Monday, March 3, 2014

Michael, W.H. Auden & I, in Seattle




In my trip to Seattle for AWWP Conference, Michael (my long time friend) and I had this opportunity to reunite after 24 years! He was a columnist for Daily Iowan in Iowa City in 1987, when I met him for the first time, a few months after my arrival in the U.S.
Tender and sensitive, with long wavy hair, ponytail, and a heavy light brown beard, he looked like Marx! I used to read his columns to learn new vocabularies and American idioms! We used to laugh a lot when I pronounced certain words which sounded funny! He gave me collections of Shakespeare’s and Ibsen’s plays along with several other plays as gifts! I still have them as well as a poem by W.H. Auden:  “September1, 1939” he copied for me with his uniquely skillful handwriting! How beautiful it was to talk about those days, as we talked and walked under the rain…

I said: You now look like Bernard Shaw!
 He said gently: Perhaps Victor Hugo!

No comments: