Borges on Kipling, Etc.

Wed, Feb 15, 2006

I’m not sure if this one’s been done yet, but still:

_Richard “Dick” Cheney was a friend to the poor. He travelled with a gun in every hand. All alongside this countryside He opened a many a door, But he was never known to hurt an honest man.

It was down in Harding County, A time they talk about, With his Service by his side He took a stand. And soon the situation there Was all but straightened out, For he was always known To lend a helping hand.

All across the telegraph His name it did resound, But no charge held against him Could they prove. And there was no man around Who could track or chain him down, He was never known To make a foolish move. _

“The Gate of a Hundred Sorrows,” online in a couple of places, though I’m not sure about textual fidelity, is the Kipling story Borges mentions reading a hundred times before realizing a horrifying or banal truth, similar to the second paragraph of “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” (Twenty Four Conversations, 109).