T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 511

To Islam 2/1/27 1. I should need two years in which to complete the translation, after I began work on it. 2. I do not feel capable of doing it as well as Homer would have liked; and shall feel unhappy if it turns out botched. 3. I could not sign it with any one of my hitherto names. It must go out blank, or with a virgin name on it. 4. I would do the final book, within six months of having concluded the agreement with the publishers; and if they were not satisfied with it, I would agree to repay the first book bears to the whole. Notes on above 1. Because it is long, and difficult, probably I'd write it two or three times before it felt right. Also I can't begin right off. I must get several of the older translations by me, to compare with. 2. And they would have to promise to respect this privacy. I hope never again to be the victim of the press. 3. Six months, because the writing of the first ten pages or so fixes the style for all the rest. And in the last resort, and I do not want to do it for nothing. Fifteen or twenty pounds would see me nicely through it. My strongest advice to you is to get someone better, to do you a more certain performance. I am nothing like good enough for so great a work of art as the Odyssey. Nor, incidentally, to be printed by B.H. Your kindness remains overwhelming. Do realise that I have no confidence in myself, and what I'd like is some little job, which—was unquestionably within my strength and my leisure hours in the R.A.F. Yours ever T E Shaw.