what a great writer means. Here are the Watchman's famous first lines from Agamemnon, which nearly word for word, might be:Oh gods, I beg you to deliver me from this task.
For a year I have been on guard
On the roof of the house of the sons of Atreus,
resting on my arms, in the manner of a dog.
Not poetry. Here's Carson:
Gods, free me from this grind!
It's one long year I'm waiting watching waiting--
propped on the roof of Atreus, chin in my paws like a dog
Energy, humor, the yawn of the watchman's boredom. We hear the wordplay of Aeschylus, the tough irony of Sophocles, and the perverse subversion of Euripides.
from John Timpane: Philadelpia Inquirer: Voices of the past, in shimmering new translations
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