Borges on Martín Fierro
Encyclopedia
Like most Argentines
, Jorge Luis Borges
was a great admirer of José Hernández's poem Martín Fierro
.
With real or feigned modesty about his own work, he routinely characterized it as the one clearly great work in Argentine literature. Because Martín Fierro has been widely considered (beginning with Leopoldo Lugones
's El Payador, 1916) the fountainhead or pinnacle of Argentine literature, Argentina's Don Quixote or Divine Comedy, and because Borges was certainly Argentina's greatest twentieth-century writer, Borges's 1953 book of essays about the poem and its critical and popular reception - El "Martín Fierro" (written with Margarita Guerrero) - gives insight into Borges's identity as an Argentine.
The poem's central character, Martín Fierro, is a gaucho
, a free, poor, pampas-dweller, who is illegally drafted to serve at a border fort defending against Indian attacks. He eventually deserts, and becomes a gaucho matrero, basically the Argentine equivalent of a North American western outlaw.
In his book of essays, Borges displays his typical concision, evenhandedness, and love of paradox, but he also places himself in the spectrum of views of Martín Fierro and, thus, effectively, gives a clue as to his (Borges's) relation to nationalist myth. Borges has nothing but praise for the aesthetic merit of Martín Fierro, but refuses to project that as indicating moral merit for its protagonist. In particular, he describes it as sad that his countrymen read "with indulgence or admiration", rather than horror, the famous episode in which Fierro provokes a duel of honor with a black gaucho and then kills him in the ensuing knife fight.
Borges has far more respect for the early gauchesque poets than does Lugones, whom Borges sees as reducing them to mere precursors, "sacrificing them to the greater glory of Martín Fierro". In this respect, Borges singles out the "happy and valiant" poetry of Ascasubi, which he contrasts to Hernández's tragic lament. Borges clearly relishes the paradox that Ascasubi, a soldier with extensive experience of combat and whose work sometimes borders on the autobiographical, is at his most vivid in describing the Indian invasion of Buenos Aires province, which Ascasubi did not witness.
Borges is somewhat less impressed with Estanislao del Campo
, author of Fausto
, whom he characterizes as the most rural of the gauchesque poets in his diction, but the least comprehending of the mindset of the pampas-dweller. In contrast, he points out that Hernández is much closer to the language (if not the subject matter) of the payadas, relying far more on dialect spellings than exotic words to create his atmosphere, and, in the scenes within his poem where payadas are sung, showing his ability to write strictly within the payada form.
who wants to see in Martín Fierro literal or metaphorical analogues for almost every aspect of Argentine history and moral character, praising the work mostly for aspects that Borges finds "conspicuous by their absence."
Borges is in more sympathy with Calixto Oyuela
, who sees Martín Fierro as a tragic lament for the passing of the gaucho life and the fading of the Spanish-descended criollos into the emerging multi-ethnic Argentina. He also speaks briefly, but with praise, of Vicente Rossi, who sees Martín Fierro more as an orillero (hoodlum) than as a gaucho.
Borges mildly rebukes Miguel de Unamuno
for denying the specifically Argentine character of the work, annexing it to Spanish literature
, and is absolutely scathing on the subject of Eleuterio Tiscornia. Tiscornia's excessively academic and Europeanizing approach to Martín Fierro produced a footnoted edition of the poem which Borges finds, at points, laughably misleading. Taking only a few well-aimed swipes at Tiscornia on his own behalf, Borges refers his readers to the work of Ezequiel Martínez Estrada
for a proper demolition.
In El "Martín Fierro", he dissents from Lugones's nationalist cult of the epic, but professes to admire Martín Fierro all the more in its aspect as a verse novel, concise and full of morally complex characters very much of a particular place and time. He sees in Hernández's work a confluence of two Argentine literary traditions that previous critics had generally not distinguished: the rural payada and a separate and more artificial tradition of gauchesque poetry.
Both in his commentary on Martín Fierro and on its critics, Borges effectively positions himself, like Hernández, at a confluence of two literary traditions with common roots. In Borges's own case, these are an Argentine national tradition and one more European. While clearly standing as a proud Argentine, he refuses to be placed in the position of glorifying even what he sees as flaws in the Argentine character.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
was a great admirer of José Hernández's poem Martín Fierro
Martín Fierro
Martín Fierro is a 2,316 line epic poem by the Argentine writer José Hernández. The poem was originally published in two parts, El Gaucho Martín Fierro and La Vuelta de Martín Fierro . The poem is, in part, a protest against the modernist tendencies of Argentine president Domingo Faustino Sarmiento...
.
With real or feigned modesty about his own work, he routinely characterized it as the one clearly great work in Argentine literature. Because Martín Fierro has been widely considered (beginning with Leopoldo Lugones
Leopoldo Lugones
Leopoldo Lugones Argüello was an Argentine writer and journalist.-Early life:Born in Villa de María del Río Seco, a city in Córdoba Province, in Argentina's Catholic heartland, Lugones belonged to a family of landed gentry...
's El Payador, 1916) the fountainhead or pinnacle of Argentine literature, Argentina's Don Quixote or Divine Comedy, and because Borges was certainly Argentina's greatest twentieth-century writer, Borges's 1953 book of essays about the poem and its critical and popular reception - El "Martín Fierro" (written with Margarita Guerrero) - gives insight into Borges's identity as an Argentine.
The poem's central character, Martín Fierro, is a gaucho
Gaucho
Gaucho is a term commonly used to describe residents of the South American pampas, chacos, or Patagonian grasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Chile, and Southern Brazil...
