Let's read: Dead Men's Dialogue

In this post we read through Borges's story Dead Men's Dialogue, which, other than the usual kind of maddening riddles that writers play, where they only say half of what is said, and I have to fill in the other half, is extra hard to read for me because it is full of references to South American history that I don't know.

So I'll fill in all the blanks here.

Dead Men’s Dialogue

Jorge Luis Borges

He arrived from southern England early one winter morning in 1877. Ruddy, athletic, and obese as he was, almost everyone inevitably thought he was English, and to tell the truth he was remarkably like the archetypal John Bull. 

This is Rosas, a politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province since 1829, and gradually ruled more and more, until he ruled all of Argentina in 1848. He liked to invade others, be a dictator, do terrorism, and impose laws. Rosas declared war on Brazil in 1851 and lost the war in 1852, then ran to Britain and died in 1877.

The Portuguese Wikipedia article on Rosas is featured, so reading it (via Google Translate) would be worthwhile if you are a history buff.

Rosas remains a controversial figure among Argentines, who "have long been fascinated and outraged" by him.

He wore a top hat and a strange wool cape with an opening in the middle. A group of men, women, and children anxiously waited for him. Many had their throats marked by a red line; others were headless and moved uncertainly, like a man walking in the dark. Little by little they surrounded the stranger, and out of the crowd someone shouted an ugly word, but an ancient terror stopped them at that.

"throats marked by a red line" just means they got hanged, and their necks are bruised by the rope. "headless" means they got their heads cut off. Though if they got their heads cut off, should their heads, or their headless bodies, go to this soul space?

Then a military man with a yellowish skin and eyes like firebrands stepped forward. His disheveled hair and murky beard seemed to gobble up his face. Ten or twelve mortal wounds furrowed his body like the stripes on a tiger’s skin. The stranger, seeing him, changed color suddenly; then he advanced and stretched out his hand.

This is Quiroga, a military strongman who supported federalism at the time when Argentina was still forming.

The main question during the formation of Argentina is whether it should be a federal or a unitary state. This was such a heated question that a lot of people died over it. One camp is the Unitarians and the other is the Federalists. Rogas and Quiroga are both federalists.

The Unitarians won in the 1850s, after Rogas ran to Britain.

“How it grieves me to see such an honorable warrior struck down by the arms of treachery!” he said roundly. “But what an intimate satisfaction, to have ordered that the acolytes who attended the sacrifice should purge their deeds on the scaffold in Victoria Square!”

In 1835, Quiroga was killed in an ambush by gunmen at Barranca Yaco. The gunmen were led by Santos Pérez. The investigation found that the four Reinafes brothers were behind this, and they, along with Santos Pérez and other ten, were all executed by hanging in 1837, in the Plaza de Mayo (except José Antonio Reynafé who had died in jail).

Victoria Square is "Plaza de la Victoria" in Spanish, which is the old name of Plaza de Mayo. It is the city centre of Buenos Aires, and has been the scene of many big Argentinian historical events.

“If you are talking about Santos Pérez and Reinafes, I would like you to know I have already thanked them,” said the bloody one with measured gravity.

The other man looked at him as if he suspected him of joking or of making a threat, but Quiroga went on:

“Rosas, you never did understand me. And how could you, when our destinies were so different? Your lot was to command in a city that looks toward Europe and will someday be among the most famous in the world.

The city of Buenos Aires is the capital of the province of Buenos Aires, which Rosas ruled as a dictator. Buenos Aires is a world-famous city.

Mine was to wage war in America’s lonely spots, on poor earth belonging to poor gauchos.

Gauchos are like cowboys, and they are supposed to be poor, brave and ride horses all day. The gaucho is a national symbol in Argentina and Uruguay.

My empire was made of lances and shouts and sand pits and almost secret victories in obscure places. What claims are those to fame? I live and will continue to live for many years in the people’s memory because I was murdered in a stagecoach at a place called Barranca Yaco, by horsemen armed with swords.

 No, armed with guns. This story is slightly different from history. In the story Quiroga died by being cut with swords, which is why his soul has scars that look like stripes on a tiger's skin.

