Borges Audio – Borges in His Own Voice
- At October 13, 2019
- By Great Quail
- In Borges
0
Borges Audio: Borges in His Own Voice
This section profiles Borges presenting lectures or reading from his own works. It is not the only place in the Garden of Forking Paths where you may hear Borges; the Borges Interviews page collects numerous video and audio interviews. The readings are presented in chronological order.
From Poemas 1923-1958
Read by Jorge Luis Borges
Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape, 1958
Reel-to-Reel
Listen at: Library of Congress
In 1943, the United States Library of Congress launched the “Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape,” commonly abbreviated AHLOT. Its mission was to “record audio recordings of poets and prose writers from Spain, Portugal, Latin America, the Caribbean and from the Hispanic Community in the United States reading from their works.” Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Rockefeller Foundation funded representatives to travel to Central and South America to record poets reading their works. In November 1958, Jorge Luis Borges recorded eighteen poems in Buenos Aires for the AHLOT. Occupying two 7” tape reels, the recording lasts 36 minutes and is indexed accordingly:
1. Un soldado de Urbina (min. 00:01)
2. El tango (min. 00:53)
3. Una llave en Salónica (min. 04:30)
4. Límites (min. 05:21)
5. El general Quiroga va en coche al muere (min. 7:51)
6. Fundación mitológica de Buenos Aires (min. 9:52)
7. Baltazar Gracián (min. 12:23)
8. El Gólem (min. 14:47)
9. Poema conjetural (min. 19:01)
10. Página para recordar al Coronel Suárez, vencedor en Junín (min. 21:43)
11. Una brújula (min. 24:13)
12. La noche cíclica (min. 25:05)
13. Manuscrito hallado en un libro de Joseph Conrad (min. 27:32)
14. Un sajón (A.D. 449) (min. 30:37)
15. Un patío (min. 33:07)
16. Remordimiento por cualquier defunción (min. 33:42)
17. Llaneza (min. 34:35)
18. Mateo XXV, 30 (min. 35:30)
In 2015, the Library of Congress placed the entire AHLOT online.
Additional Information
You can read about the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape at the Library of Congress web site. They maintain a small Borges page that links directly to the AHLOT Borges recording.
Conferencia de Borges sobre James Joyce y el ‘Ulises’
Lecture by Jorge Luis Borges
La Plata: La universidad nacional de esa ciudad (UNLP), 1960
Listen at: YouTube
In 1960 Borges delivered a lecture about James Joyce at UNLP in La Plata. Billed as a “master class,” the lecture was recorded by the university’s radio station.
Jorge Luis Borges por él mismo sus poemas y su voz
Jorge Luis Borges: Himself, His Poems, and His Voice
 Por él mismo sus poemas y su voz LP: AMB Discografica 123-1, 1967 |
 Por él mismo sus poemas y su voz CD: Colección Visor De Poesía IBCD-130, 1999 |
 Por él mismo: un libro sonoro CD: AMB S.R.L. ISBN 987-20196-1-4, 2002 Listen at: YouTube |
In September 1967, Borges went to a recording studio in Buenos Aires to read a few dozen poems, milongas, and prose fragments. Eighteen of these were selected for an LP called Jorge Luis Borges por él mismo sus poemas y su voz (“Jorge Luis Borges: Himself, His Poems, and His Voice”). According to the University of Notre Dame Archive:
[The album] contains some of Borges’ most well known poetry from his first publications, Luna de enfrente and Cuaderno San Martín, to his later works, El hacedor and El otro, el mismo. Before some of the poems, Borges briefly talks about the motive or the circumstances which inspired him to write it. These introductions give the listener a sense of what it would be like to sit with Borges among the company of his most intimate friends and listen to the “maestro” recite and comment on his poetry. As José Edmundo Clemente comments on the back of the album jacket, “Solamente la voz tiene la frescura del presente. Lo digo porque ningún texto reemplazará la felicidad de oír al propio Borges decir los versos de Borges.” (trans: “Only the voice has the freshness of the present. I say this because no text will ever be able to recreate the joy of listening to Borges recite his own poetry.”)
