The Collected Poems (31 page)

so not everything
is as it should be

didn't Mr Cogito
explain patiently
that one oughtn't
to sign the treaty
with the villain

nor expect that
good intentions
necessarily end
in happy results

nor a myriad other
general principles
and their special applications

so he continues
to prompt the world's rulers
with his advice

as ever
as ever
in vain

 

Ravaged by drugs stifled by a mantle of fumes
the supernova smolders burned to a fiery star
of three evenings—of chaos desire and torment
steps onto the trampoline begins all over again

dwarf of our time star of evenings long extinct
you goat-footed artist mimicking the demiurge
apocalyptic funfair O prince of somnambulists
hide your loathsome face

while there's time call the Lamb cleansing waters
let the true star ascend and Mozart's
Lacrimoso
call the true star the realm of the hundred leaves
let the Epiphany be fulfilled the New Page open

 

In the end what can I do with you—tenderness
tenderness for birds and for people for a stone
you should sleep in a palm in the eye's depths
that's your place may you be woken by no one

You spoil everything you get it back to front
you contract a tragedy into a pocket romance
you change the high-toned flight of a thought
into sobbing and exclamations into moaning

To describe is to murder because it's your role
to sit in the darkness of a cold and empty hall
to sit solitary where reason blithely rattles on
with mist in a marble eye tears running down

 

Theseus is passing through a sea
of bloody columns leaves restored
in a clenched fist he holds a trophy
—the scalped head of the Minotaur

Bitterness of victory An owl's shriek
measures dawn with a coppery stick
so that he will feel the sweet defeat
to the end a warm breath in his neck

 

Forest of threads thin fingers loom of fidelity
expectation's shadowy bier
so then frail memory be near
lend me your infinity

Dim light of conscience a monotonous thud
measures the island's years in scores
and carries at last to a nearby shore
bark and weft warp and shroud

1924
Born on October 29, in Lwów, Poland, to Maria Kaniak and Boleslaw Herbert, director of a commercial bank as well as the Lwów branch of an insurance company.

According to family legend, the Herberts were originally of English descent; however, Herbert's paternal great-grandfather arrived in Lwów from Vienna, and his grandmother on his father's side, Maria Balaban, descended from a polonized Armenian family; Herbert's maternal grandmother, born into a wealthy Austrian family in Graz, married Józef Kaniak, a civil servant in Lwów. Herbert's sister, Halina, was born in 1923 and a brother, Boleslaw Janusz, was born in 1931.

1934
Receives first communion with other children from his class at St. Anthony's elementary school in Lwów—a state school attended by Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, and Jews. Later, attends the prestigious King Kazimierz Wielki gymnasium.

1939
In the latter half of September, eastern Poland is occupied by the Soviets; many of Herbert's Lwów gymnasium instructors perish in the fighting or are taken captive. In the following year, there are massive deportations of Poles and others to Soviet camps in the east.

1941
Hitler's forces attack the Soviet Union, occupying Lwów and other cities in eastern Poland. Herbert continues his studies in clandestine university classes, concentrating on Polish literature; he also becomes involved with the underground resistance.

1943
Herbert's younger brother, Janusz, dies as a result of acute appendicitis.

1944
In March, a few months before Lwów is reoccupied by the Soviets, the Herbert family leaves the city, first traveling west by train and settling in Kraków.

1945–1947
Attends Trade Academy in Kraków; also attends lectures at the Jagiellonian University and drawing classes at the Academy of Fine Arts.

1949–1950
Attends University of Toru?, receiving title of master of law in 1949. Also attends lectures by the philosopher Henryk Elzenberg; later participates in Elzenberg's private seminars.

1949–1950
Works as office manager of Gda?sk branch of Writers' Union. Romance with Halina Misio?ek, a married woman who works as a secretary in the same office—a
relationship that lasts intermittently until 1959. A collection of Herbert's letters to H. M. were later published in Poland as
Letters to the Muse
(2000). In 1950 Herbert makes his literary debut with three poems published without his consent in the journal
Dzi? i Jutro.

1951
Transfers to the philosophy department of the University of Warsaw, continuing to correspond with Henryk Elzenberg. Begins to write reviews and articles for various periodicals, among them
Tygodnik Powszechny,
under the pseudonym “Patryk.”

1952
From January to July, supplements his income by selling his blood.

1954
From January, works as an economist in the accounts office of the Central Office of Research and Projects in the Peat Industry, or “Peat Project,” in Warsaw. Publishes a group of poems in the Catholic anthology
Each Moment I Must Choose.
Works intermittently in the University of Warsaw library, making an index of philosophical articles from pre-war periodicals.

1956
Chord of Light
published by Czytelnik in Warsaw. Works as office manager at the Polish Composers' Union, where he meets his future wife, Katarzyna Dzieduszycka.

1957
Hermes, Dog and Star
is published by Czytelnik.

1958–1960
Travels to France, Italy, and England on a grant from the Ministry of Culture.

1961
Study of the Object
is published by Czytelnik.

1962
Barbarian in the Garden,
a collection of essays on Mediterranean culture based on Herbert's travels, is published by Czytelnik.

1963
Travels to England and Scotland; in December, moves to Paris.

1964
Awarded the Kos'cielski Prize in Paris; in the summer, travels to Italy and Greece, returning to Poland toward the end of the year.

1965
Receives Nikolai Lenau Prize in Vienna and is elected a member of the German Academy of Arts. Joins the editorial board of the journal
Poezja.
Acts as literary director of the Juliusz Osterwa Theater in Gorzów Wielkopolski for the season 1965–1966.

