ktjh,von,nasxmeithe universe which others call the library is composed of an ind
efinite and perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries, with vast air shafts
 between, surrounded by very low railings. from any of the hexagons one can see,
 interminably, the upper and lower floors. the distribution of the galleries is 
invariable. twenty shelves, five long shelves per side, cover all the sides exce
pt two their height, which is the distance from floor to ceiling, scarcely excee
ds that of a normal bookcase. one of the free sides leads to a narrow hallway wh
ich opens onto another gallery, identical to the first and to all the rest. to t
he left and right of the hallway there are two very small closets. in the first,
 one may sleep standing up in the other, satisfy ones fecal necessities. also th
rough here passes a spiral stairway, which sinks abysmally and soars upwards to 
remote distances. in the hallway there is a mirror which faithfully duplicates a
ll appearances. men usually infer from this mirror that the library is not infin
ite if it were, why this illusory duplication i prefer to dream that its polishe
d surfaces represent and promise the infinite ... light is provided by some sphe
rical fruit which bear the name of lamps. there are two, transversally placed, i
n each hexagon. the light they emit is insufficient, incessant.       like all m
en of the library, i have traveled in my youth i have wandered in search of a bo
ok, perhaps the catalogue of catalogues now that my eyes can hardly decipher wha
t i write, i am preparing to die just a few leagues from the hexagon in which i 
was born. once i am dead, there will be no lack of pious hands to throw me over 
the railing my grave will be the fathomless air my body will sink endlessly and 
decay and dissolve in the wind generated by the fall, which is infinite. i say t
hat the library is unending. the idealists argue that the hexagonal rooms are a 
necessary form of absolute space or, at least, of our intuition of space. they r
eason that a triangular or pentagonal room is inconceivable. the mystics claim t
hat their ecstasy reveals to them a circular chamber containing a great circular
 book, whose spine is continuous and which follows the complete circle of the wa
lls but their testimony is suspect their words, obscure. this cyclical book is g
od. let it suffice now for me to repeat the classic dictum the library is a sphe
re whose exact center is any one of its hexagons and whose circumference is inac
cessible.       there are five shelves for each of the hexagons walls each shelf
 contains thirtyfive books of uniform format each book is of four hundred and te
n pages each page, of forty lines, each line, of some eighty letters which are b
lack in color. there are also letters on the spine of each book these letters do
 not indicate or prefigure what the pages will say. i know that this incoherence
 at one time seemed mysterious. before summarizing the solution whose discovery,
 in spite of its tragic projections, is perhaps the capital fact in history i wi
sh to recall a few axioms.       first the library exists ab aeterno. this truth
, whose immediate corollary is the future eternity of the world, qarfhp,l eio,dc