The Collected Poems

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The Collected Poems Page 30

by Zbigniew Herbert


  “His name is 176 and he lives in a big brick with one window,” 139

  History of the Minotaur, The, 308

  Home, 4

  Homily, 481–82

  Hotel, 135

  Houses on the Outskirts, 288

  “Houses on the outskirts with rings under your windows,” 288

  “How did my grandfather and his father understand Livy,” 423–24

  How We Were Initiated, 124–25

  Hygiene of the Soul, The (M/S), 215

  “I always suspected that the city was a falsification,” 148

  “I arrived too late,” 383–85

  “I bequeath to the four elements,” 28

  “I bought it from a street vendor in Naples,” 151

  “I cannot find the title,” 6–8

  “I cannot remember,” 92–93

  “I can still adjust the devotional picture so your reconciliation with necessity may be known,” 134

  “I couldn’t choose,” 478–80

  “I did not learn this today” (M/S), 107–8

  “I don’t know who (who the hell),” 532

  “I don’t understand how you can write poems about the moon,” 151

  “If after our death they want to transform us into a tiny withered flame that walks along the paths of winds—we have to rebel” (M/S), 214

  “if art for its subject,” 267

  “If he had any sense of identity it was with a stone,” 277

  “If it is true,” 317–19

  “If I went back there,” 278

  “If this is to be an offering for my imprisoned,” 428–29

  “If you set out on a journey pray that the road is long,” 437–39

  I Gave My Word, 521–22

  “I have never believed in the spirit of history,” 462–63

  “I just close my eyes—,” 85–86

  “I knew all this considerably earlier,” 563

  “I live in several times like an insect in amber, motionless and so outside of time,” 558

  “In a cabin at the edge of the wood there once lived a mother and her little boy,” 130

  “Inadvertently I passed the border of her teeth and swallowed her agile tongue” (M/S), 210

  “In a forest on a dune three luscious oaks,” 421–22

  “Inanimate objects are always correct and cannot, unfortunately, be reproached with anything” (M/S), 131

  “In an old abbey overlooking the Loire,” 242

  “In appearance a drop of rain on a beloved face, a beetle immobilized on a leaf when a storm approaches” (M/S), 259

  “in common parlance,” 544

  Incorrigibility, 83

  “I never have the courage to speak of you,” 82

  “In fact it is a cupboard made of walnut in a black frame,” 131

  “In former times,” 341–42

  “In front of the mirror in my parents’ bedroom there lay a pink shell,” 131

  “In his youth,” 498–502

  In Memoriam Nagy László, 355

  “In my sleep it rips through” (M/S), 205

  Inner Voice (M/S), 203–4

  “In our present state of knowledge only false tears are suitable for treatment and regular production” (M/S), 149

  “In paradise the work week is fixed at thirty hours” (M/S), 240

  Inscription, 12

  “instead of cultivating,” 299

  “In the borderland city I’ll never see again,” 551

  “In the caves of night,” 473

  In the City, 551

  In the Cupboard, 148

  “In the end one cannot keep this love concealed” (M/S), 41

  “In the end what can I do with you—tenderness,” 569

  “In the far corner of this old map there’s a country I long for,” 131

  “In the foreground you see,” 47

  “in the fourth book of the Peloponnesian War,” 266–67

  “In the life of Mr Cogito,” 519–20

  In the Margin of a Trial, 237

  “In the morning mice scamper,” 292

  “in the mornings,” 539–40

  “In the morning the lumberjack goes into the forest and slams the great oak door behind him,” 219

  “in the night,” 548–49

  “In the sky’s envelope there is a letter for us,” 220

  In the Studio, 160–61

  “In the warm hands” (M/S), 156–57

  “In this room there are three suitcases,” 88–89

  “In truth, elephants are extremely sensitive and high-strung” (M/S), 144

  “In Utica,” 330–32

  “I returned years later,” 228

  Isadora Duncan, 399–401

  “I saw prophets tearing their false beards,” 337

  Island, 225

  “I slow diver won’t touch,” 15

  “I sowed the idea of infinity,” 34–35

  Is There Anything Else I Can Do for You Sir, 557

  It Came to Mind, 542–43

  “It did not take any great character,” 409–10

  “it emerges,” 164

  “It happens very rarely” (M/S), 218

  “It has been raining all morning,” 143

  “I thought” (M/S), 99–100

  “I thought:” 31–32

  “it is not very big,” 198–99

  “It is said of me,” 371–74

  “It is truly no evidence of a great soul,” 527

  “It’s a boardinghouse for plants, run very strictly like a convent school,” 143

  “It’s completely black, but has an electric tail,” 132

  “it’s fresh,” 230

  “It’s good what happened” (M/S), 84

  “It’s neither fish nor fowl,” 485

  “It’s unclear whether anyone knows its personal zoological name, so small is it,” 533

