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Intelectual poetry

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  Quote Mosquito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Intelectual poetry
    Posted: 18-Aug-2004 at 09:49

Anyone like intelectual, philosophical poetry? For me it is the only kind of poetry that i like.  Especially i like polish poet named Zbigniew Herbert.

I just found a page that someone who liked his poetry dedicated to him:

http://www.durham21.co.uk/archive/archive.asp?ID=1312

From all what the person who wrote that article i have read I especially agree with this quote:

"As an occasional bystander of the history of philosophy I must admit to hating Herbert for being able to say in one sentence what would take Hegel or Kant a lifetime."

I have even found on the net 3 pieces translated into english. "The power of taste  "Elegy of Fortinbras" and "Report from a Besieged City".

The Power of Taste

It didn't require great character at all 
our refusal disagreement and resistance 
we had a shred of necessary courage 
but fundamentally it was a matter of taste
Yes taste
in which there are fibers of soul the cartilage of conscience

Who knows if we had been better and more attractively tempted 
sent rose-skinned women thin as a wafer
or fantastic creatures from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch 
but what kind of hell was there at this time
a wet pit the murderers' alley the barrack 
called a palace of justice
a home-brewed Mephisto in a Lenin jacket 
sent Aurora's grandchildren out into the field 
boys with potato faces
very ugly girls with red hands

Verily their rhetoric was made of cheap sacking 
(Marcus Tullius kept turning in his grave) 
chains of tautologies a couple of concepts like flails 
the dialectics of slaughterers no distinctions in reasoning 
syntax deprived of beauty of the subjunctive

So aesthetics can be helpful in life 
one should not neglect the study of beauty

Before we declare our consent we must carefully examine 
the shape of the architecture the rhythm of the drums and pipes 
official colors the despicable ritual of funerals

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
Yes taste
that commands us to get out to make a wry face draw out a sneer 
even if for this the precious capital of the body the head
must fall

--translated by John Carpenter

 

                           Elegy of Fortinbras

 

Now that were alone we can talk prince man to man
though you lie on the stairs and see no more than a dead ant
nothing but black sun with broken rays
I could never think of your hands without smiling
and now that they lie on the stone like fallen nests
they are as defenceless as before The end is exactly this
The hands lie apart The sword lies apart The head apart
and the knights feet in soft slippers

You will have a soldiers funeral without having been a soldier
the only ritual I am acquainted with a little
there will be no candles no singing only cannon-fuses and bursts
crepe dragged on the pavement helmets boots artillery horses drums drums I know nothing exquisite those will be my manoeuvres before I start to rule
one has to take the city by the neck and shake it a bit

Anyhow you had to perish Hamlet you were not for life
you believed in crystal notions not in human clay
always twitching as if asleep you hunted chimeras
wolfishly you crunched the air only to vomit
you knew no human thing you did not know even how to breathe

Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in ones hand on a narrow chair
with a view of the ant-hill and the clocks dial

Adieu prince I have tasks a sewer project
and a decree on prostitutes and beggars
I must also elaborate a better system of prisons
since as you justly said Denmark is a prison
I go to my affairs This night is born
a star named Hamlet We shall never meet
what I shall leave will not be worth a tragedy

It is not for us to greet each other or bid farewell we live on archipelagos
and that water these words what can they do what can they do prince


(translated from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz)

 

Report from a Besieged City

Too old to carry arms and fight like the others

they graciously gave me the inferior role of chronicler
I record I don't know for whom the history of the siege

I am supposed to be exact but I don't know when the invasion began
two hundred years ago in December in September perhaps yesterday

at dawn
everyone here suffers from a loss of the sense of time

all we have left is the place the attachment to the place
we still rule over the ruins of temples spectres of gardens and houses
if we lose the ruins nothing will be left

I write as I can in the rhythm of interminable weeks
monday: empty storehouses a rat became the unit of currency
tuesday: the mayor murdered by unknown assailants
wednesday: negotiations for a cease-fire the enemy has imprisoned

our messengers
we don't know where they are held that is the place of torture
thursday: after a stormy meeting a majority of voices rejected
the motion of the spice merchants for unconditional surrender
friday: the beginning of the plague saturday: our invincible defender
N.N. committed suicide sunday: no more water we drove back
an attack at the eastern gate called the Gate of the Alliance

all of this is monotonous I know it can't move anyone

I avoid any commentary I keep a tight hold on my emotions I write

about the facts
only they it seems are appreciated in foreign markets
yet with a certain pride I would like to inform the world
that thanks to the war we have raised a new species of children
our children dont like fairy tales they play at killing
awake and asleep they dream of soup of bread and bones
just like dogs and cats

in the evening I like to wander near the outposts of the City
along the frontier of our uncertain freedom
I look at the swarms of soldiers below their lights
I listen to the noise of drums barbarian shrieks
truly it is inconceivable the City is still defending itself
the siege has lasted a long time the enemies must take turns
nothing unites them except the desire for our extermination
Goths the Tartars Swedes troops of the Emperor regiments of the

Transfiguration
who can count them
the colors of their banners change like the forest on the horizon
from delicate bird's yellow in spring through green through red to
winter's black

and so in the evening released from facts I can think
about distant ancient matters for example our
friends beyond the sea I know they sincerely sympathize
they send us flour lard sacks of comfort and good advice
they dont even know their fathers betrayed us
our former allies at the time of the second Apocalypse
their sons are blameless they deserve our gratitude therefore we are

grateful
they have not experienced a siege as long as eternity
those struck by misfortune are always alone
the defenders of the Dalai Lama the Kurds the Afghan mountaineers

now as I write these words the advocates of conciliation
have won the upper hand over the party of inflexibles
a normal hesitation of moods fate still hangs in the balance

cemeteries grow larger the number of defenders is smaller
yet the defense continues it will continue to the end
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
we look in the face of hunger the face of fire face of death
worst of all the face of betrayal

and only our dreams have not been humiliated



Edited by Mosquito
"I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood, certainly not German blood" - Friedrich Nietzsche
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TheDiplomat View Drop Down
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  Quote TheDiplomat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Aug-2004 at 11:48
hmm i should take a look of the book about the history of  Polish literature in the city library.

Edited by TheDiplomat
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  Quote yan. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Apr-2005 at 11:58

Bertolt Brecht: Die Lsung

Nach dem Aufstand des 17 Juni /
Lie der Sekretr des Schriftstellerverbandes/
In der Stalinallee Flugbltter verteilen,/
Auf denen zu lesen war, da das Volk/
Das Vertrauen der Regierung verscherzt habe/
Und es nur durch verdoppelte Arbeit/
Zurckerobern knne Wre es da/
Nicht einfacher, die Regierung/
Lste das Volk auf und/
Whlte ein anderes?

 

 

The Solution

After the June 17th uprising

The Secretary of the Writers Union

Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee

Stating that the people

Had forfeited the confidence of the government

And could only by redoubled efforts

Win it back. In that case

Would it not be easier for the government

To dissolve the people

And elect another?

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  Quote Mosquito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Apr-2005 at 20:21
Very good. From the poems of Brecht that you and Komnenos posted i assume that both german Brecht and polish Herbert (born 1924, died 1998) were trying to touch similar problems. They had to share similar life experiences, 2WW, totalitarian regimes.

Edited by Mosquito
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