Portal:Poetry/Quotes archive/Week 47 2006
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The Parasite's Defense
In 1964 Soviet authorities charged Joseph Brodsky with "тунеядство" — parasitism. From the transcript of his trial smuggled to the West:
- Judge: And what is your profession in general?
- Brodsky: Poet translator.
- Judge: Who recognized you as a poet? Who enrolled you in the ranks of poets?
- Brodsky: No one. And who enrolled me in the ranks of humanity?
- Judge: Did you study this?
- Brodsky: This?
- Judge: To become a poet. You did not try to finish high school where they prepare, where they teach?
- Brodsky: I didn’t think you could get this from school.
- Judge: How then?
- Brodsky: I think that it ... comes from God.[1]
