No, "rolig" comes from my real name, Rawley G., as spelled in Slovene: Roli G. What's the Swedish word for fun? I would be interested in reading your essay of Batiushkov's Finnish letters. I read the Otryvok a long time ago, when I was a graduate student writing a (never-finished) PhD dissertation on Baratynsky, who of course became famous for his poem Finlyandiya. Now in my 50s, I have been looking again at Baratynsky, thinking about publishing a collection of his poems in English. I have translated quite a few of them, but have never really looked for a publisher. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

posted by rolig at 5:42 pm (EST) on Apr 23, 2007

Well, it's nice to see that there's another person on LT who has Batyushkov in their library! He's rather outdated today, I suppose, but he does have his charm.

posted by rolig at 8:22 pm (EST) on Apr 22, 2007

I am impressed with your collection of Levi-Strauss. I love his ability to find the ideas in the fields and middens. And this great way to end an adventure: From Tristes Tropiques, the volume closes with the wonderful phrase "or in the brief glance, heavy with patience, serenity, and mutual forgiveness, that, through some involuntary understanding, one can sometimes exchange with a cat."

posted by keylawk at 10:41 pm (EST) on Nov 15, 2006