"Fragment" is a translation from Spanish of Borges, "Fragmento"; this translation by Norman Thomas di Giovanni was originally published in 1972.

Book is 38 pp. A deluxe, double-folio volume illustrated with "impressions" (uncolored embossing in the paper) by Pomodoro, who also designed the relief images in brass with which the book's front cover and case are fitted. The impressions are slightly abstract but evoke artifacts and other aspects of early medieval English material culture. The book contains—in addition to "Fragmento," "Composición escrito en un exemplar de le gesta de Beowulf," and their translations—the following poems also relating to early medieval English language, literature, and culture: "Al iniciar el estudio de la gramática anglosajona," "Un sajon (a.d. 944)" [sic, for 449], "Hengest cyning," "A un poeta sajón" (I), "A un poeta sajón" (II), and translations of each, as well as a brief introductory note by Borges on his "love of Saxondom" (9).

From the limitation statement: "This edition, limited to one hundred copies numbered in arabic and twenty in roman, was printed on a Washington handpress by Richard-Gabriel Rummonds in 1974 at the Plain Wrapper Press in Verona, Italy. The type is Horizon Light and was handset. The paper, dampened before printing, was handmade at the Richard de Bas Mill in Ambert, France" (note in back, beneath which Borges and Pomodoro had signed the copy seen [no. 22]).

The poem begins:

A sword.
An iron sword hammered out in the cold of dawn,
A sword carved with runes
That no one will overlook, that no one will interpret in full. (28)

And ends:

A sword to fit the hand
That will gain a kingdom and lose a kingdom,
A sword to fit the hand
That will bring down the forest of spears.
A sword to fit the hand of Beowulf. (28)

Not in MO2.

BAM (arabic no. 22 of XX + 100, in the Special Collections of Texas A&M University).