  “It usually begins innocently enough with an acceleration, unnoticeable at first, of the turning of the earth” (M/S), 262

  “It was a bird, or rather a pitiful remnant of a bird, eaten away by parasites,” 148–49

  “It was in the year twenty” (M/S), 122–23

  “It wasn’t the path of truth it was simply a path,” 232

  “It was on the road to Delphi,” 140

  “It was the loveliest blue sky of my life: hard, and so pure that it took your breath away,” 206

  “It will be a night of deep snow,” 127–28

  “I’ve decided to return to the emperor’s court” (M/S), 184–85

  “I walk on the sea-shore” (M/S), 67–68

  “I was a quiet boy a little sleepy and-amazingly—,”471–72

  “I was playing out in the street,” 124–25

  “I was talking of battles” (M/S), 200

  “I was very young,” 521–22

  “I will never forget you—the fleeting maidens and ladies,” 491–92

  “…I won’t sing of Felek Stankiewicz now,” 556

  I Would Like to Describe (M/S), 65–66

  “I would like to describe the simplest emotion” (M/S), 65–66

  “Jan came by this morning,” 75–76

  Japanese Tale, 150

  Jonah (M/S), 182–83

  “Jonah son of Amittai” (M/S), 182–83

  Journey, 437–39

  Journey to Kraków (M/S), 72–73

  Just Autumn, 181

  “justice should be rendered to him,” 110–11

  Kant. Last Days, 527

  Khodasevich, 496–97

  Knocker, A (M/S), 78

  Lament, 343

  Landscape, 436

  Last Attack. To Klaus, The, 531

  Last Request, 173–74

  Leo’s Death, 453–56

  Life, A, 109–13, 471–72

  Life of a Warrior (M/S), 145–46

  “Light of my childhood,” 460–62

  “Like a clumsy bumblebee,” 98

  Lines of a Pantheist, 37

  Little Bird, A, 120–21
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  Little Town, 136

  “living—despite,” 6–7

  Livy’s Metamorphoses, 423–24

  Longobards, The (M/S), 241

  Look, 26

  “Lord, grant me the ability to compose a long sentence, whose line, customarily from breath to breath, is a line spanned like a suspension bridge like a rainbow the alpha and omega of the ocean,” 516

  “Lord help us to imagine a fruit,” 517

  “Lord, I give thanks to You for this whole jumble of life in which I have been drowning helplessly from time immemorial, dead set on a constant search for trifles,” 515

  “Lord, I know my days are numbered,” 518

  “Lord I thank You for creating the world beautiful and various,” 347–48

  Lullaby, 367–68

  Lumberjack, 219

  Lyrical Zone, 545

  Mademoiselle Corday, 474

  Madonna with Lion, 95

  Madwoman, 133

  Malachowski’s Ravine, 245

  Mama, 31–32

  “Mango blossoms in white sun in black rain,” 162–63

  “many years ago,” 537–38

  “Marked in the guidebook by two stars (in fact there are more) the whole principality—that is to say the city,” 169

  “mark the place” (M/S), 193–94

  Mass for the Imprisoned, 428–29

  Maturity (M/S), 84

  Meditations on Father, 273

  Messenger, 402

  “Metamorphoses down to the sources of history,” 363

  “Mircea Eliade is right,” 304–6

  Mirror Wanders the Road, A, 493–95

  “Miss Amelia of Darmstadt,” 320–21

  Missing Knot, The, 256

  “Mr Cogito,” 331–32, 349–51, 353–54, 358–60, 387–90, 404–8, 444–46, 446–48, 501–2, 503–5

