Defence of Borges

The round table presents the first in Russia edition of the complete collection of poems by Jorge Luis Borges. The literary fates of Vladimir Nabokov and Jorge Luis Borges are similar. In the minds of readers, their poems remain in the shadow of famous prose texts. Both are masters of repetition (plots and images); both have iconic individual attributes (butterflies and chess in Nabokov’s works, mirrors and labyrinths in Borges’ works); both were born in 1899 and felt like messengers of the previous century. As part of the meeting, three translators of Borges’ poems, i.e. Kirill Korkonosenko, Boris Kovalev and Anastasiia Miroliubova, will discuss the difficult history of the relationship between Nabokov and Borges; trace the evolution of the Argentine author’s style; and answer a question: what the Borges’ poetic formula is.