We are the time. We are the famous

We are the time. We are the famous
metaphor from Heraclitus the Obscure.

We are the water, not the hard diamond,
the one that is lost, not the one that stands still.

We are the river and we are that greek
that looks himself into the river. His reflection
changes into the waters of the changing mirror,
into the crystal that changes like the fire.

We are the vain predetermined river,
in his travel to his sea.

The shadows have surrounded him.
Everything said goodbye to us, everything goes away.

Memory does not stamp his own coin.

However, there is something that stays
however, there is something that bemoans.

Jorge Luis Borges





Poetry Analysis On
‘We are the time,we are the famous’
By Jorge Luis Borges


‘We are the time,we are the famous’ are the title of the poetry,the title itself means a generation who make they own history on their own period.History for their lineage and for the year after year.Jorge Luis Borges who made this poetry are from Argentina and born on 24 August 1899 and past away on 14 June 1986,he is consider to be a great literary figure on twentieth century and he is a translater,critisism and writer of some short story and poetry that we can look ‘we are the time,we are the famous’ as the one of his work.I choose this poetry because i can look how the people on that time,struggle for freedom and really drawn within their will against the enemy.Analysis is the key to know more about this poetry,and it will be explain part after part.

Before i continue it into the part or the step of analysis,i will tell whole about this poetry as summary on my perception by explain it stanza after stanza.First on the first stanza it explain or notice us as the reader that our history in our time,then in the next stanza it explain that these people on that time can vanished and lost as the time pass away,they won’t have eternal life,also can change time after time as the water does.Then on third stanza,it tells about the will and spirit that comes out from these people as their heart hunger for freedom on their life and country against the enemy who invade their land as the water changed into crystal and change again into something powerful,fire.

These people cannot stand again and being a robot who always obey his master and looks weak,then in the next stanza they move away to rid the enemy from their land by their will and spirit,and move really fast as the river travel to the sea with his speed.In the fifth stanza,the condition turn around for their enemy as the shadow of defeat surround them and they run away with their tails behind their legs,run as the Greek fight them back.On the next stanza it tells about that history not write clearly on the paper,but it is mesmerized and left the legacy which on the last two stanza explain it well that legacy are still remain to be used well for the next generation and to motivated them.

The theme of this poetry are the people whose fight for their freedom with their great will against the enemy,their fight become a history on their own period and for the next life,remains only the legacy for their lineage.The people from my perspective are the Greek people who worship god, i get my perspective from some words on the poetry,for example on the part ‘metaphor from Heraclitus the obscure’,’We are the river and we are that greek’ and ‘Memory does not stamp his own coin’.These words base on my analyze contains words related on the Greek,as ‘Heraclitus’ most common named for Greek people,then ‘we are that Greek’ which is show they are truly Greek and last on the words own ‘coin’ which most people on that time use coin

The genre of this poetry is history which made into an poetry,not tell the whole story.Jorge Luis Borges try to tell us about how people can change their destiny or faith by their strong will for freedom also,and these kind of people can create their own history that will mark until the end of the world.Create history on their time which related to the title ‘we are the time,we are the famous’.The author’s attitude on this poetry shows he really describe these will of Greek people from nowhere to be something as it is describe on the words at the part of poetry ‘into the crystal that change like the fire’ which they change into something more powerful.

This poetry made to notice us that we can also create our own history in our time,we can’t just let people from old or nowhere generations disturb us by their intervention.As the reader i can also feel their will to break from the cage of life,these people on the story want a freedom for their life and country,these poetry perhaps not much stanza but it contains more than only his true meaning,by this poetry i can think more and also increase my knowledge on vocabulary and allegory meaning.The Greek as i known had many wars on that time,so i thought by this knowledge i can see why the author make their story into an poetry.

There are repetition on words ‘we are’ and on the last two stanza which are ‘however,there is something’.On words ‘we are’ i can see the author always remind us as the reader to always remember that history made by his time generation,not the others time,also these words repeated to us for motivation that we can create history on our own,words ‘we are’ really had strong influence.Then on the words ‘however,there is something’,there is means behind it that people on the next generation also can learn from their ancestor or the past by learn from their history and from the legacy that still remain and bemoan by some people who still live as the time from his time had passed away until now.

The poetry ordered very well by the author as the implied meaning shows these people fight from nowhere to be something,from water to crystal/diamong and to more powerful element,fire.And the author also ordered the poetry from past to present where people on the past fight for their own history and left the legacy for the next generation on the future which is present now.This poetry really effective on the way the author try to put some literary terms efficiently,some literary terms on this poetry include metaphor.

However this poetry made by Jorge Luis Borges really inspire me to do same thing which create history on my own time and left the legacy for the next generation,Jorge Luis Borges also show us,the reader that only with some stanza,he can explain something special and more from his true meaning.So the legacy that still left behind as the part of the history can be our knowledge and inspire us to do the same thing for someone or something we love such as family or country,also not forget to aim for good purpose if we want to make a history.