" La Dicha

He who embraces a woman is Adam.
The woman is Eve.
Everything happens for the first time.
I have seen a white thing in the sky. They tell me it's the moon, but what can I do with a word and a mythology.
The trees frighten me a bit. They are so beautiful.
The calm animals come near for me to tell them their names. The books in the library have no letters.
When I open them, they come up.

When I peruse the atlas I project the shape of Sumatra.
He who lights a match in the dark is inventing fire.
In the mirror there's someone else lurking.

He who looks at the sea sees England.
He who utters a verse by Liliencron has entered the battle.
I have dreamed Carthage and the legions that devastated Carthage.

I have dreamed the sword and the scales.
Praised be the love in which there is no possessor or possessed, but the two surrender themselves.
Praised be the nightmare, which reveals to us that we can create hell.

He who comes down to a river comes down to the Ganges.
He who watches a sand clock sees the dissolution of an empire.

He who plays with a knife foretells the death of Caesar.
He who sleeps is all men.

In the desert I saw the young Sphinx, that they just finished carving. There's nothing old under the sun.
Everything happens for the first time,
but in an eternal fashion.

He who reads my words is inventing them. "

― Jorge Luis Borges