Borges:...I remember a joke of Oscar Wilde's: a friend of his had a tie with yellow, red and so on in it, and Wilde said, "Oh, my dear friend, only a deaf man could wear a tie like that!"
He might have been talking about the yellow necktie I have now.
B: Ah, well. I remember telling that story to a lady who missed the point. She said, "Of course, it must be because being deaf he couldn't hear what people were saying about his necktie." That might have amused Oscar Wilde, no?
I'd like to have heard his reply to that.
B: Yes, of course. I never heard of such a case of something being so perfectly misunderstood. The perfection of stupidity. Of course, Wilde's remark is a witty translation of an idea; in Spanish as well as English you speak of a "loud colour." A "loud colour" is a common phrase, but then the things that are said in literature are always the same. What is important is the way they are said.
From an interview of Jorge Luis Borges in Latin Americcan Writers at Work (Modern Library: 2003, P.16)
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