I'm not the Bob you were addressing, Joshua, but I do have a translation of "El remordimiento" which I'll post with the hope that Mr. Mezey will come along with his own as well. If this is the poem you mean, I'm not at all sure I would say it is a poem about poetry in the sense we've been discussing, but maybe.
REMORSE
J. L. Borges
I have committed by far the gravest sin
a person can commit. I've not been happy.
May the glaciers of oblivion grip me
without compassion. May I be lost within.
My parents bred me for the risky game
of life. They offered me its loveliness:
its earth, its air, its water, and its flame.
I cheated them. I found no happiness.
Their wish went unfulfilled. Instead I gave
my mind to the stubborn symmetries of art
that weaves together trifles. From the start,
they willed me courage but I was not brave.
It won't move on. It always stays with me:
the shame that I have lived unhappily.
**
and the original:
El remordimiento
He cometido el peor de los pecados
que un hombre puede cometer. No he sido
feliz. Que los glaciares del olvido
me arrastren y me pierdan, despiadados.
Mis padres me engendraron para el juego
arriesgado y hermoso de la vida,
para la tierra, el agua, el aire, el fuego.
Los defraudé. No fui feliz. Cumplida
no fue su joven voluntad. Mi mente
se aplicó a las simétricas porfías
del arte, que entreteje naderías.
Me legaron valor. No fui valiente.
No me abandona. Siempre está a mi lado
La sombra de haber sido un desdichado.
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