for clues, reiterations, bridges between different Borgean works. He avoids free-wheeling imaginative inferences and personal interpretations. In the course of his research he has gathered information on Borges's life from various and sundry sources, including numerous in-depth interviews.

Through close readings of several short stories, Woscoboinik follows Borges's path as he evolved from his "narcissistic solipsism" to the establishment of Oedipal links. He borrows the title of this book from Borges himself, who in "The Sect of the Phoenix" refers to sexual intercourse as "Secreto," understanding it only as an act of procreation. Hence Woscoboinik follows the track of fantasy associations, among them those relating to the "primary scene." Further chapters deal with the treatment of feminine characters in Borges's short stories, with the dreams and nightmares constantly retrieved and reiterated through his work, memory and the challenges of self-identification, and with the Borgean view of the problem of time.

Readers of this book need not have specialized knowledge either of literature or of psychoanalysis. Borges fans will find a respectful, non-reductionist interpretation of his work that will increase their admiration for him.

The sonnet form was introduced to Spain from Sicily in the fifteenth century through the writing of El Marqués de Santillana (1398-1458), a poet who wrote Petrarchan sonnets in Spanish. During the Renaissance, the Italian sonnet made its way to most of the countries of Western Europe. In England, Edmund Spenser changed the Petrarchan rhyming form of 'abba abba cdecde' to 'abab bcbc cdcd ee,' and William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets with the form 'abab cdcd efef gg.' As Willis Barnstone says in the introduction to his book, 'Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet,' 'the Spanish sonnet, a literary vagabond in courtly dress, began in the court of the Sicilian Frederic II, went up to England, and finally, seven centuries after its Italian birth, with its picaresque wits and form intact, dropped down just above the Antarctic Circle to appear in the poems of the Argentine Anglophile [his maternal grandmother was English] Borges.' Professor Barnstone goes on to present a thorough history of the evolution of the Spanish sonnet and a colorful biography of six Spanish language poets who used the form. His writing is informed by his long friendship with Jorge Luis Borges. Barnstone offers here a sampling of 112 Spanish sonnets by these six masters, placed side by side along with his own magnificent translations.

Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) is described as a 'monstruo de la naturaleza' [monster of nature] because of his prodigious outpouring of writing. 'Like Swift, Dostoyevski, and Kafka, he is one of the most tormented spirits and visionaries of world literature ['El Buscón' (The Swindler), 1626, is his masterpiece] and also one of the funniest writers ever to pick up a sharp, merciless pen.' Though Quevedo's sonnets are at times scatological and darkly satirical, they are also humorous and hopeful.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648/51-1695) was a Mexican discalced Carmelite nun who is considered by some religious scholars to be the first female theologian of the Americas. Although I was familiar with her love poems and her articulate defense of a woman's right to write in 'Response to Sor Filotea,' I had not read her sonnets in translation before. As he does with all six sonneteers, Barnstone faithfully maintains Sor Juana's rhyming, meter, and cadence in his translations of her sonnets. His analysis encompasses her writing and her life, including some critique of Octavio Paz's definitive biography, 'Sor Juana, or The Traps of Faith.'

Antonio Machada (1875-1939) recalls the landscape of his native Sevilla in his sonnets. In, 'El amor y la sierra' (Love and the Sierra), he writes, 'Calabaga por agria serranía / una tarde, entre roca cenicienta. (He was galloping over harsh sierra ground, / one afternoon, amid the ashen rock).' Barnstone calls Machado 'the Wang Wei of Spain' because 'he uses the condition of external nature to express his passion.' As Petrarch had his Laura, Machado had his Guiomar (Pilar de Valderrama). In 'Dream Below the Sun,' he writes, 'Your poet / thinks of you. Distance / is of lemon and violet, / the fields still green. / Come with me, Guiomar. / The sierra will absorb us. / The day is wearing out / from oak to oak.'

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) was a Spanish poet and playwright who was affected by Luis de Góngorra and gongorismo. His 'Gypsy Ballads' was 'the most popular book of poetry in the Spanish language in his time.' Barnstone states that 'his closest attachment, his passion, was the painter Salvador Dalí,' with whom he carried on a six year love affair. Luis Buñuel castigated him for his Andalusianism; indeed, Lorca felt that Buñuel's satiric and surrealist film 'Un chien andalu' mocked him. After traveling to New York and Havana, Lorca became 'the playwright of Spain' with his brilliant 'Bodas de Sangre' (Blood Wedding). His 'Sonnets of Dark Love,' unpublished during his lifetime, were probably written to Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, an engineering student. Barnstone believes that 'dark love' is an allusion to San Juan de la Cruz's 'dark night of the soul.'

