Saturday, May 02, 2009
Riddle
Who is described in these words?
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[A] book-worm, no longer young, living from home, a mainlander, city-bred and domestic. Married but not exclusively, a dog-lover, often hungry and thirsty, dark-haired....A lover of old bric-a-brac....He loved the rural scene as only a citizen can. No farmer, he had learned the points of a good olive tree. He is all adrift when it comes to fighting, and had not seen deaths in battle. He had sailed upon and watched the sea with a palpitant concern, seafaring not being his trade. As a minor sportsman he had seen wild boars at bay and heard tall yarns of lions....Very bookish, this house-bred man. His work smells of the literary coterie, of a writing tradition. His notebooks were stocked with purple passages and he embedded these in his tale wherever they would more or less fit.Answer: Homer, as imagined by T.E. Shaw (Lawrence of Arabia), in the "Translator's Note" preceding his translation of the Odyssey.