, a free, poor, pampas-dweller, who is illegally drafted to serve at a border fort defending against Indian attacks. He eventually deserts, and becomes a gaucho matrero, basically the Argentine equivalent of a North American western outlaw.
In his book of essays, Borges displays his typical concision, evenhandedness, and love of paradox, but he also places himself in the spectrum of views of Martín Fierro and, thus, effectively, gives a clue as to his (Borges's) relation to nationalist myth. Borges has nothing but praise for the aesthetic merit of Martín Fierro, but refuses to project that as indicating moral merit for its protagonist. In particular, he describes it as sad that his countrymen read "with indulgence or admiration", rather than horror, the famous episode in which Fierro provokes a duel of honor with a black gaucho and then kills him in the ensuing knife fight.
Borges on "gauchesque" poetry
Borges emphasizes that "gauchesque" poetry was not poetry written by gauchos, but generally by educated urban writers who adopted the eight-syllable line of the rural payadas (ballads), but often filled them with folksy expressions and with accounts of daily life that had no place in the "serious and even solemn" payadas. He views these works as a successful impersonation, facilitated by the interpenetration of rural and urban cultures, especially in the Argentine military. The author of Martín Fierro was one of the few gauchesque poets who ever actually lived as a gaucho.Borges has far more respect for the early gauchesque poets than does Lugones, whom Borges sees as reducing them to mere precursors, "sacrificing them to the greater glory of Martín Fierro". In this respect, Borges singles out the "happy and valiant" poetry of Ascasubi, which he contrasts to Hernández's tragic lament. Borges clearly relishes the paradox that Ascasubi, a soldier with extensive experience of combat and whose work sometimes borders on the autobiographical, is at his most vivid in describing the Indian invasion of Buenos Aires province, which Ascasubi did not witness.
Borges is somewhat less impressed with Estanislao del Campo
Estanislao del Campo
Estanislao del Campo was an Argentine poet. Born in Buenos Aires to a unitarian family—the unitarians were a political party favoring a strong central government, rather than a federation—he fought in the battles of Cepeda and Pavón, defending Buenos Aires' rights.He is best remembered...
, author of Fausto
Fausto
Fausto may refer to:* Fausto Amodei, Italian singer-songwriter* Fausto Bordalo Dias, Portuguese singer-songwriter* Fausto Carmona, Dominican baseball player* Fausto Cleva, Italian-born American operatic conductor...
, whom he characterizes as the most rural of the gauchesque poets in his diction, but the least comprehending of the mindset of the pampas-dweller. In contrast, he points out that Hernández is much closer to the language (if not the subject matter) of the payadas, relying far more on dialect spellings than exotic words to create his atmosphere, and, in the scenes within his poem where payadas are sung, showing his ability to write strictly within the payada form.
Borges on the critics and Martín Fierro
Borges sees Lugones in El Payador (1916) as operating in an explicitly nationalist tradition, seeking a national epic to take the role of Don Quixote or the Divine Comedy and render the Argentines a "people of the book", in a nationalist reflection of religious identity. Borges shows no small sympathy for Lugones, but argues that Martín Fierro is more of a verse novel than an epic, and very much a work of its time (the 1870s). Borges has far less sympathy with those who go beyond Lugones, such as Ricardo RojasRicardo Rojas (writer)
Ricardo Rojas was an Argentine journalist and writer. He came from one of the most influential families of the Santiago del Estero Province; his father was Absalón Rojas, who was governor of the province...
who wants to see in Martín Fierro literal or metaphorical analogues for almost every aspect of Argentine history and moral character, praising the work mostly for aspects that Borges finds "conspicuous by their absence."
Borges is in more sympathy with Calixto Oyuela
Calixto Oyuela
Calixto Oyuela , was an Argentine poet and essayist....
, who sees Martín Fierro as a tragic lament for the passing of the gaucho life and the fading of the Spanish-descended criollos into the emerging multi-ethnic Argentina. He also speaks briefly, but with praise, of Vicente Rossi, who sees Martín Fierro more as an orillero (hoodlum) than as a gaucho.
Borges mildly rebukes Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher.-Biography:...
for denying the specifically Argentine character of the work, annexing it to Spanish literature
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and is absolutely scathing on the subject of Eleuterio Tiscornia. Tiscornia's excessively academic and Europeanizing approach to Martín Fierro produced a footnoted edition of the poem which Borges finds, at points, laughably misleading. Taking only a few well-aimed swipes at Tiscornia on his own behalf, Borges refers his readers to the work of Ezequiel Martínez Estrada
Ezequiel Martínez Estrada
Ezequiel Martínez Estrada was an Argentine writer, poet, essayist, and literary critic. An admired biographer and critic, he was often political in his writings, and was a confirmed anti-Peronist...
for a proper demolition.
Borges on Martín Fierro
As remarked above, Borges greatly admired Martín Fierro as a work of art, but did not particularly admire its protagonist.In El "Martín Fierro", he dissents from Lugones's nationalist cult of the epic, but professes to admire Martín Fierro all the more in its aspect as a verse novel, concise and full of morally complex characters very much of a particular place and time. He sees in Hernández's work a confluence of two Argentine literary traditions that previous critics had generally not distinguished: the rural payada and a separate and more artificial tradition of gauchesque poetry.
Both in his commentary on Martín Fierro and on its critics, Borges effectively positions himself, like Hernández, at a confluence of two literary traditions with common roots. In Borges's own case, these are an Argentine national tradition and one more European. While clearly standing as a proud Argentine, he refuses to be placed in the position of glorifying even what he sees as flaws in the Argentine character.