“A Soldier of Urbina,” from El otro, el mismo (The Self and the Other, 1946), is typical of Borges’s mature poetry. Classical in structure and containing both historical and literary allusions, it is also an outstanding example of Borgesian metaphysics.

An Italianate sonnet written in hendecasyllables, the poem’s form—typical of the Castilian Renaissance—alludes to its content: the improbable fate of a 16th-century Spanish soldier. The central conceit, an obscure reference in the title made clear only in the last line, is that this weary veteran of the regiment of Diego of Urbina is Miguel de Cervantes.

As is often the case in Borges’s conjectural treatments of history, the future author of Don Quixote is portrayed at the furthest point from his ultimate destiny: “Sospechándose indigno de otra hazaña / . . . A sórdidos oficios resignado” (Beginning to fear his own unworthiness / . . . resigning himself to minor duty).

Another common Borgesian motif is the mirror relationship between reality and art. Like the protagonist of his unwritten masterpiece, the unnamed Cervantes retreats from “la saña de lo real” (the cruel weight of reality) into a “mágico pasado” (magical past). Borges, however, rewrites literary history by replacing the worn-out chivalric romances that actually inspired Cervantes’s parody with more consecrated ballads: The Song of Roland and the Arthurian legends.

This curious substitution recalls Borges’s own fascination with the medieval epic and in doing so creates a typically Borgesian labyrinth entwining more than 1,000 years of the European canon.

Yet another instance of literary reflexivity is the dream metaphor. A prominent metaphysical motif in Borges’s own writing, the paradoxical relationship between dream and reality also evokes the baroque poetry of Cervantes’s contemporaries: Francisco de Quevedo, Luis de Góngora, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca. It also recalls Borges’s almost mystical conception of artistic creation.

The final tercet thus reveals both the identity of the melancholy soldier and the divine madness that is the secret of artistic creation: “Atravesando el fondo de algún sueño. / Por él ya andaban don Quijote y Sancho” (Suddenly plunging deep in a dream of his own, / he came on Sancho and Don Quixote, riding).

Bibliography
Borges, Jorge Luis. “A Soldier of Urbina.” In Personal Anthology, translated by Alastair Reid, 111. New York: Grove Press, 1967.

Categories: Latin American Literature, Literature, World Literature

Tags: A Soldier of Urbina analysis, A Soldier of Urbina character study, A Soldier of Urbina criticism, A Soldier of Urbina plot, A Soldier of Urbina poem study, A Soldier of Urbina summary, A Soldier of Urbina themes, Borges and Cervantes, Borges and Don Quixote, Borges and Góngora, Borges and Quevedo, Borges artistic creation, Borges dream motif, Borges historical allusion, Borges literary analysis, Borges medieval references, Borges metaphysical literature, Borges mirror reality, Borges poetic metaphysics, Borges poetic structure, Borges poetry analysis, Borges sonnet criticism, Jorge Luis Borges literary themes, metaphysical poetry Borges