May 24, 1980 – Brodsky’s Birthday Poem + Friendship with Baryshnikov
Joseph Brodsky 
and Baryshnikov
Baryshnikov to Perform in a Show Based on Brodsky’s Poetry
Mikhail Baryshnikov helpsachieve the dream of Russian poet Josef Brodsky
Two nobel prize winners from Russia were born on May 24..
Mikhail Sholokhov – And Quiet Flows the Don..
Joseph Brodsky – a Poet (Wiki )
May 24, 1980 – Poem by Joseph Brodsky
I have braved, for want of wild beasts, steel cages,
carved my term and nickname on bunks and rafters,
lived by the sea, flashed aces in an oasis,
dined with the-devil-knows-whom, in tails, on truffles.
From the height of a glacier I beheld half a world, the earthly
width. Twice have drowned, thrice let knives rake my nitty-gritty.
Quit the country the bore and nursed me.
Those who forgot me would make a city.
I have waded the steppes that saw yelling Huns in saddles,
worn the clothes nowadays back in fashion in every quarter,
planted rye, tarred the roofs of pigsties and stables,
guzzled everything save dry water.
I’ve admitted the sentries’ third eye into my wet and foul
dreams. Munched the bread of exile; it’s stale and warty.
Granted my lungs all sounds except the howl;
switched to a whisper. Now I am forty.
What should I say about my life? That it’s long and abhors transparence.
Broken eggs make me grieve; the omelet, though, makes me vomit.
Yet until brown clay has been rammed down my larynx,
only gratitude will be gushing from it.
Joseph Brodsky