The aleph
The Aleph ( Spanish original title El Aleph ) is a story by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges from the story volume of the same name from 1949.
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As in some of Borges' stories, the protagonist of “The Aleph” also goes by the same name as its author. This fictionalized Borges tells the reader at the beginning of the story about the death of Beatrice Elena Viterbo, an acquaintance he admires. In order to keep the memory of the loved one alive, the first-person narrator visits the house and family of the deceased once a year. So he came into contact with Viterbo's cousin Carlos Argentino Daneri, a blasé and untalented poet who made it his business to write an epic poem that describes every place in the world in detail. Daneri comments extravagantly on his own work in discussions with Borges and even asks him to use his connections to win another author for the foreword of the exorbitant poem. The protagonist only pretends to help him.
One day when Daneri's house is about to be demolished, Borges reveals himself: In the basement of his house there is an aleph, which is a point in space that contains all the points in the world. Under no circumstances should the aleph be destroyed, otherwise Daneri would not be able to complete his poem. Even if he remains incredulous at first, Borges sets out to take a look at the alleged Aleph himself. In the dark of the cellar he finally saw the unbelievable: “[I] saw the Aleph from all directions at the same time, saw the Aleph in the earth and in the earth again the Aleph and in the Aleph the earth, saw my face and my entrails, saw your face and felt dizzy and wept, because my eyes had seen this secret and conjectured object, whose name people occupy, but which no one has ever seen: the incomprehensible universe. "
Daneri's house will eventually be demolished and the Aleph destroyed. In an addendum, the first-person narrator expresses his suspicion that the aleph in Daneri's cellar must have been a "wrong" aleph, as there are references to other such points in the literature.
Remarks
- Like many other stories by Borges, this text also deals with the topic of infinity : If a point contains the entire universe, it must also contain itself - and thus be reflected into infinity. Strictly speaking, the first aleph in the second aleph should form an element of a third aleph and so on.
- In set theory the aleph symbol stands for the cardinal numbers of infinite sets. In particular, the thickness is natural numbers with designated.
- “The Aleph” contains numerous allusions to Dante Alighieri's divine comedy . For example, the name "Daneri" is a combination of Dan te Alighi eri . In addition, in Borges' story, the aleph is on the 19th step of the cellar stairs. The divine comedy contains in its three parts in the 19th Canto each description of an aleph (e.g. an eagle, which is made up of all eagles).
- The names " C arlos A rgentino D aneri" and " B eatriz E lena" contain the first five letters of the alphabet (whose Hebrew form, the Aleph Bet, begins with the letter "Aleph"). The gentlemen " Z unino" and " Z ungri" are responsible for the demolition of the house of Daneri and thus for the end of the aleph.
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Individual evidence
- ↑ Jorge Luis Borges: "The Aleph", in: Ders. The aleph. Stories 1944-1952 , Frankfurt am Main 1992, p. 145