The Plot

To crown his horror, Caesar, when set upon at the foot of a statue by his friends' impatient knives, sees among the blades and the faces that of Marcus Junius Brutus, his protegé, perhaps even his son. Ceasing to defend himself, Caesar calls out, 'You, too, my son!' Both Shakespeare and Quevedo have drawn on this poignant cry.

Fate takes delight in repetitions, variants, symmetries; nineteen centuries later, in the south of the Province of Buenos Aires, a gaucho is attacked by other gauchos and, as he falls, he recognizes among them his godson. Mildly reproachful, in slow surprise, the man says - and the words must be heard, not read - 'Pero, che!' He is killed, never knowing that he's died so that a scene may be re-enacted.

[1957]