The sky was as hard and transparent as a black diamond. Beneath the starlight the vast plain stretched out to the limitless immensity of the unknown. The warm, acrid smell of urine mingled with the smells of the open fields. Bucich said:
“How great our country is, kid …”
And then Martín, contemplating the truck driver’s gigantic silhouette outlined against the starry sky as the two of them pissed together, felt a perfect peace enter his tormented soul for the first time.
Eyeing the horizon as he buttoned up his pants, Bucich added:
“All right, let’s get some shuteye, kid. We’ll be off at five. We’re going to be crossing the Colorado tomorrow.”
THE BEGINNING
Let the conversation begin …
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First published as Sobre Héroes y Tumbas 1961
First published in this translation 1981
Published in Penguin Classics 2017
Copyright © Fabril Editorial, 1961
Translation copyright © Helen R. Lane, 1981
Illustration by Alberto Breccia from the graphic novel Informe Sobre Ciegos, adapting Ernesto Sabato’s Sobre heroes y tumbas
Reproduced by kind permission of the heirs of Alberto Breccia
ISBN: 978-0-141-98617-3
FOREWORD
fn1 A small tower or belvedere found on the grounds of old-fashioned country houses. [Author’s note]
PART ONE: THE DRAGON AND THE PRINCESS
fn1 One of the many popular radio musicians who played the sort of syrupy versions of Strauss waltzes and Chopin pieces calculated to appeal to the ear of sentimental female listeners. [Author’s note]
fn2 The great Argentine composer and singer of tangos. [Translator’s note]
fn3 The Argentines won their independence from Spain in 1910. General Belgrano was one of the first (impromptu) leaders of the forces of liberation. He created the national flag, and was the first to require an oath of allegiance to it. Billiken is a children’s magazine. “The immaculate flag” is a phrase from a patriotic song sung in classrooms. [Author’s note]
fn4 In Buenos Aires such inscriptions are common on delivery vans and trucks. Often they are picturesquely philosophical—one on an ancient truck, for example, that read: “I too was once the latest model.” [Author’s note]
fn5 Suburban, semirural properties belonging to old Argentine families. [Author’s note]
fn6 Argentina took up arms against Spain in 1810 and won its independence. There then followed a long period of civil war between Unitarists and Federalists. The Federalist dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas ruled the country with an iron hand for twenty years with the aid of the Mazorca, a sort of terrorist political police. During this time Rosas’s most stubborn enemies, among them the Unitarist general, Lavalle, a hero of the fight for Independence, lived in exile in Montevideo. In 1840 Lavalle, at the head of his celebrated Legion, began a campaign against Rosas. The struggle lasted nearly two years, and in the end nearly all the Unitarists were annihilated after a retreat of eight hundred leagues to the north of Buenos Aires, fleeing toward the Bolivian border. [Author’s note]
fn7 A strong cold wind from the vast pampas to the Southwest. [Author’s note]
fn8 Between 1806 and 1807, the English, then at war with Spain, twice invaded the Río de la Plata in order to take over these Spanish colonies. Among the English troops was the famous 71st, which had covered itself with glory in many battles. The Creoles successfully resisted both invasions; these victories made them aware of their strength and led them to take up arms against their Spanish oppressor. Many English officers found the country delightful and settled permanently in Argentina. They became so thoroughly integrated into the mainstream of Argentine life that they later took part in the country’s civil wars. [Author’s note]
fn9 White dove
crossing the vale
go tell one and all
that death has come to Lavalle.
fn10 Maté is a typical Argentine infusion, drunk through a metal tube. [Author’s note]
fn11 Estancia: A large rural estate owned by the dominant old-line families of the Argentine oligarchy. [Author’s note]
fn12 Here is Buenos Aires. Time, that brings men love or gold
has left me just this faded rose, this vain skein
of streets repeating names of old
that are my blood: Laprida, Cabrera, Suárez, Soler …
Names full of secret echoes now
of reveilles and republics, chargers, combat in the cool dawn air
of glorious victories, and soldiers’ solemn deaths …
Poem by Jorge Luis Borges, the famous contemporary Argentine writer. [Author’s note]
fn13 I want to die with you,
Without confession and without God,
Crucified in my pain,
As though pinned in rancor’s embrace.
PART TWO: THE INVISIBLE FACES
fn1 When the trumpet sounded the alarm
We had to march off with Garibaldi.
fn2 Christmas night
is a great feast
for Our Lord was born
in a lowly manger.
fn3 For “do you understand?” An Anglicism, frequent among the upper classes in Buenos Aires. [Author’s note]
fn4 A pompous art-for-art’s sake Argentine writer whom the younger generations make fun of. [Author’s note]
fn5 An allusion to Perón. [Author’s note]
fn6 In June of 1955 there was an uprising of sailors against Perón, and navy planes bombed gatherings of his supporters. That same night, after the failure of this coup d’état, Peronist shock groups set fire to a number of churches since the Church had sided against Perón. [Author’s note]
PART THREE: REPORT ON THE BLIND
fn1 Founder of the Argentine Socialist Party. [Author’s note]
fn2 Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was one of the young intellectuals who fought Rosas’s tyranny from exile, writing in Chile his famous Facundo, one of Argentina’s most important literary works. After Rosas’s downfall, Sarmiento was one of the major figures in the movement for national reconstruction. On becoming president of Argentina (1868–74), his influence and his office enabled him to put many of his ideals into practice. Thanks in large part to his campaign for public education, combined with a wave of European immigration, Argentina under his presidency became a model of social progress far ahead of its time. [Author’s note]
fn3 A famous Buenos Aires spiritualist organization. [Author’s note]
PART FOUR: AN UNKNOWN GOD
fn1 Roberto Arlt was one of the great writers of this period. A populist writer with strong metaphysical overtones, he might best be described as a sort of existentialist avant la lettre, a writer-philosopher whose origins were the city streets, not the university. [Author’s note]
fn2 The symbolic color of the Unitarists; that of the Federalists was red. [Author’s note]
fn3 Sky overhead, firmament veiled in clouds
by Dorrego’s death …
Ernesto Sabato, On Heroes and Tombs
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