looking for it, I went to a website where a French translation has been done by a member of this site, which is quite far from the original, and I really don't see how to translate this sentence into French, any translation sounds weird, and doesn't satisfy me.
here is the link (I was surprised to see borges's avatar there!)
Personally I like Eco very much. I didn't read any of his novels but some of his non-narrative books. I would suggest Il Secondo Diario Minimo, but it needs to be read in Italian since it's almost entirely based (if I remember well) on pun on words and linguistic exercises, some of them very funny...he's a genius.