  Mr Cogito. A Calligraphy Lesson, 559–60

  Mr Cogito and a Poet of a Certain Age, 299–301

  Mr Cogito and Longevity, 358–60

  Mr Cogito and Maria Rasputin—An Attempt at Contact, 391–96

  Mr Cogito and Pop, 302–303

  Mr Cogito and Pure Thought, 283–84

  Mr Cogito and the Imagination, 352–54

  Mr Cogito and the Little Creature, 533

  Mr Cogito and the Movement of Thought, 287

  Mr Cogito and the Pearl, 276

  Mr Cogito. Ars Longa, 536–38

  “Mr Cogito attempts,” 283–84

  Mr Cogito Bemoans the Pettiness of Dreams, 298

  Mr Cogito Comes Across a Statuette of the Great Mother in the Louvre, 307

  Mr Cogito Considers a Return to His Native Town, 278

  Mr Cogito Considers the Difference Between the Human Voice and the Voice of Nature, 295

  “Mr Cogito has never trusted,” 352–54

  “Mr Cogito holds in his arms,” 289

  “Mr Cogito is unsettled by,” 504–5

  Mr Cogito—Notes from the House of the Dead, 411–15

  Mr Cogito Observes a Deceased Friend, 290–91

  Mr Cogito on a Set Topic: “Friends Depart,” 498–502

  Mr Cogito on Magic, 304–6

  Mr Cogito on the Need for Precision, 404–8

  Mr Cogito on Upright Attitudes, 330–32

  Mr Cogito on Virtue, 361–62

  Mr Cogito Reads the Newspaper, 285–86

  Mr Cogito Reflects on Suffering, 279–80

  “Mr Cogito’s,” 325–28

  Mr Cogito’s Abyss, 281–82

  Mr Cogito’s Adventures with Music, 443–48

  Mr Cogito’s Alienations, 289

  Mr Cogito’s Appointment Books, 503–5

  Mr Cogito Seeks Advice, 323–24

  Mr Cogito’s Eschatological Premonitions, 364–66

  Mr Cogito’s Game, 325–28

  Mr Cogito’s Heraldic Meditations, 434

  Mr Cogito’s Late Autumn Poem for Women’s Magazines, 293

  Mr Cogito’s Monster, 375–78

  Mr Cogito Sometimes Receives Odd Letters, 320–21

  Mr Cogito’s Other World, 566–67

  Mr Cogito’s Reflections on Redemption, 322

  Mr Cogito’s Soul, 341–42

  Mr Cogito Studies His Face in the Mirror, 271

  Mr Cogito Tells of the Temptation of Spinoza, 314–16

  Mr Cogito—The Return, 349–51

  Mr Cogito. The Soul’s Current Position, 534–35

  Mr Cogito Thinks about Blood, 387–90

  Mitteleuropa, 485

  Mona Lisa (M/S), 170–72

  Moon, 151

  “More rain with snow is being woven,” 541

  Mother, 274

  Mother and Her Little Boy, A, 130

  My Ancestors’ Hands, 475

  My City, 104–5

  “My defenseless country will welcome you invader,” 403

  My Father, 13

  “My father liked Anatole France,” 13 “My friend from the anthology of Slavonic rhymesters,” 496–97

  “My God,” 361–62

  “My inner voice” (M/S), 203–4

  “my most saintly grandmother,” 513–14

  “My portable empire between Athens and Megara,” 381

  Nail in the Sky, A, 206

  Naked Town (M/S), 188

  Native Devil, 248

  Navel, 561

  Nefertiti, 71

  Nepenthes Family, The, 425

  “Never” (M/S), 102–3

  Never of You, 82

  “Nike is most beautiful at the moment” (M/S), 48–49

  Nike Who Hesitates (M/S), 48–49

  “no one saw,” 412–14

  “No surprise,” 361–62

  “not everything,” 566–67

  “Not heads snuffed by the sharp shadow of pennants,” 126

  Nothing Special (M/S), 159

  “nothing special” (M/S), 159

  “Not much will remain Ryszard in truth not much,” 356–57

  “now,” 395–96

  “now” (M/S), 194

  “now Mr Cogito,” 407–8

  “Now that we’re alone we can talk prince man to man” (M/S), 186–87

  “now you have” (M/S), 194–95

  Oaks, 421–22

  Oath, 491–92

  “obey the counsels” (M/S), 195

  Objects (M/S), 131

  “Obviously,” 338–40

  Old Age, 563

  Old Masters, 345–46

  Old Prometheus, 309

  “O my seven-stringed board” (M/S), 175

  On a Boy Killed by the Police, 530

  “on a moonless night,” 299

  On a Rose, 21–22

  “Once an eagle perhaps,” 434

  “Once in a garden there grew a rose” (M/S), 140

  “Once in his lifetime,” 559–60

  “Once there was breath on the windowpanes here, the smell of baking, the same face in the mirror,” 244

