Las ruinas circulares (or The Circular Ruins) is a short story written by Jorge Luis Borges. Released in 1940, it is the fourth short story in Borges' collection The Garden of Forking Paths and tells of a man dreaming a son into existence.
Characters[]
- The sorcerer
- The sorcerer's son
- Fire
Plot[]
In the jungle, a man from the South - specifically from "one of those numberless villages upstream in the deeply cleft side of the mountain, where the Zend language has not been contaminated by Greek and where leprosy is infrequent" floats a canoe at the titular circular ruins - the burned remains of an ancient temple "crowned with a stone tiger or horse". Once in the temple, the man falls asleep. He intends to "dream a man with minute integrity and insert him into reality" and is fed by villagers during this endeavour.
At first, he dreams of being a teacher and giving a speech to his assembled students on anatomy, cosmography, and magic. During this, he looks through the room for "a soul which would merit participation in the universe" and notices a mirror image of himself in the crowd. Before he can examine said student in any more detail, he is stricken with insomnia.
A month later, he regains the ability to fully dream and decides to dream a man on the cellular level. He dreams forth all of his organs and flesh over a year's time. The dreaming is a painstaking process which the man nearly cancels at least once. During the process, the man calls out to the deity within the temple's statue. This deity, Fire, promises to make the man's dream-son into a flesh-and-blood man so long as he continues to educate said dream-son before sending him to another ruined temple.
For two years, the man instructs his dream-son - dreading being separated from his son throughout the process. Right before the two are separated, the man destroys his dream-son's memories of his apprenticeship seeking to keep his true nature a secret. The man stays at the circular ruins, hearing word of his now earthly son (who is said to be able to walk on fire). One day, a forest fire engulfs the temple from the south and the man walks into the flames. As he dies, the man realizes "with relief, with humiliation, with terror" that he is nothing more than a dream-son dreamed up by a successive father.
Sources[]
- Wikipedia