Funes the Memorious

"Funes the Memorious"
Short story by Jorge Luis Borges
Original titleFunes el memorioso
CountryArgentina
LanguageSpanish
Genre(s)short story
Publication
Published inFicciones
PublisherEditorial Sur
Media typePrint
Publication date1942
Published in English1954

"Funes the Memorious" (original Spanish title Funes el memorioso)[1] is a fantasy short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986). First published in La Nación of June 1942, it appeared in the 1944 anthology Ficciones, part two (Artifices). The first English translation appeared in 1954 in Avon Modern Writing No. 2.

"Funes the Memorious" is the tale of one Ireneo Funes, who, after falling off his horse and receiving a bad head injury, acquired the amazing talent—or curse—of remembering absolutely everything.[2]

  1. ^ The title has also been translated as "Funes, His Memory." The Spanish "memorioso" means "having a vast memory," and is a fairly common[citation needed] word in both Spanish and Portuguese languages. Because "memorious" is a rare word in modern English, some translators opt for this alternate translation.
  2. ^ Quiroga, Rodrigo Quian (2010). "In Retrospect: Funes the Memorious". Nature. 463 (7281): 611. Bibcode:2010Natur.463..611Q. doi:10.1038/463611a.