“I used to be a poet.My words were traded in marketplaces like pieces of gold.Merchants bought my verses for as much as they paid for saffron and Indian jade.Now I am old...drunk on wine and candle fumes.Alone in this barren room, I speak my psalms to the night air so as to entertain moths before they go off to die.I used to be a poet and my words were gold.”

Roman Payne is a British journalist and author of the 20th century. He worked primarily as a war correspondent, covering conflicts in Europe and Asia, and later wrote memoirs that offered vivid, firsthand accounts of military life and the human cost of war. His writing often blended reportage with reflective insight, making complex events accessible to a broad audience.