2/16: remembering reading

I finished reading the Iliad (in English) this evening, and book 24 is so, so good.  Not only have I enjoyed reading the Iliad again after a space of (too much) time, but I've also been glad to feel the layers of past readings.  Particularly keen are memories of translating some passages with my college Greek professor in 1988 (when my Greek was basically brand-new), of working my way through the whole Iliad in Greek during my second semester of graduate school in 1991, and of reading the text in English with my "Women in the Iliad" class at the University of Rochester in 2000.  Of course there have been other passes through the poem at other times, but these are landmarks for me, and it was good to acknowledge--and feel the resonance of--these fixed features of my reading landscape.

No comments: