Chapter 31 - Borges in Portugal

Summary

A sculpture of a golden hand in one of the busiest districts in Lisbon is a memorial meant to invoke Borges’s Portuguese origins - about which he wrote a poem, ’Los Borges’. Borges possessed extensive knowledge of Portuguese culture and was willing to use that knowledge to locate himself as part of European universalizing traditions. His knowledge ranged over Luis de Camões, Antero de Quental, Eça de Queiros, et al. He wrote a sonnet, ’A Camões’ and an essay on his work. Elsewhere, he claimed that his Portuguese lineage enabled him to grasp Pessoa’s writing more thoroughly. Saramago drew inspiration from Borges and imbued the Argentine writer’s tropes with a progressive slant. Borges’s influence also extends to the visual arts of Portugal and is present in a recent (2017) work of Portuguese fiction.