1968
Marries Katarzyna Dzieduszycka in Paris. A selection of Herbert's poems, translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott, appears in the Penguin Modern European Poets series, edited by A. Alvarez. Resigns from
Poezja
in protest against Soviet-organized anti-Semitic chicanery by the government, resulting in removal of Jewish employees and a massive emigration of remaining Polish Jews to Israel. Spends the summer in the United States, giving readings in New York, Berkeley, and Los Angeles.

1969
Inscription
is published.

1970–1971
Herbert spends an academic year as visiting professor of European literature at California State College in Los Angeles.

1973
After living in the Warsaw apartment of their friend, the poet Artur Mi?dzyrzecki, the Herberts move into the apartment at 21 Promenada Street in the Mokotów area of Warsaw, which is to remain their permanent Polish address. Travels to Vienna to receive the Herder Prize, and spend the summer in Greece with his friends Magdalena and Zbigniew Czajkowski. Lectures from the fall to the following spring at the University of Gdansk. Co-edits “Letter 15,” a protest letter on behalf of Poles living in the Soviet Union.

1974
Mr Cogito
is published by Czytelnik.

1975
In December, signs “Memorial 59,” a letter protesting changes in the constitution of the Polish People's Republic, in particular, an article describing the leading role of the Polish Communist Party (PZPR) and the lasting alliance with the Soviet Union.

1975–1981
The Herberts live abroad, mostly in Germany, with some time spent in Italy and Austria.

1981
The Herberts return to Poland. Herbert joins the editorial board of the underground journal
Zapis
(“Note”). After martial law is declared in December 1981, Herbert supports the underground opposition to communism and becomes an important figure of moral authority associated with the Solidarity movement.

1983
Report from a Besieged City and Other Poems
is published at the Literary Institute in Paris and reprinted in whole and in part by clandestine presses in Poland.

1986
Moves back to Paris; a period of serious ill health.

1988
Awarded Bruno Schulz Prize by the Foundation for Polish-Jewish Studies and PEN USA.

1989
Joins the Association of Polish Writers.

1990
Elegy for the Departure
is published at the Literary Institute in Paris. Herbert becomes a member of the American Academy and Institute for Arts and Letters.

1991
Awarded the Jerusalem Prize; travels to Israel in May for the ceremony

1992
Rovigo
is published in Poland; the Herberts return to Warsaw. In the following years, Herbert's strongly anticommunist writings and interviews and his criticism of the Round Table talks of 1989 and the role of former communists in the public life of the Third Polish Republic, as well as his criticism of former friends such as Czeslaw Milosz and Adam Michnik, cause controversy. Herbert also initiates an appeal for donations on behalf of the Chechen Republic and is engaged on other political fronts.

1994
Travels to the Netherlands on the occasion of an exhibition about tulips in the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) in Amsterdam.

1995
Awarded the T. S. Eliot Prize by the Ingersol Foundation in the United States.

1998
Epilogue to a Storm
is published in the spring. On July 28, Zbigniew Herbert dies in hospital in Warsaw. He is buried in the Pow?zki Cemetery in Warsaw

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

Poems that were translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott are indicated by “(M/S).”

Abandoned, 383–85

“A blonde girl is bent over a poem” (M/S), 132–33

“Above San Francisco Bay—the lights of the stars,” 508

“Above the symphony's severed head still hangs the iron sword of the tutti,” 134–35

Achilles, Penthesilea, 506

“a coffin shared with an elephant,” 359–60

“A convoy of steel quiffs,” 136

“a couple of simple examples,” 405–7

“A crevice! shouts the Emperor in his sleep, and the canopy of ostrich plumes trembles” (M/S), 150

“A desert island with the sugary head of a volcano,” 261

“after a few concerts,” 414–15

After the Concert, 134–35

“After the rain of stars” (M/S), 61–63

“against the fresh blue sky,” 301

“again the poet is writing,” 112–13

“Agamemonon is closest to the pyre,” 147

“A great brown barrel in which Paris blue, Arabic silver, and English green are poured from above,” 152

“A great wooden ear lined with cotton wool and the tedium of Cicero,” 141

“A home above the year's seasons,” 4

“A hungry mouse was running along the edge of a gutter,” 208

Akeldama, 312–13

Akhenaton, 69–70

“Akhenaton's soul, in the shape of a bird, alighted on the forehead's verge, to rest before its long journey,” 69–70

“All attempts to avert,” 279–80

“Alleys, long alleys bordered by trees which are as carefully trimmed as in an English park” (M/S), 133–34

“All man's internal organs are bald and smooth,” 212

“All the lines descend into the valley of the palm” (M/S), 50

“a long time ago,” 443–48

Altar, 43

“Among all the citizens of Rome,” 310–11

Anabasis, 382

“And from now on I won't be there in any group picture,” 528

“And now she has brown clouds of roots overhead,” 343

“And then a great table was set and a splendid wedding feast was held,” 140

“Angels descend from heaven,” 508

“An hourglass bursts,” 36

“An immense coldness from the Longobards” (M/S), 241

“An ocean forms on its bed,” 104–5

Answer, 127–28

Anything Rather Than an Angel (M/S), 214

“A path runs barefoot through the forest,” 143

“a poet in the nebulous season,” 300

“a poet of a certain age,” 299

“A poet past his prime,” 299–301

Apollo and Marsyas (M/S), 165–66

“A priest whose deity” (M/S), 20

Architecture, 23

“A red cloud of dust,” 11

Arion (M/S), 55–56

Armchairs (M/S), 217

“a rose bows its head,” 22

Artur, 556

“As a result of being confined in dark and unaired accommodation their faces have been radically changed,” 134