Bucket-list book

Last night I read W.S. Merwin's translation of The Song of Roland which recounts a legendary, if questionable, battle in 778 C.E. between Charlemagne and the Saracens of Spain. Merwin has long been a favorite poet, so I chose this Modern Library version to read, even though he chose prose for his purposes.

In reading these iconic older works like the Iliad or Gilgamesh, I approach them the same way I do silent movies; mindful that they are inventing the story-form even as they are telling the story. That small forgiving allows me to celebrate the artistry and content without getting mired in the conventions that might now seem tiresome or stifling.

It remains a first story - with age-old passions: deceit, duty, valor, sorrow, and the emptiness of vengeance - to which even our current selection of Holiday movies and books still owe a debt.