June 8, 2023

En Libro de Sueños, de Borges, está — en español y titulado "El alma, el sueño, la realidad" — el siguiente fragmento, que aquí copio en su versión original:

The soul of a sleeper is supposed to wander away from his body and actually to visit the places, to see the persons, and to perform the acts of which he dreams. For example, when an Indian of Brazil or Guiana wakes up from a sound sleep, he is firmly convinced that his soul has really been away hunting, fishing, felling trees, or whatever else he has dreamed of doing, while all the time his body has been lying motionless in his hammock. A whole Bororo village has been thrown into a panic and nearly deserted because somebody had dreamed that he saw enemies stealthily approaching it. A Macusi Indian in weak health, who dreamed that his employer had made him haul the canoe up a series of difficult cataracts, bitterly reproached his master next morning for his want of consideration in thus making a poor invalid go out and toil during the night. The Indians of the Gran Chaco are often heard to relate the most incredible stories as things which they have themselves seen and heard; hence strangers who do not know them intimately say in their haste that these Indians are liars. In point of fact the Indians are firmly convinced of the truth of what they relate; for these wonderful adventures are simply their dreams, which they do not distinguish from waking realities. 

When a Dyak dreams of falling into the water, he supposes that this accident has really befallen his spirit, and he sends for a wizard, who fishes for the spirit with a hand-net in a basin of water till he catches it and restores it to its owner. The Santals tell how a man fell asleep, and growing very thirsty, his soul, in the form of a lizard, left his body and entered a pitcher of water to drink. Just then the owner of the pitcher happened to cover it; so the soul could not return to the body and the man died. While his friends were preparing to burn the body, someone uncovered the pitcher to get water. The lizard thus escaped and returned to the body, which immediately revived; so the man rose up and asked his friends why they were weeping. They told him they thought he was dead and were about to burn his body. He said he had been down a well to get water but had found it hard to get out and had just returned. So they saw it all. 

JAMES GEORGE FRAZER, The Golden Bough (1890) 

(fuente, página 50 en adelante). Borges traduce la última oración, que para mi es un poco difícil de interpretar, como "así lo entendieron todos", es decir, que todos naturalmente aceptaron la explicación del muerto respecto a lo que había acontecido. 

Aunque el asunto aquí son los sueños y en El informe de Brodie no lo son, me hizo acordar a ese pasaje donde Brodie está escuchando a los miembros de la tribu explicar que los hechiceros pueden transformar a quienes lo deseen en tortugas o en hormigas. Uno de ellos ve que Brodie escucha con incredulidad, entonces apunta con su dedo a un hormiguero, como prueba de lo que el otro está describiendo. Naturalmente, para este miembro eso es prueba suficiente: él ve el hormiguero lleno de gente transformada en hormiga. Aquí, es suficiente para cerrar el misterio que el muerto diga que demoró en salir de un pozo.