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) of Argentina considered himself a poet, though he was a master at prose. According to Barnstone, because of the blindness that afflicted Borges in midlife, 'he could compose and polish a sonnet while waiting for a bus or walking down the street' and then later dictate it from memory. 'Borges's speech authenticated his writing, his writing authenticated his speech. To have heard him was to read him. To have read him was to have heard him.' In 'Un ciego' (A Blindman), he says, 'No sé cuál es la cara que me mira / Cuando miro la cara del espejo; / No sé qué anciano acecha en su reflejo / Con silenciosa y ya cansada ira. (I do not know what face looks back at me / When I look at the mirrored face, nor know / What aged man conspires in the glow / Of the glass, silent and with tired fury.)'

Miguel Hernández (1910-1942), a poor goatherd and pastor from the province of Alicante in Spain, wrote his best poetry while imprisoned during the Spanish Civil War. 'In the prisons, Hernández became,' in Barnstone's opinion, 'the consummate poet of light, darkness, soul, time, and death.' One of his poems, 'Llegó con tres heridas' (He came with three wounds), is a popular song, recorded by Joan Baez on her 'Gracias a La Vida' album.

'Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet' is recommended to all who love this poetic form and want to know more about the lives of these remarkable poets. A good index and list of references are included for further study.

For those who already know the various authors of this book individually, words will be in excess to describe the treasures contained therein. The five Spanish already classical authors and Jorge Luis Borges closing the group with honors are a guarantee of high quality and deep touching entertainment. Tasting the fluent and sincere social verb of Quevedo, or absorbing in silence the sweet and perfect mysticism of Juana Inés would be sufficient to recommend this book. But we find much more, Machado, García Lorca and Miguel Hernández, marked by the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, found in their sensibility, the way to transform hate and blood into the purest and most powerful poetry. About Borges, well, what can one say about a man of his talents, his well known depth is something you will find easily linked to his enormous sensibility and human solidarity. Definitively, this multiple anthology is a treasure to keep forever.

Borges manages to completely skew and alter one's perceptions of time, reality, language and psychology in 16 pages of text and two dozen evocative yet cryptic drawings. It is reminiscent of the Codex Seriphinianus but more concentrated.

Thoroughly perplexing and enjoyable. Borges has a knack for deciphering the indecipherable and drawing us into his world. His blindness only serves to stimulate his understanding of the complexities of the human mind. In Spanish, the language is densely poetic yet subtle in its explications. If different realities or universes exist, Borges has discovered them in Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.

This excellent collection of short stories is an example of the "esthetic of the intelligence" of Borges. His metaphysic storytelling always goes beyond the immediate, to other cultures, other frontiers and other realities. Borges seeks to capture the essence of Universe and Time, and as a result, he creates stories with an exquisite poetry and an abismal, even terrifying depth. The ones I like the most are. "The immortal", an overwhelming and disconcerting study of the effects immortality would have on humans; "The theologians", an allegory about personal identity, full of erudition and irony; "Emma Zunz", the only realistic tale in the collection, about a sick and terrible revenge; "In search of Averroes", an attempt at depicting the failure of a philosopher who is unable to distinguish between comedy and tragedy; "The writing of the God", or the aprehension of divinity from a pit, thanks to the signs stamped on a jaguar's skin; "The waiting", anguished tale about a resignation and the transformation of reality into dream; and especially "Aleph", fantastic story about that point in the Universe where all points in the Universe meet; a tale that mixes the remembrance of a woman still loved after death, with the absolute vision af the Absolute: the point from where you can see all points. Simply splendid, Borges's literature stands out alone in the history of all literature. There is nothing to which it can be compared. Check for yourself the dimensions of one literary giant. Come find out what you thought you'd never be looking for.

This book contains the best tales of the history, selected by Borges, Bioy Casares and Ocampo. What else can I say? Que mas les puedo decir canejo!

I think the author's research is thorough and compelling, giving us a new perspective on the intricate world of Borges writing. This book will give Borges readers a new glimpse on Borges times,(and its influence on him), his relation to the present, the many aspects that influenced Borges in his way of writing and his influence in many other aspects of literature and art. It will also expand and challenge the way many readers and critics understand Borges writings and style. This book will encourage them to understand the realtionship between Borges fictional texts and the culture industry, as well as many other issues still not explored before. The author has a strong argument, which I applaud and respect.