2An oak tree planted…: Goethe has Wilhelm say this about Hamlet in Wilhelm Meister’s Lehrjarhre (Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, trans. E. Blackall, Collected Works Vol. 9, 1989.)
1Published in the journal Dzi i Jutro (Today and Tomorrow) under the pseudonym Patryk and accompanied by a reproduction of the painting “Peasant Dance” by Pieter Breughel (the Elder).
1Published under the pseudonym Stefan Marthà in an issue of Dzi i Jutro (Today and Tomorrow) devoted to the anniversary of the birth of (among others) Leonardo da Vinci.
2Benci: Ginevra de’Benci, Italian woman of aristocratic family painted by Leonardo around 1476; the portrait now hangs in the National Gallery in Washington D.C.
1Poisson model: a discrete probability distribution expressing the probability of a number of events occurring in a fixed period of time if these events occur with a known average rate and independently of the time since the last event. Formulated by S.-D. Poisson (1781–1840).
1Hermann Goeth: Amon Göth (1908–1946) Austrian-born SS officer and commandant of the Płaszow concentration camp outside of Kraków. After the war, found guilty of murdering tens of thousands of people. He was hanged, successfully only on the third attempt, in September 1946.
2Das Betreten…: Forbidden to enter this site under punishment of death.
3Kamienna: or Skarzysko Kamienna, Polish town roughly halfway between Warsaw and Kraków, during the German occupation the site of a Nazi labor camp organized around an ammunition factory.
1This text was written for the international symposium Ein Gedicht und sein Autor (A Poem and its Author) held in Berlin in 1966 and published in an anthology of the same name. Published in Wybrane Wiersze (Selected Poems), edited by Ryszard Krynicki, Krakow, 2004.
1Written for a German radio program in 1966, this text was not used as intended but was published along with the previous text, Why the Classics, in the anthology Ein Gedicht und sein Autor (A Poem and its Author), edited by Walter Höllerer.
2Nicolas Flamel: Parisian notary, alchemist, and occultist (1330–1418).
3Winckelmann: Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768) German art historian and archaeologist, first to apply categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the history of art; decisive influence on the rise of the neoclassical movement in the late 18th century.
1Il est bon de voyager…: It is worthwhile traveling from time to time: it broadens the mind and stifles amour-propre. Sainte-Beuve (1804–1869).
2humeur avide des choses nouvelles: an avid taste for novelties
3Lucien Febvre: (1878–1956) French historian, co-founder (with Marc Bloch) of the Annales school of historiography.
1Written for a Silesian poetry festival in April 1972, at which Herbert took part in vehement discussions about art and political engagement with members of the “New Wave” of Polish poets, including Adam Zagajewski and Ryszard Krynicki, as well as a number of prominent critics.
2In one of his essays Thomas Mann: in “Der Künstler und die Gesellschaft” (The Artist and Society), 1952.
3Joseph de Maistre: Joseph-Marie, comte de Maistre (1753–1821) French-speaking Savoyard lawyer, diplomat, writer, and thinker. Influential spokesman for hierarchical authoritarianism in the period immediately following the French Revolution.
1Słowacki: Juliusz Słowacki (1809–1849) Polish Romantic poet, with Mickiewicz and Zygmunt Krasinski, one of the three “bards” of Polish literature.
2Kochanowski: Jan Kochanowski (1530–1584) Renaissance poet; commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet as well as the greatest Slavic poet prior to the 19th century.
1Published in the journal Zeszyty Literackie, no. 86 (2004). Written as a lecture held at the Academy of Arts in Berlin in September 1975.
2eine Strasse die der Teufel pflastert mit zerstörten Werten…: A street that the Devil paves with destroyed values.
1Written in response to a 1976 questionnaire from the journal Wi (Tower) with the following questions: “What do you like in the programming of Polish radio and television? How do you judge the present state of mass culture in Poland? What challenges do you think mass culture programming should respond to, taking into account its role in the life of a rapidly developing society? What expectations and social needs—particularly in the sphere of your interests—should be met in Polish mass culture in the coming years?”
2General Berling: Zygmunt Henryk Berling (1896–1980) Polish general and politician. He fought in the war for Polish independence after WWI. During World War II he was sentenced to death in absentia for desertion from the Polish Army of general Anders. Later he became the commander of the Soviet-sponsored 1st Polish Army in the USSR.
