Homer alive …

… Letter of Recommendation: Christopher Logue, ‘War Music’ - The New York Times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

‘‘Day after day,’’ Logue wrote in his memoir, ‘‘I sat at my bench working on ‘Achilles and the River’ ’’ — a section in Book XXI where Achilles slaughters a battalion of Trojans hiding down among the reeds and then has to fight the river Scamander itself, furious with the demigod for spilling so much blood between its banks. ‘‘The sweat ran out of me,’’ Logue tells us of his experience translating. ‘‘I forgot myself entirely for hours on end.’’