Comments about Zbigniew Herbert
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koolhead17: To reach the source, you have to swim against the current. Only trash swims downstream.
-- Zbigniew Herbert
infinita_fiori: it did not take any great character
our refusal dissent and persistence
we had a scrap of necessary courage
but essentially it was a matter of taste.
zbigniew herbert, the power of taste
ChristosGanos: it was surprising to see this little fellow at Boston Logan Airport at the gate area…but perhaps a reminder of Herbert Zbigniew’s passage from his report from the besieged city… “empty storehouses a rat became the unit of currency…”
drewdles305: Zbigniew Herbert’s encounter with Spinoza
BenWilko85: in every generation
there are those who
with stubbornness worthy of a better cause
wish to rip poetry
from the claws
of the everyday
— Zbigniew Herbert, ‘Mr Cogito, Ars Longa’
biancastone: from "For Zbigniew Herbert, Summer, 1971, Los Angeles"
AgnieUisce: 3
if art for its subject
will have a broken jar
a small broken soul
with a great self-pity
what will remain after us
will be like lovers' weeping
in a small dirty hotel
when wall-paper dawns
by Zbigniew Herbert
infinita_fiori: go where those others went to the dark boundary
for the golden fleece of nothingness your last prize,
be courageous when the mind deceives you be courageous, in the final account only this is important
zbigniew herbert
tr. bogdana carpenter
infinita_fiori: i have never observed a chair shift from one foot to another, or a bed rear on its hind legs (...) i suspect that objects do this from pedagogical considerations, to reprove us constantly for our instability.
zbigniew herbert
infinita_fiori: [the lowest circle of hell] it is inhabited neither by despots nor matricides. it is the refuge of artists,full of mirrors, musical instruments and pictures. beelzebub supports the arts,he provides his artists with calm and absolute isolation from hellish life.
zbigniew herbert
infinita_fiori: go because only in this way will you be admitted to the company of cold skulls, to the company of your ancestors: gilgamesh hector roland - the defenders of the kingdom without limit and the city of ashes
be faithful go
zbigniew herbert
tr. bogdana and john carpenter
PhilKlay: Gotta go with the CIA, I think. I mean, just consider their track record: Koestler, Silone, Waugh, Woolf, Miłosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Joseph Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn, early chapters of One Hundred Years of Solitude (!)
daybreakjung: o cool torch rustling column
bedrock of my faith and my despair
- from "To The River" by Zbigniew Herbert, translated by John and Bogdana Carpenter
przy_sekwanie: rest in peace zbigniew herbert. rest in peace love. rest in peace baby cake. it's a real shame you never got to know what goodbye, my danish sweetheart by is. it's a real shame. you would've love to know who mitski is
georgievayani: going down a Zbigniew Herbert rabbit hole
alien_ecologies: I saw prophets tearing their false beards
I saw frauds joining sects of flagellants
executioners in sheep’s clothing who fled
the people’s wrath playing shepherd’s pipes
I saw it I saw it
— Zbigniew Herbert, The Collected Poems: 1956-1998
aliner: "A blonde girl is bent over a poem."
How Zbigniew Herbert begins "Episode in a Library" with this settled *safe* image.
timesflow: if art for its subject
will have a broken jar
a small broken soul
with a great self-pity
what will remain after us
will it be lovers' weeping
in a small dirty hotel
when wall-paper dawns
—Zbigniew Herbert, from ‘Why the Classics’
MayaCPopa: Happy Wednesday from Zbigniew Herbert:
pisslordebot: Zbigniew Herbert James Franco battiato n Britney Spears
food_rooms: "the whole setting sun in a stag's antlers" and "help me to understand other tongues other sufferings" from Zbigniew Herbert
"like as the waves make toward the pebbled shore, so do our minutes hasten to their end" from Shakespeare
donj_tolo: "a bird is a bird,
slavery means slavery,
a knife is a knife,
death remains death."
