An interview with Robert Fagles appeared in the New York Times yesterday. Fagles has translated the Iliad and the Odyssey to wide praise in the last several years, and he’s currently working on translating Virgil’s Aeneid. Reading this interview made me envious for the academic life: Fagles is a retired Ivy League professor, he’s been married for almost 50 years and has two grown daughters, and he works “in a window-lined room in his house on a back road.” And the photo of his desk nook looks lovely. I’ve reconciled myself to not diving into the academic life — I don’t have enough interest in one single subject to get a Ph.D., and I’d rather learn than teach. But it’s still nice to dream.