The Circumscribed Infinites Scheme (CIS): A deconstructive approach to translating poetry

The purpose of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, it seeks to introduce and explain the CIS (Circumscribed Infinites Scheme), a deconstructive scheme for translating poetry; and, on the other, it aims at analyzing the scheme’s impact on the translation into English of a variety of poems by Jorge Luis Borges. Devised by the present author, who is also responsible for the translations analyzed, the CIS is a translational scheme whereby meaning is understood as an inexhaustible textual effect, and which, in its theoretical elucidation, seeks to raise the practicing translator’s awareness of the control he or she might have over the degree of infinite exegetic circumscription — and subsequent infinite exegetic recreation — during the translation process.