In 1984, Borges came to Greece, specifically to Athens, and then to Rethymnon, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Crete
Maria Kodama, the widow of the famous Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, died on Sunday in Buenos Aires at the age of 86, due to complications from cancer, her family announced in a press release.
She was a writer, translator, collaborator and sole curator of the work of Borges, who literary critics consider to be among the most important poets, essayists and novelists of his time.
The famous author of “The Book of Imaginary Creatures” also died at the age of 86 in June 1986 in Geneva, Switzerland, two months after he married Maria Kodama.
Her relationship with Borges – one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century – began when they discovered they shared loves: the English language, the old Anglo-Saxon language, Icelandic…
She met him when she was still only sixteen and studying literature. Her father took her to hear a lecture by the author.
“I miss Borges and the way we used to have fun. My friends used to tell me: ‘Dating the man of the labyrinths (s.s. a frequent image in the works of Borges) is scary.’ But he was a cheerful man, and his labyrinths fascinated me. I spent time with him. I’m not a masochist, he was lovable,” she would declare at an event in Guadalajara, Mexico.
About their relationship, Maria Kodama said without hesitation “I never formed the impression that he dominated me, or that I was inferior”.
At the time when Borges was considered an annual favorite for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Maria Kodama would remember how “everyone would stop him on the street and say ‘I hope you win it'”.
It was never awarded to him.
The partner of the author of works such as “Fictions”, “The Book of Sand”, “The Aleph” or even “The Brody Report”, created, in 1988, the José Luis Borges Foundation.
Her passion for literature never faded. Although ill, she wrote a final work, entitled La divisa punzo (untranslated), in which she tackles the story of the controversial 19th-century Argentine politician Juan Manuel de Rosas, in collaboration with Claudia Farias Gómez.
Source :Skai
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