the words. For, as I have explained
in a brief preface to my transla–
tion: 'There is nothing simpler
than abandoning precision for lyric
flights and losing one's footing. But
the real problem was to lose noth–
ing, neither footing nor wings, nei–
their rhyme (nor rhythm) nor rea–
son, neither logic nor poetry.' But
that spelled a difficulty that often
seemed insurmountable. It is that
difficulty that was primarily
re–
sponsible for my abandoning the
project after the translation of the
first act. That one act had given
me more trouble, cost me more
in
effort, than the five acts of
An–
thO'ny and Cleopatra.
That first
act appeared on the book stalls
more than twenty years ago. It
was the friendly insistence of Jean–
Louis Barrault, during a providen–
tial encounter in MarseiJIes
in
1942,
that again set me to work, and for
this I am gratefully
in
debt to
Jean-Louis Barrault. I worked at
his behest, with the prospect of re–
ward in seeing him interpret in
my translation the most exacting of
roles. Now in Paris he has been
having a triumphant success
in it."
"Is
Hamlet
your favorite among
the Shakespearian tragedies?"
"After a lecture delivered
in
Cairo, I was approached by a num–
ber of students who asked me for
the title of my favorite Shake–
spearian play. I replied without
hesitation: the one that I have last
reread. Few months go by without
my taking up one or another of the
plays, and always with a fresh ac-
217
H. E. BRIGGS
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