WH Auden's birthday today.    
  
  Stephen Spender, John Ashbery, WH Auden. J. Brodsky   
 "My only desire then, as now, was to go to a greater closeness to the person I considered the greatest mind of the twentieth century: the Uistanu Hugh Auden      bow to the shadows - Joseph Brodsky     
     
      
  WH Auden reads his own poems:               "On the Circuit"                           "After Reading a Child's Guide to Modern Physics"                THE MORE LOVING ONE     
      Looking up at the stars, I know quite well 
      That, for all they care, I can go to hell, 
      But on earth indifference is the least 
      We have to dread from man or beast.   
      How should we like it were stars to burn 
       With a passion for us we could not return? 
      If equal affection cannot be, 
      Let the more loving one be me.   
      Admirer as I think I am 
      Of stars that do not give a damn, 
      I cannot, now I see them, say 
      I missed one terribly all day.   
      Were all stars to disappear or die, 
      I should learn to look at an empty sky 
      And feel its total dark sublime, 
      Though this might take me a little time.   
      September 1957     
 ТОТ, КТО ЛЮБИТ БОЛЬШЕ     
      Гляжу я на звезды and I know very well, 
 What sgin I - they are also bleak. 
 evil, indifference fades away, believe me, 
 Prev by what frightens man or beast.  
 What we say we were stars to burn 
 unrequited love, dumb mouth? 
 If equal affection can not let 
 be loving me more sad fall.  
 Funny Admirer as I think I am, 
 stars that do give a damn, 
 I hardly say that I catch her shadow 
 And I miss her terribly all day.  
 And if you happen all stars to disappear, 
 get used to it, I see an empty sky, 
 and darkness triumph I uchuyu soul, 
 Even though it requires a little time.  
 lane. Michael Feldman  
 Love and Cold  
 Looking at the stars, I know as a five-five, 
 What are they for me from this height do not care. 
 But here at the bottom of the indifference of all are kinder 
 Togo that waiting times from humans and animals.  
 wonder how much you'd been able to survive, 
 Blaze to you the star passion that will not be divided. 
 And if for reciprocity, we are not born with them, 
 Let me be in love, but they are cold.  
 Considering himself a fan of stars, 
 Which is my concern that it means nothing, 
 Now, looking at them, I can not say, 
 What I have had for a long time for him to get bored.  
 Yes, and die all the stars sgin from their heights, 
 I learned to look at the empty sky like a mole, 
 Feeling blind enthusiasm in its absolute  тьмы, 
 Правда не сразу – но, может быть, до зимы.   
 перевод dennetta