I don't like poetry that much, in fact I hardly read it. Perhaps I should give it a chance but everything I've ever read I never really liked all that much, so why read it at all? I REALLY try to avoid poetry in translation. I just don't see how you can bring the essence of what is a poem across into a completely different language. The little I've read of poetry that originated in English I just can't imagine finding precisely the right words in another language (Ihave taken German, Spanish, and French so I know a little about what I'm talking about). That is why I avoid poetry in translation even more than in English. Even the grammatical structure is so different in languages like German, for instance. I can't imagine reading all those Nobel laureate poets that wrote in Czech, Polish, Swedish, unless I knew their native languages; like reading a prose summary of each poem.

Okay, so obviously I made an exception here. I love Borges fiction, where even his prose must lose a lot of meaning and nuance in translation. He comes across as a master of language even in English translation. At least this book does it right: Spanish on one page and English on the facing page. Unfortunately my Spanish is slightly above rudimentary, mostly high school language classes and the bit I picked up from living in Texas for 8 years (anyone who lives in the southwest US and doesn't pick up at least a smattering of Spanish is stupid or ethnocentric or both). I can pick up major differences but can't really say I "enjoy" the Spanish version.

However, this book was marvelous to me. Borges poetry was immediately accessible to me, moreso even than his fiction. His poems are lyrical and his references for the most part straightforward. I'm not an Argentine scholar so some things were definitely over my head, but I even got the sense, I think, in most cases. I'm still suspicious of poetry in translation especially when still rhyming (how can these words be the correct ones?). I will always tend to avoid it in favor poetry written natively in the English language. I avoid most poetry anyway. But I would recommend this to anyone interested in Borges writings.

He should have won a Nobel Prize but politics being what they are he was consistently snubbed. Did I mention I hate literary prizes as well? ( )

Prior to first reading something by Borges in 2019, I had thought I would never again come across a writer who could fundamentally surprise and enthral me. By that point, I had read hundreds of creditable books and identified a number of favourite authors; from a baseline of zero, I had developed idiosyncratic tastes and preferences in a deep pool of literature. I had exhausted the entire corpuses of some of my favoured writers, and thought nothing would ever again have that sort of newness and originality I found in my initial explorations. Nothing compares to the excitement of your first loves.

Then I found Borges, even though he'd never been hidden. This was, remarkably, something new and original, and I've been delighted by each of his stories I've read since. Even so, I was a bit wary of picking up his Selected Poems. I can't really explain why, as I enjoy poetry, including Spanish-language poetry, but something in me told me that his careful, laconic writing style and inverted metaphysical fantasies threatened to come across as archaic, indulgent and obtuse in a poem.

This assumption proved so ridiculously wide of the mark that Borges' Selected Poems has been one of the most enjoyable reading experiences since… well, since my last Borges collection. In fact, his poems here are so closely aligned to his incredible short stories that they're all but interchangeable. In one of the prologues to the collections anthologised here (yes, even his prologues are fascinating), Borges declares that "the differences between prose and verse are slight" (pg. 267), and that's certainly the case for his own offerings in each medium. Selected Poems even includes a few additions that might be better classified as short stories, including, as the second-to-last selection, a rather cool metaphysical ghost story.

Part of the reason for the writer's success as a poet is his erudition and craft; Selected Poems covers his entire 60+ year career, and were it not for the chronological order of the book you would not necessarily be able to tell the years apart. The only difference with the later poems – aside from perhaps, to more astute eyes than mine, a better grasp of form – is that new themes of "old age and ethics" have been added to "the mirrors, mazes and swords that my resigned reader expects" (pg. 265). Rather than plot or character or lyric, Borges leads with the idea, and his consistency across the decades confirms something I've long believed: that there are some ideas which can only be delivered in a poem, others that can only be told in a short story, and some which deserve a novel. It is the medium that must be found that best fits the idea.

And Borges' ideas are among the best. Contrary to his self-deprecating observation quoted above, he writes about more than mirrors, mazes and swords. There are deep metaphysical concepts, arresting characters and wine-dark imagery, all rendered in that cool, laconic style which will be deeply familiar to readers of his short stories. Selected Poems has a number of different translators, not only from collection to collection but from poem to poem, but Borges' voice is the dominant one. Aptly enough, for a bilingual poet, you easily forget that they have been translated. Borges resonates strangely but powerfully in English, and while I will continue to explore his work, I'm glad I've taken this lucrative diversion into his poetry. Never doubt Borges – not one of his labyrinths will ever lead you astray. ( )

This was a very decent of poems by the skilled Borges. The topics, and style, ranges widely and this is one of the collection's great strengths. The subject matter is deep, inspiring, and sophisticated. It was a good read.

3.5 stars. ( )

Although I got sort of suspicious of some of these translations (despite the celebrity names), Borges' eclectic humor and intelligence rang clear throughout most of these works. My favorite English versions came from W.S. Merwin, but when I was able to read the Spanish versions, they trumped all. ( )

Although I got sort of suspicious of some of these translations (despite the celebrity names), Borges' eclectic humor and intelligence rang clear throughout most of these works. My favorite English versions came from W.S. Merwin, but when I was able to read the Spanish versions, they trumped all. ( )