ABSTRACT
If it is only gradually through our experience and our senses that we get to know the surrounding world and learn to distinguish between good and evil, why would we expect to understand the world of art at first glance? This general attitude becomes especially relevant in dealing with works of art created thousands of years ago, amid lives strange and unknown to us. Even the most diligent translator will be of little help here to the most gracious reader without this reader’s independent effort. A true understanding of ancient writers has never been an easy task. Their study has always involved a whole range of interrelated intellectual efforts. Hence, while conveying to the reader the general spiritual portrait of the ancient poet that has been subconsciously created in his own mind, a translator must accompany his work with a reliable thread of Ariadne to guide the future Theseus through his independent, fearless ventures into literary labyrinths.
