[1] The narrative hinges on Borges's self-perception as a writer, underscoring the difference between the private self that cannot recognize his persona or public mask as a famous storyteller.
The former insists that he has nothing to do with the task of writing, that only Borges alone imagines the stories and completes the work of setting them down on paper.
On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals.
In 1955 he was appointed director of the National Public Library (Biblioteca Nacional) and professor of Literature at the University of Buenos Aires.
[2] Multiple professional and academic translators have developed English-language translations of the story, the most notable of these being the versions by Andrew Hurley, James E. Irby, Ilan Stavans, and Kenneth Krabbenhoft,[3] all of which have been published in notable collections of Borges's work and Latin American poetry.