  “Once upon a time there was an Emperor” (M/S), 143–44

  “One,” 542–43

  “On iron branches the red and green fruits of signals are ripening,” 142

  “Only buttons witnesses to the crime,” 477

  “only now does he understand his father,” 301

  On Mr Cogito’s Two Legs, 272

  “On overcast autumn afternoons, Mr Cogito likes to visit the grimy neighborhoods at the edge of town,” 288

  “On the plain that town flat like an iron sheet” (M/S), 188

  On the Road to Delphi, 140

  “On top of the house grows another house, only without a roof—a chimney,” 209

  On Translating Poetry, 98

  On Troy, 17–18

  Organ Player, 150–51

  “O river—hourglass of water figure of eternity,” 344

  Ornamental but Real, 249

  Ornament Makers, 116–17

  Orwell’s Album, 470

  “O tree spreading like the tree of Genesis,” 120–21

  “O Troy Troy,�
�� 17–18

  Our Fear (M/S), 176–77

  “Our fear” (M/S), 176–77

  “Over a light arch—,” 23

  “Owing to a negligible age difference childish proximity,” 275

  Pacific III (On the Peace Conference), 473

  Painter, 141

  Palace of Laughter, The, 147

  Parable of King Midas, A (M/S), 45–46

  Parable of the Russian Émigrés (M/S), 122–23

  Paradise of the Theologians, The (M/S), 133–34

  Passion of Our Lord Painted by Anonymous from the Circle of Rhenish Masters, The, 263

  “Pastoral flutes are departed,” 118–19

  Path, 232

  Pebble (M/S), 197

  Peepshow, 152

  Period (M/S), 259

  “Permit me to open by expressing joy and wonder,” 531

  Phone Call, 548–49

  Photograph, 369

  Pica Pica L., 539–40

  Pirates, 139

  “Pirates are bowling,” 139

  Place, 228

  Poet’s House, The, 244

  “Pompous manifestos,” 536–38

  Portrait of the Fin de Siècle, 568

  Postcard from Adam Zagajewski, A, 483–84

  Power of Taste, The, 409–10

  Practical Recommendations in the Event of a Catastrophe (M/S), 262

  “Praised be the ornament makers,” 116–17

  Prayer of Old Men, 441–42

  Prayer of the Traveler Mr Cogito, 347–48

  Preliminary Investigation of an Angel (M/S), 238–39

  Priest (M/S), 20

  Priests and Peasants, 246

  Princess, 130

  “Princess Izanaki is fleeing a dragon with four purple and four golden claws,” 150

  Principality, 169

  Prologue, 223–24

  Quotidian Soul, The, 292

  R

  Railway Landscapes, 142

  Rain, The (M/S), 90–91

  “Rap a knuckle on the wall—,” 155

  “Ravaged by drugs stifled by a mantle of fumes,” 568

  “Reading old chronicles, epics, and biographies, Mr Cogito sometimes feels persuaded of the physical presence of long deceased persons,” 310–11

  Red Cloud, 11

  Reflections on the Problem of the Nation, 189

  Regicides, 379–80

  Report from a Besieged City, 416–18

  Report from Paradise (M/S), 240

  Request, 115, 432–33

  Return of the Proconsul, The (M/S), 184–85

  Revelation (M/S), 201–2

  “Romana said you just passed away,” 355

  Rosy Ear (M/S), 99–100

  Rovigo, 509

  “Rovigo station. Vague associations. A Goethe play,” 509

  Russian Tale, A (M/S), 151–52

  Sacrifice of Iphigenia, The, 147

  “Saint Ignatius,” 74

  Salt of the Earth, The, 53–54

 

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