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
INDEX
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
“as a reward,” 552–54
“As if downstairs though there were no stairs,” 226
“As long as our watch has in it one ant, two, or three, everything is in order and nothing menaces our time” (M/S), 260
“A soldier is going off to war,” 144
“As Régis suggests they resemble each other like twins,” 379–80
“As soon as the train got going” (M/S), 72–73
“A swing, a whirlabout, a shooting-gallery—these are the amusements of common people,” 147
“at dawn he examines,” 301
“At first glance it’s the placid face of a miller, full and shiny as an apple,” 211
“At home it’s always safe, 281–82
“At last golden deer” (M/S), 45–46
“at night the poet reads,” 112
“at present I live,” 384–85
“At table you should sit calmly and not daydream,” 216
Attempt at a Description (M/S), 192
Attempt at the Dissolution of Mythology, 255
At the Gate of the Valley (M/S), 61–63
“At the profoundest moment before dawn, the first voice resounds, both blunt and sharp like a knife stab,” 257
“A view of a park and a wall in the early evening light,” 545 “A violin is naked,” 130
Awakening (M/S), 227
“a well-meaning fellow comes up,” 111–12
“A windy night and on this lonely road the prince of Parma’s army,” 436
“A wooden die can be described only from without” (M/S), 207
Babylon, 370
Balconies, 87
“Balconies eheu I am not a keeper of sheep,” 87
Ballad of Old Bachelors, 137
Ballad: That We Do Not Perish, 40
Bamboo Gatherer, 94
Baptism, 59–60
“Baruch Spinoza of Amsterdam,” 314–16
Bears, 138
“Bears can be divided into brown and white, paws, head and torso,” 138
“Because they lived by a wolfish law,” 476
“Because you are a king and I’m only a prince,” 489
Bedlam, 564–65
Beethoven, 386
“Before departure,” 564–65
“Befriend a Greek from Ephesus an Alexandrian Jew,” 437
Biology Teacher, 92–93
“Birds leave behind,” 24–25
Black Figurine by Eksekias, 507
Black Rose, 164
Blackthorn, 426–27
“Blood lives the longest,” 10
Book, The, 469
Botanical Garden, 143
Box Called Imagination, The, 155
Breviary, 515, 516, 517, 518
“but later on later on,” 441–42
Button, 130
Buttons, 477
“By day there are fruits and sea, by night stars and sea,” 136
Café, 138
Caligula, 310–11
“Caligula says:” 310–11
Captain’s Telescope, The, 151
Careful with the Table, 216 Cat, 132
Cat Sat on the Mat. In Defense of Illiteracy, The, 555
Cernunnos, 251
“Charlotte in a dress blue-gray as a rock—a straw hat,” 474
Chess, 546–47
”—Children in the middle—,” 487–88
Chimney, 209
“chimneys salute this departure with smoke,” 231
Chinese Wallpaper, 261
Chord, 24–25
Church Mouse, 208
Classic, 141
Clock, 211
“Clocks were running as usual so they waited only” (M/S), 191
Clouds over Ferrara, 478–80
“Clytemnaestra opens the window and mirrors herself in the glass, putting on her new hat,” 256
Common Death, 233–34
“Counting from the top: a chimney, antennae, a warped tin roof,” 135
“Count Juliusz leads the soldiers through a shadowy ravine into the mountains,” 245
Country, 131
Crossing Guard, 139
Crypt, 134
Cultivation of Philosophy, The, 34–35
“Cup your hands as if to hold a dream,” 29–30
Curatia Dionisia, 254
Daedalus and Icarus, 51–52
“Daedalus says:” 51–52
Dalida, 519–20
Damastes Nicknamed Procrustes Speaks, 381
Dawn, 257
Dead, The, 134
Descent, 226
Description of the King, A (M/S), 243
“Despite the worst prophecies of the diviners of the weather,” 426–27
“Destroy me star,” 37
Devil, A (M/S), 213
Diana, 523
Dinosaurs’ Holiday, 487–88
“Discover the meanness of speech the kingly power of gesture,” 438
Divine Claudius, The, 371–74
Drawer (M/S), 175
Dream Language, 525–26
“dreams,” 301
Drum Song, 118–19
Drunks, 130
“Drunks are people who drink to the dregs in one draft,” 130
“During a pop concert,” 302–3
Dwarfs, 132
“Dwarfs grow in the forest,” 132
