Elisabeth Jeremko

For this story, I really liked it in the beginning. The irish king asks the poet to come and read each year. After the first year, he is given a mirror of silver. Then next year, a mask. The third year, a dagger. Apparently the poet is Virgil. By the end of the story, the king tells the poet that tehy share the same sin -- of "having known Beauty, which is a gift forbidden mankind" (Borges, 454). Here is where I got lost. The gifts that the king gives seem to represent something, but I do not know what they would represent. As for the third poem, the king says that no marvels even compare with the poem. I do not understand why the poem would defeat the two men. Is it akin to the "Library of Babel" sceneario, where the lesson to be garnered is like the Tower of Babel biblical story -- that man cannot attain godly knowledge and awareness? The king becomes a beggar and never speaks of the poem again. Why is their involvement with the poem sinful? I find understanding the meaning of the story very frustrating.