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“... of writerly dreams. And his pseudonym with its built-in negative contained this resignation. Nescio is Latin for ‘I don’t know’; and in his stories not-knowing, not-doing approaches a metaphysical ideal. ‘I’m not a poet and I’m not a nature-lover and I’m not an anarchist,’ says Japi, whose nickname gives the title to ‘The ...”

“... oak. Now the Bard drinks the whole river And they drink the showers from their leaves: ‘flebile nescio, quid queriter lyra, flebile lingua Murmurat exanimis, respondent flebile ripae’ – And they quaff the subterranean waters through Their gigantic roots, still growing downwards; And the god says: ‘I have promoted you women To serious drinking, take it ...”

“... of the same Latin distich, Catullus 85: ‘Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris./nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.’ Here is the unadorned English of the Loeb Classical Library: ‘I hate and love. Why I do so, perhaps you ask. I know not, but I feel it and am in torment.’ Here is Bidart’s first try, from The Sacrifice: ‘I hate ...”