The Unattainable Face - La inalcanzable cara - Jorge Luís Borges

Quilla

In my long career as a portrait photographer I have faced many a beautiful and interesting face. How two eyes, one nose and mouth end up as unique is beyond me. But Jorge Luís Borges in his short poem El Don or The Gift properly explains that conundrum.

Quill faced my camera many times and not too long ago told me to remove her correct name from all my blogs. This I did so the name under her  photograph is a made up one. I am sure that once I meet my oblivion she, and many other women who faced my camera, will come forward to say that Alex Waterhouse-Hayward photographed them.

El Don – Jorge Luís Borges

 

En una página de Plinio se lee

que en todo el orbe no hay dos caras iguales.

Una mujer le dio a un ciego la imagen

de su rostro, sin duda único.

Eligió la fotografía entre muchas;

descartó y acertó.

El acto fue significativo para ella

y también lo es para él.

Ella sabía que él no podía ver el regalo

y sabía que era un regalo.

Un invisible don es un hecho mágico.

Dar a un ciego una imagen

es dar algo tan tenue que bien puede ser infinito,

es dar algo tan vago que puede ser el universo.

La inútil mano toca y no reconoce

la inalcanzable cara.

In a page of Pliny it is read that in the whole world there are no two faces alike. A woman gave a blind man the image of her face, no doubt unique. She chose the photograph from many; she discarded and guessed right. The act was meaningful for her and it is also for him. She knew that he could not see the gift and she knew it was a gift. An invisible gift is a magical fact. To give a blind man an image is to give something so faint that it may well be infinite, it is to give something so vague that it can be the universe. The useless hand touches and does not recognize the unattainable face.