I need to read some Jorge Luis Borges. Pretty much all I know of him, I like. But I’ve only read one or two of his stories, and those in school. Pure laziness on my part – or a fear of finding myself out of my intellectual depth.
Anyway, this Argentine author has astonishing things to say about the English language in this little clip. He expresses an idea I first encountered years ago in Writer’s Digest magazine. It was in an article also written by a writer who used English as a second language. People learning English often – and very understandably – complain about the size of the vocabulary you need to learn. Which is fair enough. But, this author pointed out, once you’ve mastered it you’ve got an unparalleled instrument in your hands, like a huge organ with a hundred stops. You can get an infinity of subtle effects out of it.
Borges notes here that most every word in English has a light or a dark version, depending on whether you choose the Latin or the Germanic option. He also talks about combinations of verbs and prepositions, which I hadn’t been aware of before.
In my Erling books, I’ve tried to employ Germanic words as much as I could, for two reasons. First, when I was learning to write (I took a sort of correspondence course and studied Writer’s Digest religiously), I was instructed to generally choose the Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) word. Anglo-Saxon words, they said, are punchier, stronger. They make your writing more vivid and active.
I took that advice, and still believe in it (though I’m sure there’s an element of cultural bias involved. In the 18th Century, writers aspired to sound Classical, and always opted for the Latin word). But I had a further reason for going Anglo-Saxon. I was writing about Vikings, and I wanted to evoke a northern, Germanic mood. I like to think my diction contributes to a sense of place and time.
How do I master this vast English vocabulary, you ask? Read. Read a lot. Read above your comprehension level (authors like Borges, for instance). If you read on Kindle, they’ve got a neat feature where you can highlight a word right on the page and get a definition as if by sorcery.
My friend group read “The Library of Babel” in October. It was bizarre and marvelous. Here’s a list of 10 Borges stories (maybe they aren’t all stories), including this one.
https://interestingliterature.com/2021/06/best-jorge-luis-borges-stories/
I agree with you. I want read more of him too.
You’re in good company- I believe I’ve read Tolkien tried to only use words of Old English origin.
That’s Bill Buckley interviewing Borges on Firing Line, February 1977. The whole thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNxzQSheCkc&t=1046s
I’ve gotten interested in ‘purported translations’ – e.g., The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (for two big examples), but it did not occur to me until now to wonder about the Erling books! I heard a lecture by Andy Orchard in which he pointed out how much more Latin literature written by Anglo-Saxons survives than Old English. I should probably start rereading the Erling books at once, checking the evidence, looking for clues, instead of lazily asking, in how far are they imagined as written in which then-contemporary languages for which audiences (e.g., Latin, Irish Gaelic, Old Norse, Old English – or mixtures of one or more of these, depending on the circumstances), and in how far do you ever think of yourself as an ‘ostensible translator’?
That’s an interesting and perceptive question. I am actually tackling it directly in my work in progress, The Baldur Game. More on that I shall not say, except that I do describe Father Ailill writing a series of memoirs. I can’t believe they are in Latin, because the music of the prose is wrong. So I assume he must have written in Old Norse, anticipating the saga writers. Which makes me perforce a purported translator, I suppose.
Great – and belated thanks!
I look forward to the result!
An exciting, playful idea – ” anticipating the saga writers”.