It seems that there is no rhyme or reason in the distribution of good translators among bilingual (or more) Russian poets; Brodsky has not been called from above for that job, like Nabokov - and unlike Pasternak. His attempt at Stoppard's "Rosenkrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead" (no, I don't know what moved him to do it) rarely raises itself above the level of a passable word-for-word interpretation - but it has become the definitive version by simple virtue of having come from him.

I met Brodsky a couple of times. Of course he was infuriating. He was a genius, and he knew it.
He had no patience with people he thought were fools or hacks. He was also charming and amazing to hear as he recited his own works in both English and Russian.

Why people expect great poets to be humble, I don't know. Dante had himself crowned with laurels by the big guns of classical literature. If that's not egomania, what is?

As far as his work as Poet Laureate goes, Brodsky had a scheme to put inexpensively printed volumes of great American poetry in every motel room in the country, sort of like the Gideon Bibles. He never could get anyone in Congress to take him seriously.

He also said that in all the time he was PL, only two legislators ever 'consulted' him, Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming asked him to read and comment on verses he'd written. Brodsky didn't say what the poems were like, but his demeanor suggested they weren't worth the effort. Another member of Congress from somewhere in the Midwest asked Brodsky for a list of books to read during flights to and from his home district. Other than that, they left him alone.