Apropos the last line, I think it changes and unduly poeticizes a line that in Borges is far more straightforward. The line doesn't say that the bird is "moving in sleep," as if it sleep were the space in or through which the bird were moving. The line simply says "and something of a sleeping bird that moves."
Eric, I don't agree with you that él refers to idioma. It seems to me the translation gets it right as "he," though even if we substituted "it" in place of "he" (a plausible substitution) I don't think it would be understood as referring back to idioma. It would be just like tú,referring to no one in particular. (By the way, not that it matters, but idioma isn't the only masculine noun preceding él. We also have tropel.)
Last edited by Roger Slater; 10-09-2013 at 07:21 PM.
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