Vallejo

"Juan López and John Ward" was one of Borges's final works, published in Argentina's "Clarín" in 1982 and later included in the poetry collection "The Conspirators."

Juan López and John Ward—one an Argentine youth who had loved English literature since childhood, the other a British youth who had loved Spanish literature since childhood—could have become friends. Yet their only meeting was on the Falkland Islands, after which they became martyrs for their respective countries:

They had been born into a strange age.

This planet had been divided into different nations, each furnished with loyalties, precious memories, a past undoubtedly heroic and grand, justice, grievances, a special mythology, bronze pioneers, commemorative days, demagogues, and badges. This division, so cherished by mapmakers, had always upheld war.

López was born in a city on the banks of the River Plate; Ward in the outskirts of the city Father Brown had walked through. He had learned Castilian in order to read "Don Quixote."

The other loved Conrad, whom he had first encountered in a church on Viamonte Street.

They could have been friends, but they faced each other only once, on several islands that were far too famous. Each of them was Cain, and Abel.

They were buried together. Snow and rotting earth knew them.

The story I am telling took place in an age we could not understand.

Borges had once written an essay about forgiveness, also about Cain and Abel. Many years later, they sat together again. Cain asked Abel for forgiveness, and Abel said there was a hole in his head and that he had forgotten long ago.

Forgiveness was difficult, but it kept evil and darkness from devouring one's heart. Albus Dumbledore had plenty of reasons to hate Muggles.

The old fool said to endure, then take revenge, but I