The Collected Poems
Page 30
“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,�
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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