The original LP features the following tracks:
Lado 1
1. El General Quiroga va en coche al muere (1.42)
2. Poema conjetural (2.50)
3. Fundación mítica de Buenos Aires (2.26)
4. Un soldado de Urbina (0.50)
5. A un viejo poeta (0.50)
6. Baltasar Gracián (2.20)
7. El Gólem (4.23)
Lado 2
1. El tango (3.25)
2. Milonga de dos hermanos (1.15)
3. Milonga de Jacinto Chiclana (1.50)
4. Alusión a una sombra de mil ochocientos noventa y tantos (0.50)
5. La noche cíclica (2.45)
6. Límites (2.21)
7. A un poeta menor de la antología (1.25)
8. Everness (0.50)
9. Spinoza (0.47)
10. Poema de los dones (2.38)|
11. Le Regret D’Heraclite (0.12)
In 1999, Borges por él mismo was re-released on CD by Visor, with a 48-page booklet containing all the poems and accompanying commentary. In 2002, A few extra selections were added, some pieces were removed, and the album was retitled Borges por él mismo: un libro sonoro as part of AMB’s “libro sonoro” (“Sound Book”) series. The CD contains the following sequence of poems:
Track Listing
1. El General Quiroga va en coche al muere
2. Poema conjectural
3. Fundación mítica de Buenos Aires
4. Manuscrito hallado en un libro de Joseph Conrad
5. Página para recordar al Coronel Suárez, vencedor de Junín
6. El Gólem
7. A Leopoldo Lugones
8. Borges y yo
9. Milonga de dos hermanos
10. Milonga de Jacinto Chiclana
11. La noche que en el Sur lo velaron
12. Alusión a la muerte del Coronel Francisco Borges
13. Límites
14. Del rigor de la ciencia
15. Cuarteta
16. El poeta declara su nombradía
17. Le regret d’Heraclite
18. Everness
19. Evyghect
20. Spinoza
21. Texas
22. Poema de los dones
23. Ajedrez 1
24. Ajedrez 2
25. Arte poética
26. El mar
27. Un soldado de Lee
28. Milonga de Albornoz
29. El Laberinto
30. Un poeta menor de la antología
Additional Information
A simple Internet search reveals that YouTube is filled with snippets from Borges por él mismo. However, David Andrés Hernández Vargas has kindly placed Borges por él mismo: un libro sonoro online as a single file.
Borges por Borges
Read by Jorge Luis Borges
CD: Sello: Secretaría de Cultura/Presidencia de la Nación, 1999
This Argentine recording features eleven tracks of Borges reciting poetry. Submitted by a Garden visitor in the early 2000s, I have not been able to find anything else about Borges por Borges. Most likely, its contents are recycled from the original 1967 sessions that produced Borges por él mismo. Any additional information is welcome.
Track Listing
1. Página para recordar al Coronel Suárez, vencedor en Junín
2. El Gólem
3. Borges y yo
4. Milonga de dos hermanos
5. Milonga de Jacinto Chiclana
6. La noche que en el sur lo velaron
7. Límites
8. Cuarteta
9. El poeta declara su nombradía
10. Le regret d’Heclarite
11. Poema de los dones
This Craft of Verse
This Craft of Verse
Lectures by Jorge Luis Borges
Edited by Calin-Andrei Mihailescu
CD: Harvard University Press, 2000
Listen at: YouTube
In 1967–1968, Borges delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard University. Six lectures about poetry, the lectures were presented in English and recorded on tape. Unfortunately, those tapes were lost for thirty years! Only after they were accidentally discovered where they finally released to the public and transcribed, collected under the title This Craft of Verse. The Garden of Forking Paths has a full description and review of This Craft of Verse available on the “Borges Reviews” section.
Additional Information
You may purchase This Craft of Verse at Amazon.com. You may also listen to the complete set of lectures on YouTube.
Dreams and English Literature
Lecture by Jorge Luis Borges
Montréal: Sir George Williams University, 1968
Listen at: SpokenWeb Montréal
In 1968 Borges delivered a lecture entitled “Dreams and English Literature” at Sir George Williams University in Montréal, Québec. The lecture was recorded, and is now online at SpokenWeb Montreal along with a complete transcript.
Siete noches
Seven Nights
Siete noches
Buenos Aires: Teatro Coliseo, 1977
Listen at: Internet Archive
Between June and August of 1977, Borges delivered seven lectures at the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires. The lectures were taped and transcribed, appearing over the next few years as pirated records and “cut and mangled” newspaper articles. In 1980, Borges worked with producer Roy Bartholomew to edit and revise the lectures for Mexico’s Fondo de Cultura Económica, who published them as Siete noches.
Exploring a range of eclectic territory, the lectures are titled after their principal subjects. All of the lectures may be found online; clicking the link takes you to the YouTube clip. The English titles are the Eliot Weinberger translations.
1. La Divina Comedia (“The Divine Comedy”)
2. La pesadilla (“Nightmares”)
3. El Libro de las mil y una noches (“The One Thousand and One Nights”)
4. El budismo (“Buddhism”)
5. ¿Qué es la poesía? (“Poetry”)
6. La cábala (“The Kabbalah”)
7. La ceguera (“Blindness”)
Additional Information
Alternate versions may be found by a YouTube search for Siete noches. More information about the published English translation is found under Borges Works: Lectures, Conversations & Interviews.
Borges on Audio
Main Page — Return to the “Borges on Audio” main page and index.
Audiobooks — Selections of Borges’ short stories and poetry made available through Audible and other sources.
YouTube Readings — Readings of Borges set to music, video, or animations and placed online.
Commentary — Audiobooks and online readings about Borges, or that make extensive mention of Borges.
Author: Allen B. Ruch
Last Modified: 24 August 2024
Main Borges Page: The Garden of Forking Paths
Contact: quail(at)shipwrecklibrary(dot)com