Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

About “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”

"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a short story by the 20th-century Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. It was first published in the Argentinian journal Sur in May 1940, with a postscript dated 1947. The first English translation appeared in 1961. The story is told through a first-person narrative and centers on the discovery of the fictional country of Uqbar and its legend of Tlön, a world where inhabitants believe in subjective idealism. The story explores themes of metaphysics, language, and epistemology. It is longer than typical Borges works, with approximately 5,600 words. The story alludes to intellectual figures and engages with ideas common in philosophical fiction.