Durs Grünbein has given me more information about his learning of Latin, so I'm about to work that into the paper I gave at Marbach in December 2012. The more I explore Grünbein's interest in classical antiquity in general, the more I come to see it as one of his longstanding and significant preoccupations. As for Latin itself, he works hard on it, expanding his range and setting himself new challenges. And of course, translating a text is one way of coming to know it really well.

My colleague, Eric Rentschler, told me recently about Grünbein's collaboration with Klaus Wyborny...