A review of a medieval music thing in the New York Daily News begins thusly:
... so, who was the despairing admitter? Of course, I doubt there is any serious academic (in any humanities discipline) who would claim to understand any text 'fully'.
There is a dreadful pathos in the search for origins. Along with the thrill of discovery comes the stinging consciousness of loss.
The proud and formidably erudite scholars of the Renaissance mourned the death of the classical languages and literatures we credit them with bringing back to life. One admitted, despairingly, "There is no single book of Roman antiquity which we professors fully understand." The poet Petrarch likewise confessed in a letter addressed to Homer, his ancient predecessor, "I realize how far from me you are."
... so, who was the despairing admitter? Of course, I doubt there is any serious academic (in any humanities discipline) who would claim to understand any text 'fully'.