Joseph Brodsky: A Christmas poem

‘The Flight into Egypt’ by Giotto di Bondone (1304–1306, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua)

They didn’t care about the desert that lay all around,
or the blizzard that wrapped them in ghoulish sounds,
or how cramped it was in a shepherd’s hut;
that from all other spaces the world pushed them out.

For, firstly, they had each other. Secondly,
Mary and Joseph and Child were a three,
and whatever was happening, cooking, or traded,
from now on at least into three was divided.

As the bigger is wont to bend over the little
the frost-seized heavens above their poor bivvy
gleamed with a star — which had nowhere to hide
henceforth from the gaze of this bundled up Child.

Their campfire still flickered, though fuel was over;
all of them slept. The star differed from others
less by its brightness, which seemed too severe,
than its power to mingle the far with the near.

25 December 1990

❄️ A very Happy Christmas to all Calderonia’s subscribers and visitors! ❄️

SOME RESPONSES TO GEORGE CALDERON: EDWARDIAN GENIUS

‘This meticulous yet nimble book is bound to remain the definitive account of Calderon’s life’ Charlotte Jones, The Times Literary Supplement

‘The effort of detection, it must be said, was worth it. The biography is a delight to read.’ Emeritus Professor Laurence Brockliss, The London Magazine

‘It is a masterly synthesis of your own approach with scholarship and very judicious discussion of the evidence.’ Emeritus Professor Catherine Andreyev, historian

‘This comprehensive, meticulously researched and highly readable biography, which the author describes as a “story” rather than an academic biography…’ Michael Pursglove, East-West Review

‘A monumental scholarly masterpiece that gives real insight into how the Edwardians viewed the world.’Arch Tait, Translator of Natalya Rzhevskaya’s Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter

‘The book is written with great assurance and the reader always feels in safe hands. I liked the idea of it being a story and I read it the same way I would read a novel.’ Harvey Pitcher, writer

‘Presents the Edwardian age, and Calderon in particular, as new and forward-looking.’ Emeritus Professor Michael Alexander, in Trinity College, Oxford, Report 2017-18

A review by DAMIAN GRANT appears in the comments to Calderonia’s 7 September post.

A review by JOHN DEWEY appears on Amazon UK.