Douglas had a life-long passion for words, and particularly fine poetry, nurtured by his mother Mary MacDiarmid who had a literary Celtic soul. He wrote verse but mostly sought out the work of great poets from around the world to savour.

These companion 2012 paintings envision a poem very close to Douglas’ heart – Anglo-American W.H. Auden’s ‘Lay your sleeping head’, originally named ‘Lullaby’, written by the illustrious 20th Century English poet in 1937.

The poem was introduced to him by his first great love, New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn, as a young man. Later Douglas recalled: “One day we met by chance in a bookshop here, DL showed me Auden’s poem, ‘Lay your sleeping head, my love, human on my faithless arm…’.

“Jesus God – why “faithless”? Who can one ask?” he wondered. “Are we lost already? It takes a lot of living to reconcile that poem to its entirety – its finality of…‘entirely beautiful’ ”.

Auden himself was homosexual, but made a marriage of convenience with fellow writer and poet Erika Mann, daughter of the German novelist Thomas Mann, in 1935 to give her British citizenship and sanctuary from Nazi Germany.

Douglas read poetry in a number of languages, from classical Greek and Roman to contemporary verse, preferring to experience the original words and respond to the pure lyrical rhythm than rely on someone else’s translation.

While some verse has its season, then fades from memory, ‘Lay your sleeping head’ stayed with him through thick and thin. Finally, he made his own translation so his French-speaking partner Patrick could enjoy it fully with him.

In 2012, he told a friend:

“During some days of regrettable absence of urge to paint, I finally got round to translating a poem of Auden which I’ve been reading for a lifetime, and which I wanted Patrick to share with me. I think it’s one of the most moving poems of our time. 

“I’m poet enough to have had some success in England during a time when Jacqueline [his late French fiancée] was so ill I couldn’t bring myself to the sort of co-ordination paint exacts. This means that at least I set out on this poem fully aware that a translation mustn’t become a betrayal; but in all things, if enough love gears heart and mind to a commitment, the labour is multiplied and so is the pleasure. It does contain a lot. My French judges have been generous, and my reward has been a painting which then took over. Just for the hell of it, I’ll enclose a copy. I’ve called it ‘Sleep’, and hope it doesn’t bring you a nightmare.“

That poem-inspired painting became two, both of which came to New Zealand soon after for Douglas’ one-man Auckland Art Week show ‘Douglas MacDiarmid: An Artist Abroad,’ at Jonathan Grant Gallery, Auckland from 10-23 October, 2013. It was 90-year-old Douglas’ last exhibition of new painting at home or abroad.

Both of these Lay Your Sleeping Head paintings featured side by side in a special art history exhibition at Takapuna Library’s Angela Moreton Room, in Auckland, for Douglas’ centenary celebrations in New Zealand during November 1922, loaned for the occasion by the Fletcher Trust Collection and Jonathan Grant Gallery, Auckland.

The main figure in each painting is significant. In Sleeping Head I, that figure is representative of Douglas Lilburn; in Sleeping Head II, it is Douglas’ partner Patrick. This second painting also has a impression of Venus, as mentioned in the poem, hovering in the background.

The original sketch of these paintings can be found on the cover of the limited edition anniversary book Letters to Lilburn – Douglas MacDiarmid’s conversations from the heart – a collation of letter extracts and poems written by Douglas to Lilburn between 1944 and 2001, bringing the connection between the two full circle.

Here is a link to the full extent of Auden’s splendid poem ‘Lullaby’, which begs to be read aloud…