| | BOOK OF A | | | | years later, after interminable |
| | LIFETIME | | | | revisions, would be thus: “On a beach |
| | | | | | in Sidon a bull was aping a lover’s coo. |
| | THE MARRIAGE OF CADMUS | | | | It was Zeus. He shuddered, the way he |
| | AND HARMONY | | | | did when a gadfly got him. But this |
| | | | | | time it was a sweet shuddering. Eros |
| | BY ROBERTO CALASSO | | | | was lifting a girl onto its back: |
| | | | | | Europa.” |
1 | | I pick up books with scepticism. It’s as | | 4 | | It was an entirely new reading |
| | if I were eager to discover they were of | | | | experience. After 20 pages, I had |
| | no interest to me so that I could safely | | | | phoned New York and told them I |
| | put them down again. And when The | | | | would do it. Calasso has a remarkable |
| | Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony | | | | capacity to dart in and out of stories, |
| | was thrust into my hands at the | | | | telling them in different ways with |
| | Frankfurt Book Fair in 1990, I was | | | | different details; there is no tedious |
| | doubly sceptical. Because at the time | | | | explanation, no questioning of validity. |
| | its title was Le nozze di Cadmo e | | | | Dazzling, even bewildering at first, a |
| | Armonia and an American lady wanted | | | | vast body of bizarre material slowly |
| | me to translate it. “It’s a wonderful | | | | declares itself in vibrant patterns. It is |
| | book about the Greek gods,” she | | | | as if a gallery of ruined paintings had |
| | enthused, “by the Italian scholar and | | | | been restored to animate life, each |
| | publisher, Roberto Calasso.” | | | | calling to the others, complementing |
2 | | So it was easy to say no. The book | | | | and contradicting, or keeping secrets, |
| | was 400-plus pages. I was already | | | | telling lies. The rooms of the gallery |
| | thinking I must stop translating to | | | | are a maze and some demented |
| | have more time for my own work. I was | | | | attendant must be shifting the noisy |
| | not interested in the Greek gods, and | | | | canvases about so that they laugh and |
| | certainly not in an Italian academic’s | | | | quarrel together in new ways. |
| | verbose and dusty take on them. | | | | Eventually, surprise subsides into |
3 | | “Please, Tim,” the lady insisted, | | | | recognition: these are Europe’s |
| | “just give it ten pages.” That plea rang | | | | ancestors; with a shiver you are bound |
| | a bell. It was what I used to ask when I | | | | to admit that their way of seeing the |
| | sent in an unsolicited manuscript. It | | | | world was at least as sophisticated as |
| | was one of the most important | | | | yours. I learned a thousand stylistic |
| | decisions of my career, my life in a | | | | devices translating this book, and stole |
| | way. Back home in Verona, I opened | | | | as many as I could for my own writing. |
| | the first page and read, in Italian, an | | | | But most of all it inspired an orgy of |
| | epigraph from Sallust: “These things | | | | reading in any number of directions. |
| | never happened, but are always.” Is it | | | | Quite suddenly life and, yes, even love |
| | possible, I wondered, to write such a | | | | was different and new. |
| | tense sequence in English? And then | | | | Tim Parks |
| | the opening paragraph, which two | | |