Auden, Wystan Hugh: Brief an Henze, Hans Werner. New York, Montag, 21. Dezember 1964
author: Auden, Wystan Hugh
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Copyright by the Estate of W. H. Auden. By courtesy of the Estate of W. H. Auden. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

77 St Mark's Place
New York City 3
N.Y. 1000 3

Dec 21st 64

P.P.S. If you’ve a moment to spare, do look up my brother John who is in Rome at the moment. c/o Land and Water Division. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [Auden's brother, the geologist John Bicknell Auden, worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) from 1960 to 1970.]. Via delle Terme di Caracalla. He is very nice

Dearest Hans:

Just a hasty line to let you know that Curtis-Brown despatched telegram to Schott yesterday signed by Chester and me, (though Chester is in Vienna) expressing our disapproval.[^1]

[^1: Auden refers here to a disagreement between the librettists and Helmut Reinold regarding the translation of the libretto of The Bassarids from English to German. See also Auden's previous letter. Correspondence between Henze and Reinold kept at the Paul Sacher Foundation may offer elucidation in this regard.]

I'will write synopsis soon [This is most likely the synopsis of The Bassarids published at the beginning of the score with the title Synopsis of the Action and probably also printed in the program notes of the premiere.]

Sorry to hear about all your headaches. Those singers simply bloody well must learn their roles in English and German.[^2]

[^2: Perhaps the term headache is used here figuratively to indicate the discomfort the translation of the libretto was bringing to Henze. It is unclear why the singers had to learn their parts in both English and German. The premiere of The Bassarids, in Salzburg on 6 August 1966, was in German, while the English-language premiere with the original libretto was held in Santa Fe on 7 September 1968, with Henze as conductor.]

Life here for me is chaste, but I can look forward to resuming in the summer the relation described over-leaf. [Written on the back of the paper is the poem Glad in which Auden talks about his nocturnal encounters with his lover in Kirchstetten.] (Or have I already shown it you? I'm getting so absent-minded).

Arcifanfano that Goldoni-Dittersdorf opera buffa which Chester and I translated has been done at last and was great fun.[^3]

[^3: Auden and Kallman translated Carlo Goldoni's libretto (1759) of Arcifanfano Re de' matti, dramma comico per musica in tre atti from Italian to English. Their translation for Dittersdorf's opera was first presented in New York City, on 11 November 1964.]

much love and all the best for Christmas and New Year
Wystan

P.S. What happened to your Castel Gandolfo place? [Auden’s question probably refers to the fact that in his letter dated 26 October 1964, Henze had written that he had almost finished changing furniture and redecorating.]

Glad [The poem Glad was written in July 1964 and first published, posthumously, in Collected Poems (1976).]

Hugerl,for a decade now
My bed-visitor,
An unexpected blessing
In a lucky life,
For how much and how often
You have made me glad.

Glad that I know we enjoy
Mutual pleasure:
Women may cog their lovers
With a feigned passion,
But males are so constructed
We cannot deceive.

Glad our worlds of enchantment
Are so several
Neither is tempted to broach:
I cannot tell a
Jaguar from a Bentley,
And you never read.

Glad for that while when you stole
(You burgled me too),
And were caught and put inside:
Both learned a lesson,
But for which we well might still
Be Strich and Freier . [The English translations of the German words in this poem are taken from The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Poems, Volume II: 1940–1973 , p. 943.]

Glad,though,we began that way,
That our life-paths crossed,
Like characters in Hardy,
At a moment when
You were in need of money
And I wanted sex.

How is it now between us?
Love? Love is far too
Tattered a word. A romance
In full fig it ain't,
Nor a naked letch either:
Let me say we fadge,

And how much I like Christa
Who loves you but knows,
Good girl,when not to be there.
I can't imagine
A kinder set-up: if mims
Mump, es ist mir Wurscht [This is an expression in Viennese dialect.] .