Tri neobjavljene i nepoznate pjesme W. H. Audena pojavile su se u arhivu Britanskog filmskog instituta više od sedamdeset godina nakon nastajanja. Pjesme su zapravo neka vrsta Audenovih prepjeva ili slobodnih interpretacija anonimnih ruskih seljačkih pjesama koje uzdižu vrline Lenjina, a koje je Auden, kojeg je Joseph Brodsky nazvao 'najvećim umom našeg stoljeća', trebao pripremiti za svjetsku premijeru ruskog propagandnog filma Tri pjesme o Lenjinu iz 1935. Pjesme je pronašao David Collard dok je prekopavao dokumente Ivora Montagua, suosnivača Film Society-a, a kao dio njegovog istraživanja Audenove filmske karijere.
Song One
My face in a dark prison lay
And blind by life remained
No learning mine nor light of day,
A slave although unchained
Till through my darkness shone a ray
And Lenin’s truth I gained
We never looked upon his face
We never heard his voice
Yet closer than a father he
Much closer to us was
No father for his children did
What LENIN did for us
From darkness thick he made a light
From deserts gardens green
And out of death the life he brought
Through him the [weak] poor have seen.
A million sand grains make a mound
A million corn a sack
A million of the weakest straws
Break the strong camel’s back.
With all he had he took our part
He gave his brain, his blood, his heart.
Song Two
We loved him as we loved our steppes; no [,] more than that.
If he would but return, we would give away our tents and steppes [,]
If he would but return, we would give away our lives.
Never will we forget him; our grandchildren’s grandchildren shall remember
He founded our party of steel; he built it from year to year
Taught it and tempered it; in the stubborn and ceaseless struggle it was tempered
He was tireless in work; his eyes were full of irony and sparking with wisdom
Now he smiles kindly, [deleted “now”] his burning speech is inspiring the masses
He was simple and straight in his manner; the Russians called him just Ilytch
He lived in a hut; in a hut beyond the marshes
Song Three
in Moscow
in the big
stone city
in a square there
stands a tent
and in it lies
LENIN
and if ever you should
be in sorrow
then go you to this
tent and look
on LENIN
an your grief will pass
away from you, like water (x2)
and your sorrow float away,
like leaves upon the brook
our life is become
sturdy and joyful –
true is our Lenin
path
P.S. Nakon ovih pjesama jasno je da T. S. Eliot, koji je, uostalom, i zaslužan za prvo objavljivanje Audena, nije rekao 'ja sam sve ono što Auden nije' samo zbog činjenice da je kod njih dvojice očit reciprocitet između država rođenja i 'usvojene domovine'.
