TRANSLATION

Selections from The Garden of Poets

Translated from Spanish by Anayvelyse Allen-Mossman

By LEóNIDAS LAMBORGHINI  |  08 DEC 2025

From the Poetarium of Waiting

Parterre 1
Poets awaiting the inspiration of their Muse.
Poets very hopefully awaiting inspiration from their Muse.
Poets not so hopefully awaiting the inspiration of their Muse.
Insufficiently hopeful poets awaiting inspiration from their Muse.

Parterre 2
Poets waiting somewhat hopefully for inspiration from their Muse.
Poets who expect everything from inspiration from their Muse.
Poets who expect almost everything from inspiration from their Muse.

Parterre 3
Poets who do not expect anything from the inspiration of their Muse.
Poets who do not expect almost anything from the inspiration of their Muse.
Poets who expect a little something from the inspiration of their muse.

Parterre 50
Poets not so irritated by the wait for inspiration from their Muse.
Poets tamed by the wait for inspiration from their Muse.
Poets, excessively tamed by the wait for inspiration from their Muse.

Parterre 51
Poets, horrified by the prospect of waiting for inspiration from their Muse.
Poets, sufficiently horrified by the prospect of waiting for inspiration from their Muse
Poets, insufficiently horrified by the prospect of waiting for inspiration from their Muse.

Undergrowth
Poets with their Muse.
Poets sodomized by their Muse.
Poets flagellated by their Muse.
Poets turned out and
ridden by their Muse.
Poets, sucking off
their Muse.
Poets worshiping
their Muse.
Poets crying
over their Muse.
Poets clamoring
for their Muse.
Poets crawling
after their Muse.

Parterre 53
Poets waiting, lost in thought, for inspiration from their Muse.
Poets, not so lost in thought, anticipating inspiration from their Muse.
Poets totally lost in thought as they wait for inspiration from their Muse.
Poets who wait somewhat lost in thought for inspiration from their Muse.
Poets who wait a little bit lost in thought for inspiration from their Muse.
Poets, not so engrossed, waiting for inspiration from their Muse.

Parterre 54
Poets waiting serenely for inspiration from their Muse.

From the Poetarium of Dreams

Parterre 5
Poets dreaming their poem
right before sitting down.
Poets dreaming their poem
far after sitting down.
Poets dreaming their poem
after having fallen in a ditch.
Poets dreaming their poem
right as they fall into a ditch.
Poets dreaming their poem
shortly after sitting down.
Poets dreaming their poem
immediately after sitting down.

Parterre 6
Poets dreaming their poem
after swallowing a pit.

Parterre 7
Poets dreaming their poem
immediately after being covered
in a fine layer of constarch.
Poets dreaming their poem
shortly after receiving a blow to the back of their neck.
Poets dreaming their poem
just as they are sitting down.
Poets dreaming their poem
far after being covered
in a fine layer of constarch.

Parterre 13
Poets dreaming their poem
at the very moment they cut a pear in two.
Poets dreaming their poem
as they split a pear in two.
Poets dreaming their poem
right after dodging a dump truck.
Poets dreaming their poem
right before dodging a dump truck.
Poets dreaming their poem
far before cutting a pear in two.
Poets dreaming their poem
far before dodging a dump truck.
Poets dreaming their poem
far after cutting a pear in two.
Poets dreaming their poem
immediately after dodging a dump truck.

Copse
Poets conversing with their Muse.
Poets versing with their Muse.
Poets consonating with their Muse.

Parterre 15
Poets dreaming their poem
immediately after fighting with a barrette.

Parterre 22
Poets dreaming their poem
as they chew on a piece of glazed paper.

Copse
Poets versuctioning
their Muse.
Poets verhythmed
by their Muse.
Poets versconsonating
with their Muse.

