Two Hungarian Refugees

Mid-century, in London,
Two Hungarian refugees,
Discovered they both
Loved Attila Jozsef
The great poet
Of their lonely land.

The discovery’s
Inevitable consequesce
Wasn’t hard to foresee:
The refugees set out
To translate their compatriot’s
Works into English.

First they fought over
Who would write
The introduction and
Who would translate;
In the end, there were
Two introductions and
Enough poems for
a small book.

They decided that Auden WH
Should be brought into the project;
They read in a paper that Auden
Was appointed professor at Oxford.
They call the university
And kept asking for Auden,
Spelling his name
Over and over again.
But their Hungarian accents
Proved too much for
Oxford porters.

They persisted and found Auden
And showed him the poems
And asked if they conveyed
The impression that their author
Was the great poetic genius of the century.
Auden was very polite and replied:
“They do not.”