- Zbigniew Herbert
tiibet_mfc: “To reach the source, you have to swim against the current. Only trash swims downstream.” (Murakami quoting the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert)
liber_novus_: 7. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen - Tadeusz Borowski
8. In Search of Lost Time: The Fugitive - Marcel Proust
9. Sagittarius Rising - Cecil Lewis
10. Collected Poems - Zbigniew Herbert
/end
RuggedBugs: a rat became the unit of currency - Zbigniew Herbert
peterbirckhead: Harpsichord
In fact it is a cupboard made of walnut in a black frame. You might think that it is used to keep yellowing letters. Gypsy coins, and ribbons—whereas there’s nothing but a cuckoo entangled in a thicket of silver leaves.
Zbigniew Herbert
depressingADD: strykerlancer: — Zbigniew Herbert, from “At the Gates of the Valley.”
JohnNol02897494: War is the wealthy tyrants way of life ... to deny life to others. Following is the first verse of a poem by Zbigniew Herbert: The Rain ...
When my older brother
came back from war
he had on his forehead a little silver star
and under the star
an abyss
GabrielLuke94: “To reach the source, you have to swim against the current. Only trash swims downstream.”
-Zbigniew Herbert
TheNewModernist: And if the City falls but a single man escapes
He will carry the City within himself on the roads of exile.
He will be the City.
Zbigniew Herbert
BDStanley: "Mr Cogito's monster
has no dimensions
it's hard to describe
it escapes definition
it's like a great depression
stretched across the country
which can't be penetrated
by pen
argument
or lance"
- Zbigniew Herbert
domycustomessay: The novel “Still Life with a Birdie” by Zbigniew Herbert.
Write an analytical essay about the novel “Still Life
BorisDralyuk: Two of my friends pointed out that this choice of stories is to a great extent a matter of taste: Who indeed can stomach the Russian story unfolding before us? One friend brought up a poem by Zbigniew Herbert, “The Power of Taste,” translated by John and Bogdana Carpenter. 2/2
mpolkadot_: On Translating Poetry, by Zbigniew Herbert
AliceAvizandum: Guess who got the collected Zbigniew Herbert poems in translation
Incubo_pdf: It's time for Zbigniew Herbert
OSidorkiewicz: The webinar featured Professors Paul Slovic and Scott Slovic who discussed what they term as 'the arithmetic of compassion'. The term itself comes from Zbigniew Herbert's poem 'Mr Cogito Reads the Newspaper'.
BDStanley: I might complain about Polish schools sometimes, but I wasn’t analysing Zbigniew Herbert’s poems when I was 13. Took them two years more to trust us with Heaney’s more basic stuff.
AsiyaMiya: I would like to describe a light
which is being born in me
but I know it does not resemble
any star
for it is not so bright
not so pure
and is uncertain
Zbigniew Herbert,
I Would Like To Describe
Georgia O'Keeffe, Light Coming on the Plains No. II, 1917
AsiyaMiya: The blue winter sky like a stone on which angels
sublime and quite unearthly sharpen their wings
moving on rungs of radiance on crags of shadow
they gradually sink into the imaginary heavens
but in another moment they emerge... on the other side of the sky
Zbigniew Herbert, Look
RicDragon: Consent to be dazzled!
“Suddenly awakened intense curiosity, sharp concentration with the senses alarmed, hope for an adventure and consent to be dazzled.” -Zbigniew Herbert
OSidorkiewicz: More details can be found here:
ekstasis: (Since today is the anniversary of Laika's flight...) Zbigniew Herbert — "First the Dog"
biblioklept: David Foster Wallace, "author of the forthcoming Infinite Jest," recommends Zbigniew Herbert's Mr. Cogito in a 1994 issue of Spin.
holdengraber: I WOULD LIKE TO DESCRIBE
“we fall asleep
with one hand under our head
and with the other in a mound of planets
our feet abandon us
and taste the earth
with their tiny roots
which next morning
we tear out painfully”
~ Zbigniew Herbert
InadeBree: ‘a rose bows its head
as if it had shoulders (…)
the more the rose dies
the harder to say: rose.’ - Zbigniew Herbert
On a Rose 2, The Collected Poems, 1956- 1998
© Robert Mapplethorpe, Rose, 1983
PIASA_NY: On October 29, 1924 Zbigniew Herbert was born. Poet, essayist, author of plays and radio dramas. Herbert won many Polish and foreign literary awards. He is one of the most frequently translated Polish writers.
