The Relativity of Time
The twins meet again after seventy years.
One wandered through the cosmos at the speed of light, crossing abysses of stars as one walks through a dream.
The other remained on Earth, guardian of the days, of identical mornings and repeated nights.
On the banks of the river Pactolus 1 there were three shadows.
The Physicist spoke first, with the voice of one who measures the invisible, invoking the relativity of time:
— The traveler is younger. Light does not only illuminate, it slows the clock. Time is elastic. To the one who rode the ray, the cosmos spared the years.
The porteño, smiling from behind a haze of memories, replied:
— No, the younger one is the one who stayed. For time is not a number, but a library.
Each memory is a birth. The one who lost himself in speed brought back only silence, with nothing to forget; the one who remained walked through many labyrinths, prodigal in bifurcations, and from each of them he emerged someone else.
The Greek looked at the river and murmured:
— Neither is younger. The river does not ask the age of the waters. The two are the same current, and every instant is the first and the last.
The twins looked at each other and no longer thought themselves twins.
But when both bent down to drink from the Pactolus, they saw a single face reflected in the current, broken into infinite mirrors.
Porto Velho, August 2025
M. – Liber Sum
NOTE:
- River Pactolus: a small river in Turkey that flows from Mount Tmolus through the ruins of Sardis before joining the Gediz River in western Turkey. It has been famous since antiquity for the rich deposits of gold found along its course. According to Greek mythology, King Midas washed himself in this river to free himself from the curse that turned everything he touched into gold, which would explain the river’s legendary wealth in gold. ↩︎
On the relativity of time, also read the author’s short story:
About Borges and the relativity of time and memory, see also:
https://www.themarginalian.org/2016/09/19/a-new-refutation-of-time-borges/
About Borges, see this insightful personal recollection, “Lunch with Borges,” in Harvard Review:
Comments
You may send comments about this short story using your name or a nickname.
Your e-mail will not be displayed publicly.
To preserve the environment of Liber Sum, all comments are read and approved by M. – Liber Sum before being published.
Pingback: Time That Slips Away — Quintus Flaccus (2025)