Emerson
That tall American gentleman closes the volume of Montaigne and then goes out, hoping for just as great enjoyment in an evening which simply exalts the plain. Towards the deep and setting sun, towards the horizon which this sunset gilds, he walks through fields, as now through memory does the one who writes. He thinks: I have read the essential books, have written others which a dark oblivion should not bury. A god has gifted me whatever knowledge is allowed to mortals to acquire. Throughout the continent my name is known. I have not lived. I would I were another man.
Translated by Allen ProwleEmerson - meaning Summary
Achievement and Unlived Life
Borges imagines Ralph Waldo Emerson at the end of his life, surrounded by learning, reputation, and the natural world he celebrated. The poem turns on Emerson's private sense that these achievements have not amounted to fully living. By having Emerson wish to be someone else, Borges presents intellectual success as unable to erase solitude or the longing for a more immediate existence.
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