*
Credit: Polskie Radio
InadeBree: ‘And if the city falls and one survives he shall carry the city
within on the roads of exile, he shall be the city …’ -
Zbigniew Herbert, Report From The Besieged City, 1983
SeanSingerPoet: Zbigniew Herbert (tr. from Polish by Alissa Valles)
AsiyaMiya: He no longer dreams of flight
but of a fall
that draws like lightning
a profile of infinity
Zbigniew Herbert, The Stars’ Chosen One
Georgia O'Keeffe, A Storm,1922
OSidorkiewicz: We have a range of exciting speakers lined up for this term, including Professor Jaś Elsner and Marianna Leszczyk (Week 8) for a discussion around Zbigniew Herbert's travelogues and his reception of the Graeco-Roman tradition:
Steve_McOrmond: “The hen is the best example of what living constantly with humans leads to. She has completely lost the lightness and grace of a bird.” – Zbigniew Herbert, “The Hen.” Trans. Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott.
MiriERubin: Report From The Besieged City by Zbigniew Herbert:
KosciuszkoFound: Don't miss: "Transformations of Mr. Cogito: Debating Zbigniew Herbert's poetic legacy" - a webinar with Jaroslaw Anders - this coming Thursday, October 6, at 4 PM ET.
AntoniZbigniew: Ketanji Brown Jackson:
Congratulations
One request: Forget your skin color as I never noticed it since you don`t look at yourself.
Your job is hidden namely in the brain.
I wish you success.
Antoni or Zbigniew or Herbert or any other name you want. You can choose, if you like
aliner: Zbigniew Herbert’s “Objects”.
Astoria0_0: Zbigniew Herbert and Jan Kochanowski always will be hated by me
martynwendell: "The final stanza of [Zbigniew Herbert's] poem “Pebble” (A Study of the Object, 1961) might have been written for David:
Pebbles cannot be tamed
to the end they will look at us
with a calm and very clear eye”
naomi7444: Conch by Zbigniew Herbert
What are the constants that we might forget about?
Take a moment to remember…
aliner: I would give all metaphors
in return for one word
drawn out of my breast like a rib
for one word
contained within the boundaries
of my skin
- Zbigniew Herbert, from "I Would Like to Describe"
arentvn: "Aux accords d’Amphion les pierres se mouvaient
Et sur les murs thébains en ordre s’élevaient." (Boileau).
Zbigniew Herbert wrote about Arion, a "Hellenic Caruso": "of what does Arion sing/ nobody really knows this/ of most importance is that he returns harmony to the world".
princessekateri: I could write a treatise on the sudden transformation of life into archaeology
Zbigniew Herbert
GordonConnolly: "I bequeath to the four elements all I had in my brief possession.".
(Taken from the poem 'Testament' by Zbigniew Herbert.)
Safe harbour from everyone at
vanopticon: this is zbigniew herbert, dunno how his name fell off
nakiba: You were saved not in order to live
you have little time you must give testimony
(Zbigniew Herbert | The envoy of Mr Cogito)
seallbecomehome: Keats.
Then several others have created an impact in my poetry, like Zbigniew Herbert most notably, but Keats was the one that changed it all for me
ThraxMaximilian: Excited to read more of two new (to me) poets whose work I’ve enjoyed. Along with Zbigniew Herbert, big influences on Ted Hughes’s Crow series
Boiarski: “We fall asleep on words /
we wake among words”
― Zbigniew Herbert
lovelyaslilith: "A rat became the unit of currency"
-Zbigniew Herbert
SolTroubadour: Pebble by Zbigniew Herbert
The pebble
is a perfect creature
equal to itself
mindful of its limits
filled exactly
with a pebbly meaning...
