politburo diktat 2.0

Since I’m reading the Anabasis primarily as a learning exercise, towards my very long-term goal of reading Homer in the original Greek, I went back to the beginning of the book and am re-reading.

Plowing through the book, as I have been doing, is quite slow: checking vocabulary, reading the extensive footnotes, and teasing out the meaning, phrase-by-phrase. I am not blessed with a photographic memory, and I frequently must look up a word three or four or more times. Thus, having spent so much time reading the first eight chapters, it’s a very worthwhile exercise to go back, and read it again. Enough time has elapsed so that it is indeed a reinforcing second look at the text, but it is soon enough so that I can usually recall the general meaning of the sentence. The vocabulary review is really worthwhile. Although I can comprehend the overall meaning without reference to the glossary, there are still frequent, specific words that I need to look up; these I make a note of, but I keep on moving.

There is also a value (I think) in reading a new language in a more flowing manner. You begin to absorb, without precisely & consciously defining every detail, the word patterns, the ‘pesky little words’ which have so many shades of meaning, how moods & tenses fit together, certain repeated phrases, etc.

It’s quite delightful to read this, more or less straight through, and actually be able to understand it without reference to the back matter (admittedly the second time through a basic text). I’m just finishing Chapter 5 today, and should be caught up by this evening.

I plan to continue fresh reading & blogging, with Chapter 9 (which is a panegyric to Cyrus) tomorrow.