Can "los cristales" be translated as "mirrors" or "looking glasses"?

Question

I'm trying to translate another poem by Jorge Luis Borges into English:

Mis Libros

Mis libros (que no saben que yo existo)
son tan parte de mí como este rostro
de sienes grises y de grises ojos
que vanamente busco en los cristales
y que recorro con la mano cóncava.
No sin alguna lógica amargura
pienso que las palabras esenciales
que me expresan están en esas hojas
que no saben quién soy, no en las que he escrito.
Mejor así. Las voces de los muertos
me dirán para siempre.

My attempt is:

My Books

My books (that don't know I exist)
are as much a part of me as this face
of temples grey and grey eyes
that vainly I seek in looking glasses
and that I retrace with concave hand.
Not without bitter logic
I think that the essential words
that express myself exist in their pages
which know not who I am, not in those I have written.
Better that way. The voices of the dead
speak to me forever.

But I made a flying leap when I got to los cristales. Normally I would expect it to mean just the same as its cognate: "the crystals". But that doesn't fit the context very well. (Why would he seek his face in crystals?) But Borges didn't use los espejos, which I believe is the usual word for mirror. Does my old-fashioned word for mirror ("looking glass") capture any of Borges meaning in the poem?

Answer 1

Here, I would understand cristal as a crystal made surface that give poorer reflections than a mirror. Think when you look through a window and see your reflection on the glass. I do not dare to give an English translation.

On the other hand, I think the phrase Not without bitter logic has a subtle different meaning. He says that he feels bitterness, but it is logic to feel it.

Finally, I think the last phrase me dirán para siempre means that the dead will talk about him. He has become text and they will say that text.

Answer 2

My Larousse Gran Diccionario does in fact give mirror as one sense, but of the other senses, glass, window pane, or lens (or a pair of spectacles) might also fit:

cristal nm

  -1. Esp (material) glass; el suelo está lleno de cristales there's glass all over the floor q cristal ahumado smoked glass; cristal blindado bullet-proof glass; cristal esmerilado ground glass; cristal inastillable splinter-proof glass; cristal labrado cut glass; cristal tintado tinted glass

  -2. (vidrio fino) crystal q cristal de Murano Venetian glass; cristal tallado cut glass

  -3. (de gafas) lens; Esp (lámina) (de ventana) (window) pane; Esp bajar el cristal (ventanilla) to open o roll down the window; EXPR todo depende del cristal con el que se mire it all depends how you look at it q cristal de aumento magnifying lens

  -4. (mineral) crystal q cristal de cuarzo quartz crystal; cristal líquido liquid crystal; cristal de roca rock crystal

  -5. Esp (espejo) mirror

Also at least one translator of this poem into English has chosen mirror.

Answer 3

I think the term "los cristales" is most referred to "the windows" where the character swipe the front of the hand over them.

Now that reviewing the poem I found the text: "...como este rostro [...] que [...] busco en los cristales" so I think that text can be translated as "...as this face [...] that [...] I seek in the mirrors"

Answer 4

First off, the proper word for a mirror is "espejo" with the "j" being pronounced as an "H", and secondly, it would be in the singular form of "el espejo". El in the masculine form being the proper order since the word "espejo" ends on "O" and "O" signifies the masculine form and words ending in an "A" are in the feminine form requiring "la" as in "la vaca" = the cow". In a plural usage just add "s" and you have either "las muchachas" or "los muchachos", "the girls" and "the boys" respectively. "Cristales" means "crystals" such as in a chandeleirs or if used in the sense of crystal-ware but only in the informal and familiar manner. Los would only be used for multiple mirrors and in Mexican society, having more than one mirror in any room is considered vain and superficial.

By the way, a glass as in a window would be a "vidrio", the entire window would be "vantana" and a window as in a service center where you advance to the next window would be a "ventanilla". The example of "broken glass" in a parking lot would be on a more specific level and the source of the "broken glass" would be noted, usually from glass bottles = "botellas quebradas" meaning the word "broken being used to describe bottles which is always feminine so the word to break would be conjugated to the femenine, however "carros quebra dos" being conjugated to the masculine since "carros" is always masculine due to the "os" ending. An eyeglass lens is a "lente' but eyeglasses are "los lentes" and in the end of the word.the masculine due to the lack of an "a" near the end of the word. Oh yeah, "GringoS" drink from a glass, but we Mexicans always drink from a cup or "una copa" or "un vaso" which to us Mexicans is like white folks drinking from a glass. Again masculine due to an "O" ending.