EmileNois: —forgive me I did not love you enough
I wasted my youth looking for real gardens
and real islands in the waves' thunder
Zbigniew Herbert, "Balconies"
adrianf: it’s both a lot
and not much
(Zbigniew Herbert: The Collected Poems 1956-1998)
SeanSingerPoet: Zbigniew Herbert (tr. from Polish by Alissa Valles)
Boiarski: …the author doesn't appear in his own person. He creates a certain poetic persona, which … is … who he would like to be." - Zbigniew Herbert
UCityReview: "I Would Like to Describe" by Zbigniew Herbert.
bernardtjoy: “we here are all suffering from the loss of a sense of time”
—Zbigniew Herbert
bernardtjoy: I am happy which is to say deprived of illusions
—Zbigniew Herbert
youishear: “Sensitive as an open wound.” Zbigniew Herbert through the eyes of Leopold Tyrmand
ingo_don: —
Zbigniew Herbert
(29/10/1924–28/7/1998)
polish poet, essayist, drama writer, moralist.
He was member of the Polish resistance movement, Home Army (AK), during World War II. He is one of the best known & the most translated post-war Polish writers.
—
ValzhynaMort: As a part of his radio play, Zbigniew Herbert’s famous poem “Stone” (pebble, in other translations) has a preface. Here it is translated by Magdalena Czajkowska:
marysia_cc: The Old Masters
did without names
their signatures were
the white fingers of the Madonna
...
they found shelter
under angels’ eyelids
behind hillocks of cloud
in the thick grass of paradise
Zbigniew Herbert (29 October 1924 – 28 July 1998)
Master of the Embroidered Foliage
PortalHistory: On 28 July 1998, Zbigniew Herbert died in Warsaw. He was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer, and moralist. Herbert is one of the best-known and the most translated post-war Polish writers (photo:
ipngovpl_eng: He was one of the most recognizable Polish poets and essayists of the post-WW2 period, and one of the main Polish poets who stood in opposition to communism. His critically acclaimed books were translated into almost 40 languages. Zbigniew Herbert passed away 24 years ago today.
qurratulain95: “nobody loves moralist” // Zbigniew Herbert
AuchNeal: "I could write a treatise on the sudden transformation of life into archeology."
– Zbigniew Herbert
karolina_anna1: “
Our eyes and ears refused obedience
the princes of our senses proudly chose exile
It did not require great character at all
we had a shred of necessary courage
but fundamentally
…. it was a matter of taste
Zbigniew Herbert, The Power Of Taste
gautambhatia88: Instead, just read Zbigbnew Herbert, who figured out all this stuff quite well in his poem, The Power of Taste.
UCityReview: A favorite: "The Envoy of Mr. Cogito" by Zbigniew Herbert
santIieta: the depths of the inner
eye ，
the iris of necessity ，
the pupil of death 。
the collected poems by
zbigniew herbert : 1956
— 1998
le0nardpoetry: from the factories go the heavenly proletarians
Zbigniew Herbert (trans. Alissa Valles)
daybreakjung: as if he were still living he borrows money scrambles
between heaven and earth to make contacts
but the moon is the moon even without the sonata
- from "Beethoven" by Zbigniew Herbert, transl. John & Bogdana Carpenter
DMPender: In response to an interviewer’s question, “What is the purpose of poetry?” Zbigniew Herbert replied, “To wake up!”
x_rVb_x: My new favourite poem. Apt for today’s living. By Zbigniew Herbert.
StaceCJohnson: The arrow became the first hero. It won against the flesh. From the start, original sin and original notions of power were wedded. The horse, without tools, ate only the garden. What followed was the chase. We're still recovering.
- Reading Zbigniew Herbert’s essay, "Lascaux."
DanielCyranPoet: let us not forget to bless the miracle
Zbigniew Herbert
liber_novus_: Photo of Zbigniew Herbert from the cover of his Collected Poems in English. Channeling Bill Hicks.
jamesthad1: Zbigniew Herbert, translated by Alissa Valles:
Mitchell_CBrown: From Zbigniew Herbert’s “Prayer”
“[…]
Lord,
bestow on me the strength and agility of those who
build long sentences spread out like an oak, capacious
as a great valley, so they can contain worlds…”
LarsSchall: WHAT MR COGITO THINKS ABOUT HELL, By Zbigniew Herbert
PN_Review: Another look into the archive this Tuesday, this time with a poem by Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert from issue 26 of PN Review, published in 1982!
This poem, and his others from the issue, are available to read in our online archive:
