A LEXICOGRAPHER'S DOUBTS

As you know, I am a simple run-of-the-mill compiler of dictionaries, a bookworm, a "ratón de biblioteca" as we are described in Spanish. Still, despite this disclaimer, I must confess that we also suffer from writer's block, low spirits, a dearth of interest, and a lack of internal oomph, just like anybody else. I often feel I waste my time and that my efforts are for naught. I sometimes wonder why a good phraseological English-Spanish dictionary has not been written. Aside from the worthless booklets about the "Best One Hundred Spanish Phrases" or "500 modismos ingleses" and such, nothing truly serious has been written.

I had a wakeful night yesterday and turned to Bill Hayes's Sweat: A History of Exercise, and I stumbled on the answer to my question above, when a certain Mercuriale asks himself why no one else had taken this on, De humani corporis fabrica? And he gives the answer: "I dare not say: I know only that this is a task of both maximum utility and enormous labor." And yes, let's throw modesty to the wind now that I am nearing the end: my Phraseological Dictionary, Spanish, and English is a work of enormous labor and maximum utility.  But time will tell.