Emilio Lascano Tegui - On Elegance While Sleeping

bescreen’d in night: Romeo and Juliet , Act 2, Scene 2. Translated literally, Tegui has his “nobleman” here “wrapped in a cloud.”

1 Revista de Avance , 2:3, Feb. 15, 1928.

2 Not that the difficulty of obtaining them could ever overcome the desire to do so. Thus, when I presented a paper on Lascano Tegui at a conference called “The Atypicals,” put together by the Institute for Hispanic American Literature, it was revealed that there were a number of secret admirers of Tegui who, until then, had been scattered and isolated among the ranks of professors, researchers, and students at the College of Philosophy and Arts at the University of Buenos Aires. I’m indebted to them for providing me with certain details of which I was previously unaware, and loaning me invaluable materials!

3 Lange, Norah. Discursos . Buenos Aires: Ediciones C.A.Y.D.E., 1942. pp. 43–45.

4 The dedications of those books reveal a circle of friendships and affinities that in 1926 was headed by Ricardo Güiraldes, alongside Girondo and Evar Méndez, and later, in 1936, would include Rogelio Yrurtia, Alfredo Palacios, Nerio Rojas, and Nicolás Coronado — under the spiritual patronage of Domingo French and Antonio Beruti — in a movement that seemed to shy away from the literary realm into a zone characterized by the confluence of art and politics.

*The Editors would like to state their objection to the exploitative tabloid style here employed by Monsieur le Vicomte de Lascano Tegui. ( Note in the first edition. )

EMILIO LASCANO TEGUI (1887–1966), a self-styled Viscount, is one of the most provocative and singular figures in Argentinian literature, making his way through life as a writer, journalist, curator, painter, decorator, diplomat, mechanic, gentleman, orator (known to make incendiary speeches in perfect rhymed verse), and even a dentist. His position as a translator for the International Post Office brought him to Europe, where he began his literary career.

IDRA NOVEY is a poet and translator. Her work has appeared in Paris Review, Slate , and the Believer and her debut collection The Next Country was released in 2008. She’s received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Society of America, and the PEN Translation Fund. She currently directs the Center for Literary Translation at Columbia University and teaches at Columbia and NYU.