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Spender gave no clue about what he thought of them. Every once in a while he would interrupt his reading and seek out the author and ask such a question as, "Why did you choose red there rather than green? What does red mean to you?" He seemed to be on autopilot.
斯彭德沒有露出任何想表達對這些詩的看法的蛛絲馬跡，只是偶爾間斷朗讀，找到作者問問類似這樣的問題：“為什么你選用紅色而不是綠色？紅色對你意味著什么？”他對這種過程駕輕就熟，如同在用自動駕駛儀一般。
It is a pity that there are no entries in Spender's journals for this precise period. But it is clear that he was leading a rich social life at the time: dinner with Jacqueline Onassis one day, the Rothschilds' at Mouton a week later— the works. My feeling was that whatever he was thinking of had little to do with this workshop. Somehow, I was getting increasingly annoyed. It was none of my business, I guess, but I had put in a long day, and I felt that Spender owed us more. I didn't know what—but more.
很遺憾斯彭德的日記中沒有記載這段時期的只言片語，但是很明顯他當時過著一種豐富多彩的社交生活：某日與杰奎琳·奧納西斯一同進餐，一星期以后在繆頓的羅氏銀行——手段高明。我感覺無論他怎么想都與這個講習班無關。不知為什么，我越來越覺得惱怒。我猜這不關我的事。不過我耗費了一整天的時間，我覺得斯彭德欠了我們很多。我說不清欠的什么——反正很多。
My companion must have sensed that I was about to do something because she began writing furiously in a large notebook that she had brought along. Finally, after one particularly egregious "list," I raised my hand. Spender looked surprised, but he called on me. “Why was that a poem?” I asked. In reading his journals years later, I saw that this was a question that he had been asked by students several times and had never come up with an answer that really satisfied him. In 1935, Auden wrote an introduction for an anthology of poetry for schoolchildren in which he defined poetry as "memorable speech." That sounds good until one asks, Memorable to whom? Doesn't it matter? If not, why a workshop?
我的女友一定感覺到了我要做些什么，因為她開始在她隨身帶來的一個大筆記本上狂寫一通。最終，在聽完了一個尤其惡劣的“淸單”之后，我舉起了手。斯彭德看起來有點驚訝，但還是叫了我。“那為什么也算是一首詩？”我問道。幾年后讀了他的日記我才發現，這是一個他已經被學生問過很多遍卻從來沒有想出一個令他自己滿意的答案的問題。1935年，在一篇奧登為一本給小學生寫的詩集做的序中，他對詩歌給出了“難忘的演講”這樣的定義。這個定義聽起來還不賴，直到有人問道：對誰難忘？這很重要嗎？如果不重要，為什么要弄講習班？
I can't remember what Spender answered, but I then told him that, when I was a student, I had heard T. S. Eliot lecture.
我已經記不得當時斯彭德是怎么回答我的，但是之后我告訴他，在我還是學生的時候，我聽過T.S.艾略特的講座。