 

Parterre 28
Poets dreaming their poem
at the very moment they are surprised by a hailstorm.
Poets dreaming their poem
shortly after having been driven through by the point of a lance.
Poets dreaming their poem
shortly before chatting with their sister.
Poets dreaming their poem
shortly before chatting with their half-sister.
Poets dreaming their poem
shortly after arriving at an oasis.
Poets dreaming their poem
far from arriving at an oasis.
Poets dreaming their poem
immediately after climbing a tower.
Poets dreaming their poem
while they buy a kilo of ground beef.
Poets dreaming their poem
right as they enter an armory.
Poets dreaming their poem
far before entering an armory.
Poets dreaming their poem
as they participate in a golf tournament.
Poets dreaming their poem
shortly before lunching.
Poets dreaming their poem
immediately before being driven through by the point of a lance.
Poets dreaming their poem
after participating in a golf tournament.
Poets dreaming their poem
shortly after being surprised by a hailstorm.
Poets dreaming their poem
shortly before climbing a tower.
Poets dreaming their poem
far after buying a kilo of ground beef.
Poets dreaming their poem
immediately after entering an armory.
Poets dreaming their poem
while they chat with their half-sister.
Poets dreaming their poem
shortly after lunch.
Poets dreaming their poem
at the very moment they chat with their sister and their half-sister.

From the Poetarium of Metamorphosis

Parterre 1
Lightning rod-reed-rude-road-roan poets.
Lighting rod-lotting rod-louting rod-lantern rod poets.
Litter rod-splitter rod-splatter rod-spluttered out poets.
Striped-stropped-unstriped-stripped poets.
Striping poets-stropping-strepping-two-stepping poets.
Jeweled-bejeweled-enjeweled-enjoyed-overjoyed poets.
Enjoining-enjuned-jejune-juneless poets.
Jointed-joinless poets-disjointed poets-poets with a good rejoinder.
Jonesing poets-jonesless poets-johns-yawns, yarns
Y’alls poets-yells poets-yuletide-yellow-yeti-set it or forget it poets
Ying yang poets-yielding-shielding-showing-yo-yoing-going
Rowing-rhyming-rumormongering-rum-drinking poets dancing the rhumba
Rheumatic poets-rumbustious-rambunctious-ramus-shamus poets
Shamanic poets-shamefaced-shameless-shimmying-shopping
Stopping-stooping-backstepping-studebakering poets
Stubbed toe-steeped-steepled-stippled-stapled-stubbled poets
Stumbling-stoning-stonewalling-stonyfaced-stooging-stoned poets.

© El jardín de los poetas, de Leónidas Lamborghini. Buenos Aires: Adriana Hidalgo editora S.A., 1999.

© Herederos de Leónidas Lamborghini

Leónidas Lamborghini (1927-2009) was an Argentine journalist, dramaturge and poet. A cult figure in Argentine literature, he began his working life as a textile and factory laborer. He left the factory floor for the press in 1955, publishing his first book of poems, Saboteador arrepentido [Repentant saboteur], that same year. A mid-career work, The Garden of Poets was written during his exile in Mexico City following the 1976 right-wing coup. Lamborghini was the recipient of the 1991 Leopoldo Marechal Prize, the Diploma al Mérito en Poesía (2004) and the Arturo Jauretche Prize for achievements in culture and human rights (2005) Known for his delirious, absurdist and frenetic writing, Lamborghini wrote The Garden as a respite from the “pressure cooker” of his then-day job in advertising.

Anayvelyse Allen-Mossman is a writer, translator, and educator. As a translator, her body of work primarily focuses on contemporary Latin American poetry. Most recently, she has published a translation of Brilliance of Unbeing by Lucía Duero with New Mundo Press and co-translated This isn’t for life by Juan Gabriel Miño with AJ Stoughton for the same press. Her translations of the Argentine poet Juana Bignozzi have appeared in Triquarterly, Fence Magazine, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Tupelo Quarterly. In 2021, she received a PhD in Latin American and Iberian Cultures with a dissertation on image-making in the golden age of Argentina’s sugar industry.

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