Borges - The Musical

He asks me if I will go with him to a film, a musical, West Side Story. He has sat through it several times and never seems to tire of it. On the way, he hums 'Maria' and remarks om how true the fact that the name of the beloved changes fron a simple name to divine utterance: Beatrice, Juliet, Lesbia, Laura. 'Afterwards, everything is contaminated by that name,' he says. 'Of course, perhaps it wouldn't be the same effect if the name of the girl were Gumersinda, eh? Or Bustefrida. Or Bertha-aux-grands-pieds, eh? he chuckles. We sit in the cinema as the lights go down. It is easier sitting with Borges watching a film he has already seen, because there is less to describe. From time to time, he pretends he can see what is happening on the screen, probably because someone has described it to him on a previous sitting. He comments on the epic quality of the rivalry between the gangs, on the role of the women, on the use of the colour red. Afterwards, as I walk him home, he talks of cities which are themselves literary characters; Troy, Carthage, London, Berlin. He could have added Buenos Aires, to which he has lent that kind of bookish immortality. He loves walking down the streets of Buenos Aires; at first, those of the southern district; later, through the crowded downtown where, like Kant in Königsberg, he has become almost a feature of the landscape.
 
(fra Alberto Manguels erindringsbog With Borges)