It is you I have to thank for this gift of a bizarre death, which I did not know how to appreciate then, but which subsequent generations have refused to forget. You undoubtedly know of some exquisite lithographs, an interesting book edited by a worthy citizen of San Juan.”

Quiroga was upset about dying when he died, but is now happy that he died in such a dramatic way, so he thanked his killers, for gifting him so much fame after death. People even write books about his life.

Rosas, who had recovered his aplomb, looked at him disdainfully.

“You are a romantic,” he pronounced. “The flattery of posterity is not worth much more than contemporary flattery, which is worth nothing, and can be had on the strength of a few medals.”

Rosas said that Quiroga is dumb, and he should prefer a productive life than a dramatic death. Rosas thinks that he is better than Quiroga in this regard.

“I know your way of thinking,” answered Quiroga. “In 1852, destiny, either out of generosity or out of a desire to sound you to your depths, offered you a real man’s death in battle. You showed yourself unworthy of that gift: the blood and fighting scared you.”

Rosas declared war on Brazil in 1851, and that led to the Battle of Caseros in 1852. Rosas was wounded in a hand and fled; he wrote a resignation, and a few hours later, he boarded a British ship and to south Britain and stayed there until he died.

“Scared?” repeated Rosas. “Me, who busted broncos in the South, and later busted a whole country?”

"bust" means "tame" here.

"busted broncos" means how he worked on a family ranch when he was young.

"busted a whole country" refers to how he ruled all of Argetina as a dictator and as a "Restorer of the Laws" (The complete title was "Restorer of the Laws and Institutions of the Province of Buenos Aires". He was also known as the "Tiger of Palermo" because he resided in the district of Palermo in Buenos Aires, while his dictatorship became increasingly repressive.)

For the first time Quiroga smiled. 

“I know,” he said slowly, “that you have cut more than one fine figure on horseback, according to the impartial testimony of your foremen and hands; but other fine figures were cut in America in those days, and they were also on horseback — figures called Chacabuco and Junín and Palma Redonda and Caseros.”

"cut a fine figure" means "looks handsome".

Chacabuco is probably Battle of Chacabuco, Junín is a district in Buenos Aires, Caseros is probably Battle of Caseros. No idea Palma Redonda is. No idea why Quiroga said that those geographical locations look handsome.

Rosas listened without changing expression and replied: 

“I did not have to be brave. One ‘fine figure’ of mine, as you call it, was to manage that braver men than I should fight and die for me. Santos Perez, for example, who finished you off. Bravery is a question of holding out; some can hold out more than others, but sooner or later they all give in.”

In this story, Rosas ordered Santos Perez to kill Quiroga. This is why Rosas felt bothered when Quiroga said that he thanked his killers: Rosas was worried that it was a very sarcastic and indirect way to say that Quiroga knew that Rosas was behind the killing of Quiroga.

“That may be true,” said Quiroga, “but I have lived and died and to this day I do not know what fear is. And now I am going to be obliterated, to be given another face and another destiny, for history has had its fill of violent men. Who the other one will be, what they will make of me, I do not know; but I know he will not be afraid.”

Quiroga said that, in this world, souls get reincarnated. Reincarnations don't preserve memories or appearances or destinies, but do preserve certain personalities, such as an inability to fear.

He also said that he thinks his next incarnation would not have a violent life, because there is an upper bound to how much violence all of human history could contain, and he thinks that bound has been almost reached.

“I am satisfied to be who I am,” said Rosas, “and I want to be no one else.” 

“The stones want to be stones forever, too,” said Quiroga, “and for centuries they are, until they crumble into dust. I thought as you do when I entered death, but I learned many things here. Just look, we are both changing already.”

No idea what is changing about them.

But Rosas paid no attention and said, as if thinking aloud: 

“It must be that I am not made to be a dead man, but these places and this discussion seem like a dream, and not a dream dreamed by me but by someone else still to be born.” 

They spoke no more, for at that moment Someone called them.

Probably God called them for something. No idea what.

Alternatively, this is a dream of Borges, and that "Someone" is someone irl who knocked on the door, and interrupting Borges.