The writer and translator María Kodama, widow of the famous Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges and the main promoter of his work, died on March 26 at the age of 86, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The news was shared by her own family to the local press, who confirmed that the cause of her death was breast cancer she suffered from.
María Kodama was a translator, collaborating professor of literature, and sole curator of the work of Borges, whom literary critics consider among the most important poets, essayists, and novelists of his time.
Kodama married the celebrated writer and poet in 1986. However, the wedding was mired in controversy because she was 38 years his junior. The lovers of letters met when María was only 16 years old and studying Literature, during a conference by the author of fictions where her father took her.
The romance between María Kodama and Jorge Luis Borges began when they discovered their shared love for the English language, including Old Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic.
Curiously, Borges also passed away at the age of 86, in June 1986, in Geneva, Switzerland, two months after marrying Kodama. Since then, the author of Tribute to Borges she became his heiress and literary executor, charged with spreading his legacy. That was her main occupation in recent decades.
I miss Borges and how we had fun. My friends used to tell me, ‘How do you date the old man from the mazes? ‘. And I answered them: get to know it, it’s a lot of fun and, besides, mazes fascinate me. I had a blast [estupendo] with the. I’m not a masochist. Borges was a special person, very lovable, with a great sense of humor.
– María Kodama, during a conference at the Guadalajara Book Fair 2014
Despite the illness, her passion for literature never waned and Maria Kodama wrote a final work, titled badge punchedin which he addresses the history of the controversial 19th century Argentine politician Juan Manuel de Rosas, in collaboration with Claudia Farías Gómez.