The warmest of welcomes to the Sphere, Rachel. Chris, thanks for giving us such a dazzling selection of Hadas. Rachel, it strikes me that we live in an extraordinary time for verse translation. I believe that our friend and fellow Eratospherian, Dick Wilbur, set the bar at an unprecedentedly high level with his Molieres. Dana once told me Dick should collect all his translations in one book and title it "Look on my works ye mighty and despair." Yet now it seems to me that a great many poets are clearing that bar, making English poems that are beautiful yet faithful to their originals. Indeed we saw a great deal of that here last August, and I trust that this week we shall again. I can think of no other time to compare to ours in this regard. I wish your father could have seen it. Your thoughts?
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