Borges On Bullfighting
“Borges Sobre La Tauromaquia” (See translation below)
Cuando el periodista Carrizo le hizo la siguiente pregunta:
─Señor Borges, ¿Qué opina de la tauromaquia? ¿Cuál es su concepto sobre la figura del torero?
Borges contestó:
─La tauromaquia es una de las formas vigentes de la barbarie. En cuanto a la figura del torero, creo que es esencialmente un cobarde. Un hombre que con todo un aparato racional de estrategias, entrenamientos, armas, estocadas practicadas, clases y mucho estudio premeditado, se mide frente un animal pasmado por la sorpresa, por la ansiedad; un animal que no tiene otro recurso que los reflejos de su instinto primario. Bajo esa disparidad podemos medir el valor de los toreros. La valentía verdadera no soporta desniveles tan abusivos. Por eso para mí los toreros no son valientes, sino más bien bufones; los bufones de la valentía.
”Borges On Bullfighting”
When the journalist Carrizo gave Borges the following question:
— Señor Borges, what do you think of bullfighting? What is your idea of the figure of the bullfighter?
Borges responded:
—Bullfighting is one of the current forms of barbaric cruelty. As regards the figure of the bullfighter, I believe he is essentially a coward, a man who, with every rational apparatus for strategies, training, weapons, practiced stabbing, classes and much premeditative study, secures himself before an animal that is bewildered by surprise, by anxiety, an animal that has no other recourse than the reflexes of his primary instincts. Under this disparity, we can measure the bravery of the bullfighters. True courage cannot stand such an abusive slope. That is why, for me, the bullfighters are not brave. Rather, better to say they are buffoons; brave buffoons.
—Translation by Terence Clarke
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© Translation copyright 2022. Terence Clarke. All rights reserved.
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But brave buffoons!