Joseph Brodsky
Russian poet, born May
24, 1940; died January 28,
1996.
At his trial in 1964 in Leningrad
for the charge of “malicious parasitism” the following testimony was secretly
transcribed and smuggled out of the Soviet Union.
Judge: And what is your profession?
Brodsky: Poet. Poet and translator.
Judge: And who told you that you were a poet? Who assigned
you that rank?
Brodsky: No one. (non-confrontationally)
Who assigned me to the human race?
Judge: And did you study for this?
Brodsky: For what?
Brodsky: For what?
Judge: To become a poet. Did you try to attend a school
where they train poets . . . where they teach . . .
Brodsky: I don’t think it comes from education.
Judge: From what, then?
Brodsky: I think it’s . . . (at a loss) . . . from God.
