I was invited to Romania at least once, but was warned that I should not be free to travel where I pleased in the country, but should be more or less confined to the Writers' Union. Because I ceased long ago to be an urban poet and feel claustrophobic in literary conferences, I could not accept such an invitation.

It is impossible for a poet to characterize his own work. From other people I gather that I am a gloomy poet, if not a tragic one.

Translation came naturally to me because as a child I was translated from Germany to Britain.

Being pre-eminently a moralist, he needed a medium that enabled him to illustrate a moral insight as briefly and vividly as possible. Being an artist and sensu…