Waugh had a great many shared interests with Eliot, such as a fascination with the moral decline of the western world. He makes several obvious allusions to Eliot from time to time, such as the title of his later book A Handful of Dust.

Are there Waugh fans among the contributors and readers of this blog?

Or his T.S.Eliot, who, in ‘The Waste Land’, makes devasting criticism of modern sexual mores in referencing Tiresias:

” At the violet hour, when the eyes and back
Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
Like a taxi throbbing waiting,
I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,
Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,
The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights
Her stove, and lays out food in tins.
Out of the window perilously spread
Her drying combinations touched by the sun’s last rays,
On the divan are piled (at night her bed)
Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays.
I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs
Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest -
I too awaited the expected guest.
He, the young man carbuncular, arrives,
A small house agent’s clerk, with one bold stare,
One of the low on whom assurance sits
As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.
The time is now propitious, as he guesses,
The meal is ended, she is bored and tired,
Endeavours to engage her in caresses
Which are still unreproved, if undesired.
Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
Exploring hands encounter no defence;
His vanity requires no response,
And makes a welcome of indifference.
(And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
Enacted on this same divan or bed;
I who have sat by Thebes below the wall
And walked among the lowest of the dead.)
Bestows one final patronising kiss,
And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit…

This is the passage, by the way, which Anthony Blanche recites in ‘Brideshead Revisited’.

Vicki (formerly posting as booklover)

No, seriously though, it all depends. It really helps to know the outline of the story itself. If I had known before hand what I wrote in this post, it would have been much clearer the first time around.

But, if I had to say, I’d say it’s fairly difficult. It’s going to help a lot, though, if you know how to scan the verse - the grammar stands out much better once scanned.

At any rate, I’m sure translations can be found all over the internet.

What is the level of difficultly of this Latin passage?