Elegy for the Departure of Pen Ink and Lamp, 458–63
Elegy of Fortinbras (M/S), 186–87
Elephant (M/S), 144
Emperor (M/S), 143–44
Emperor’s Dream, The (M/S), 150
End, The, 528
End of a Dynasty, The (M/S), 178
Envoy of Mr Cogito, The, 333–34
Episode (M/S), 101
Episode from Saint-Benoît, 242
Episode in a Library (M/S), 132–33
Equilibrium, 148–49
“Even dreams are shrinking,” 298
“Every morning seven angels appear,” 135–36
“extract” (M/S), 195–96
“Eyelids fell like leaves the tenderness of glances crumbled,” 42
Fabric, 571
Farewell, 435
Farewell to September (M/S), 5
Farewell to the City, 231
“Father of the gods and you my patron Hermes,” 432–33
Fathers of a Star, The (M/S), 191
Fences, 247
“Fences with weeds and dogs on chains,” 247
“finally they” (M/S), 81
“First I will describe myself” (M/S), 192
First the Dog (M/S), 190
“First there was a god of night and tempest, a black idol without eyes, before whom they leaped, naked and smeared with blood” (M/S), 180
Fish, 145
“Five fingers straying over strings,” 114
Five Men (M/S), 106–8
Flowers, 529
“Flowers armfuls of flowers brought in from the garden,” 529
Forest, 143
Forest of Arden, 29–30
“Forest of threads thin fingers loom of fidelity,” 571
“For lack of a nail the kingdom fell,” 457
“For some time now,” 534–35
Fortune-Telling (M/S), 50
Fragment (M/S), 167
Fragment of a Greek Vase, 47
From Mythology (M/S), 180
From the End, 140
“From the fact that he managed,” 555
“From the fact we use the same curses,” 189
“From the pulpit a fleshy pastor holds forth,” 481–82
From the Techology of Tears (M/S), 149
From the Top of the Stairs, 338–40
“From the white podium,” 524
“from this fortunes grow,” 305–6
“Frost’s claw tapped on a window,” 235–36
“Fundamentally there is nothing to be sorry about,” 486
Funeral of a Young Whale, 146
Furnished Room, 88–89
Gaugin—The End, 162–63
“generals of the most recent wars,” 266
Georg Heym—An Almost Metaphysical Adventure, 317–19
“Golden mantles ripple like tents before the storm,” 440
“Good night Marcus put out th
e light” (M/S), 19
“Go on my son and remember you are walking not flying,” 51–52
“Gotcha—said the wolf and yawned,” 136–37
“Gothic towers of needles in the valley of a stream,” 296
“Go where the others went before to the dark boundary,” 333–34
Grandfather, 139
Grandmother, 513–14
Halt, A (M/S), 229
Harp, 139
Harpsichord, 131
Head, 570
Heart, 212
“Hear us O Silver-bowed archer through the clutter of leaves and arrows” (M/S), 167
“He came from the West in the early tenth century,” 248
“he chairs a meeting,” 299
“He didn’t manage his life very well a certain Eric Blair,” 470
“He fell from her lap like a ball of yarn,” 274
“He had never trusted the luck of ships’ ropes,” 250
“He is an utter failure as a devil” (M/S), 213
“He is writing his memoirs,” 309
“He lives in a forest of naked tree trunks,” 150–51
Hell, 135
“he looks in the mirror,” 299
Hen (M/S), 141
“he plays,” 300–301
“Her burning look holds me fast as if in an embrace,” 133
“he reads Isaiah and Das Kapital by turns,” 300
“Here is my paltry beauty,” 83
“here’s a ballet,” 494–95
“Here the blade was held to the flesh,” 550
Hermes, Dog and Star, 142
“Hermes is going along in the world,” 142
“He should not send his son,” 322
“he smokes hash,” 300
“he spies on the young,” 299
“He stood on the threshold of the room in which lay his dead father wrapped like a silkworm in waxen silence—and shouted” (M/S), 145–46
“He was breathing heavily,” 290–91
“He was kind,” 139
“He was so theatrical,” 148
“He went in a rustle of stone robes,” 14
“He who likened you to a marble edifice,” 44
“he will most easily give up smell,” 365–66
“he writes letters,” 299
“He wrote his first poem on a rose,” 109–13
High Castle, 552–54
Hill Facing the Palace, The, 252
“His face menacing in a cloud over the waters of childhood,” 273
The Collected Poems Page 29