To read is to translate, for no two persons' experiences are the same. A bad reader is like a bad translator: he interprets literally when he ought to paraphrase and paraphrases when he ought to interpret literally. W. H. Auden More Quotes by W. H. Auden More Quotes From W. H. Auden Beauty, midnight, vision dies: Let the winds of dawn that blow Softly round your dreaming head Such a day of welcome show Eye and knocking heart may bless, Find our mortal world enough; Noons of dryness find you fed By the involuntary powers, Nights of insult let you pass Watched by every human love. W. H. Auden eye dream heart Time and fevers burn away W. H. Auden thoughtful death children Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; whatfrom the point of view of society is necessary labor is from his point of view voluntary play. Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does not, for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job; a gardener or a cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk a laborer. W. H. Auden work jobs men All the literati keep W. H. Auden imaginary-friend friends friendship Laziness acknowledges the relation of the present to the past but ignores its relation to the future; impatience acknowledge its relation to the future but ignores its relation to the past; neither the lazy nor the impatient man, that is, accepts the present instant in its full reality and so cannot love his neighbour completely. W. H. Auden men reality past Out on the lawn I lie in bed, Vega conspicuous overhead. W. H. Auden vegas bed lying Encased in talent like a uniform, The rank of every poet is well known; They can amaze us like a thunderstorm, Or die so young, or live for years alone. W. H. Auden uniforms talent years I said earlier that I do not believe an artist's life throws much light upon his works. I do believe, however, that, more often than most people realize, his works may throw light upon his life. An artist with certain imaginative ideas in his head may then involve himself in relationships which are congenial to them. W. H. Auden artist believe ideas All the rest is silence On the other side of the wall, And the silence ripeness, And the ripeness all. W. H. Auden wall silence sides When one looks into the window of a store which sells devotional art objects, one can't help wishing the iconoclasts had won. W. H. Auden wish looks art One rational voice is dumb: over a grave W. H. Auden voice cities death Weep for the lives your wishes never led. W. H. Auden hope wish life You will be a poet because you will always be humiliated. W. H. Auden humiliated poet poetry With the farming of a verse W. H. Auden vineyards farming poetry Intellectual disgrace W. H. Auden sadness eye lying The habit-forming pain, W. H. Auden pain grief suffering the child unlucky in his little State, W. H. Auden fear worry children Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle. W. H. Auden fate sea dark Though one cannot always Remember exactly why one has been happy, There is no forgetting that one was. W. H. Auden has-beens forget remember Follow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, With your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice; With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise. W. H. Auden healing heart night
