In Praise of Darkness

Borges explores the effect of aging on his eyesight in his poem “In Praise of Darkness.” This theme is introduced in the very first line: “Old age (the name that others give it)” (Line 1). For Borges, as with his father before him, old age comes with decreasing vision. As the years pass, the “darkness” (Line 6) increases. But the poem’s speaker does not fully identify with the phrase “old age,” which he describes as created by other people and only partially fitting to what he is experiencing. Receiving this phrase is like inheriting blindness from father to son. In other words, language and genetic legacy are linked.

The theme of aging is developed with the dimension of time. Borges repeats the word “time” in Lines 2 and 16. In Line 2, he argues that old age can be “the time of our greatest bliss,” defining the idea of time as a period in the life of a person. Robert Mezey’s translation emphasizes this meaning by changing the word “time” to “season.” In Line 16, time is a force that has power over vision. Borges metaphorically describes time as his Democritus, alluding to the legend that the ancient Greek philosopher blinded himself, just as aging has resulted in Borges losing his vision.