Jorge Luis Borges
Ah nasibmu, Borges,
berlayar menempuhi segala samudera dunia
berlayar mengarungi laut satu berbagai nama
berbagi ada dengan berbagai kota: Edinburg,
Zurich, dan dua Kordoba, Texas, juga Kolombia,
terpulang kembali ke akhir generasi yang berganti
ke negeri nenek moyang, tanah-tanah yang purba
ke Andalusia, ke Portugal dan negeri-negeri lainnya
dimana orang Inggris bertempur dengan Denmark
dan mereka membancuhkan darah mereka,
mengembara menembus senyap
labirin merah Kota London,
lalu menua di pantulan setiap cermin,
sia-sia mencari, pada tatapan beku patung,
bertanya pada litograf, ensiklopedi, dan atlas,
melihat apa saja yang juga dilihat manusia lainnya,
kematian, fajar yang enggan, tanah lapang,
dan bintang-bintang cemerlang,
dan aku juga tak melihat apa-apa, nyaris tak ada,
kecuali wajah gadis dari Buenos Aires,
wajah yang tak akan pernah ingin kau ingat.
Ah nasibmu, Borges,
mungkin tak lebih asing dari engkau sendiri.
Elegy
Oh destiny of Borges
to have sailed across the diverse seas of the world
or across that single and solitary sea of diverse
names,
to have been a part of Edinburgh, of Zurich, of the
two Cordobas,
of Colombia and of Texas,
to have returned at the end of changing generations
to the ancient lands of his forebears,
to Andalucia, to Portugal and to those counties
where the Saxon warred with the Dane and they
mixed their blood,
to have wandered through the red and tranquil
labyrinth of London,
to have grown old in so many mirrors,
to have sought in vain the marble gaze of the statues,
to have questioned lithographs, encyclopedias,
atlases,
to have seen the things that men see,
death, the sluggish dawn, the plains,
and the delicate stars,
and to have seen nothing, or almost nothing
except the face of a girl from Buenos Aires
a face that does not want you to remember it.
Oh destiny of Borges,
perhaps no stranger than your own.
