Saturday, September 21, 2024

RECONSTRUCTION OF ZBIGNIEW HERBERT ~

 




So Much


How hard

to save a person

who loves


I always feel

your slender arm

heavy as a body


It runs through my fingers

like water


Your breath

my pallor

and care


How hard

to save a person

who trusts


I bend over your sorrow

I lift the weight of love


I lift you from earth in my arms

carry you on my lips

give you up to prayer




On the Repatriation of

Bruno Jasienski's Remains



When the thaw reached

the Far North

the poet's body emerged

from under the ice cap


his grave so shallow

body only half buried

a daisy in one ear

a little grass in the other


but taken all in all

he was in very good shape

so they freshened him up

wiped the mold from his lips


blew on him and slapped him

doused him with jasmine

farewell dear poet

off to your fatherland


his fatherland is happy

the academy overjoyed

no one says they killed him

they all say: he came back


they scream and shout

the crowd lifts him up

so you see my old pal

no need for living legs


at the author's evening

obedient comrades

whip him into shape

make blustery threats


and attached to his strings

the poet steps up to the mic

a little stiff but confident

he wants to read his poems


His hand in his wig

his voice makes the megaphone squeal

he grunts and gestures

and they all say: he's so alive


the poem ends with a shriek

he raises a hand and screams

the string snaps and the arm

drops woodenly on the table


so as to erase the image

the cry goes up: long life

and presidium and poet

go off to have a drink


his wife is at the reception

but she behaves differently

when looking at her husband

she sobs into a handkerchief


champagne caviar oysters

pineapples and wine

poor man no more will you

drink water or feed on clay


but the poet eats nothing

doesn't even clink glasses

pale he goes off to one side

begins to wind his shroud


but no one notices this

alcohol flows like a stream

and it's only near dawn

they yell: he's gone and died again


________________________

Zbigniew Herbert

Reconstruction of the poet

Ecco, 2024

Translated by Alissa Valles