Posts from — in the wee hours

I must admit that I am currently at work on a few rather ambitious projects beyond translation. The first is the writing of an introduction for a book on the Great Dionysia. The second is a rough draft of that book. The third is a series of brief biographical sketches of eminent humanists. The fourth is a short story. Though I have not written any fiction since I won my little writing prize in 2000, the short story is by far the easiest of the group. The academic writing (great Dionysia) is the most challenging, though it is the type of writing I most employ. The historical sketches are the most enjoyable.

I have shelved a few books that I have been reading so that I can read The Count of Monte Cristo with someone else. How I love Dumas! Action, adventure, revenge, romance, virtue. Dumas lacks Balzac’s perfectionism, Flaubert’s psychology, and Proust’s glorious prose, but he is by far my favorite French author.

I am writing this post on my new MacBook, enjoying Vivaldi, drinking coffee, taking a break from Sophocles. My house is now armed with a security system, we rearranged the furniture, and will soon be making an investment in some actual art. Panta rei!

Leopardi’s Thoughts has occupied my bedside and I am finding him something of a kindred spirit, though I am not nearly as pessimistic as he is. His poetry I find particularly poignant, such as this passage from his last poem, “the broom:”

Often, on these bare slopes
Clothed in a kind of mourning
By stone waves which apparently still ripple,
I sit by night, and see the distant stars
High in the clear blue sky
Flame down upon this melancholy waste,
And see them mirrored by
The distant sea, till all this universe
Sparkles throughout its limpid emptiness.

Am I more optimistic, or more naïve?