"Death and the Compass" is a short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. Published in May 1942, it was included in the 1944 collection Ficciones. In 1951, however, Ficciones appeared in French, followed soon after by an English translation. This collection shows tahat the author is a world-class (if highly unclassifiable) artist - a brilliant, lyrical miniaturist, who could pose the great questions of existence on the head of pin.