I often have said that to be a college president you need a thick skin a good sense of humor and nerves like sewer pipes.
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.
I was always interested in French poetry sort of as a sideline to my own work I was translating contemporary French poets. That kind of spilled out into translation as a way to earn money pay for food and put bread on the table.