3Father Skarga: Piotr Skarga (1536–1612; actual name: Piotr Powski) was a Polish Jesuit, a preacher and leading figure in the Counter-reformation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was called the “Polish Bossuet” due to his oratorical abilities.
4Stefan Kisielewski: (1911–1991), nicknames Kisiel, Julia Holyska, Teodor Klon, Tomasz Staliski; a Polish writer, publicist, composer, and politician, one of the members of Znak.
1Atticus: born Titus Pomponius (c. 109 BC–35 B.C./32 B.C.), editor, banker, and patron of letters, best remembered as the closest friend of orator and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero.
2cum lacrimis: with tears, in mourning.
3ars boni et aequi: the art of what is good and right.
4L’aura che’l…: from Petrarch’s Sonnet CCXLVI.
5era il giorno…: from Petrarch’s Sonnet III.
1Square of Heavenly Peace: or Tiananmen Square.
1Gordion: the capital of ancient Phrygia, ruins of which are found on the site of the modern Turkish city of Yassihüyük, located approximately fifty miles southwest of Ankara.
2the Stagirite: Aristotle.
3Onesikritos: or Onesicritus (c. 360–c. 290 B.C.), Greek historical writer who accompanied Alexander on his campaigns in Asia; disciple of Diogenes of Sinope. He claimed to have been the commander of Alexander’s fleet but was in fact only a helmsman. Author of a history of Alexander’s campaigns, he is often cited and criticized for inaccuracies by later authors.
1Schliemann: Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890) German businessman and archaeologist, an important excavator of Troy, along with the Mycenaean sites Mycenae and Tiryns.
1Benito: Mussolini (1883–1945)
2Scipio Africanus: Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus also known as Scipio the Elder, and Africanus the Elder (235–183 B.C.), general in the Second Punic War and statesman of the Roman Republic; best known for defeating Hannibal at the final battle of the Second Punic War at Zama.
1King of Pontus: Mithradates VI; b. 134, d. 63 B.C., also known as Mithradates the Great (Megas) and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus in northern Anatolia (now in Turkey) from about 119 to 63 B.C.
1oaths of the Jeu de Paume: David’s famous sketch, le Serment du jeu de paume “the Tennis Court Oath”) now hangs in the court of the Palace of Versailles. It depicts a seminal moment of the French revolution, when, on June 20, 1789, deputies of the Estates-General met at the court and vowed that they would not disband before the proclamation of a formal Constitution for France.
1Avanzo: Jacopo Avanzo, late 14th century Veronese artist formerly confused with Jacopo Avanzi da Bologna and with a Jacopo da Verona who worked in Padua. Avanzo’s signature is found in the fresco decoration of the Oratory of St. George, Padua, where he collaborated with Altichiero.
1This piece was written in response to a 1998 questionnaire from the editors of the Catholic journal Znak, who asked the following questions:
“Where does “the Devil have his seat’? Do we experience the reality of evil in our lives, or is it a mistake or merely an effect of various socio-economic determinants that, like diseases, touch those who do evil, and their victims? Does experience permit the assumption that evil exists as an external force that takes possession of man? Can evil be “cunning,” or perverse? How does it enter our lives? We directed
these questions and a request to describe their personal encounters with evil (Evil?) to our authors.”
2Rymanów: Galician resort town where Herbert’s parents spent holidays in the 1920s. Later used as a prisoner of war camp and a transit camp by the German occupation.
1Written as an introduction to a poetry evening at which Herbert, then gravely ill, could not be present; the text was read by a friend, Piotr Kłoczowski, and the poems were read by actors.
2Karpiski: Franciszek Karpiski (1741–1825) Leading Sentimental poet of the 18th century, well known for his religious works, many of which entered the Polish canon as hymns or carols, and highly prized by the Romantic generation.
3Goodnight, Jacenta…: from Karpiski, Mazurek.
4In a little old church…: From “Sowiski w okopach Woli” (Sowiski in the Trenches of Wola)
5C’est une chanson…: Jacques Prévert, “Les feuilles mortes” (Dead Leaves)
6Why, Shade, do you depart…: from “Rhapsodic Dirge in Memory of Bem”
7Gajcy: Tadeusz Gajcy (1922–1944) was a Polish poet and Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army) soldier. He made his debut in the underground press in 1942 and died in the Warsaw Uprising of August-October 1944.
8I write—as a gravedigger…: from “Do potomnego” (To one in posterity).
9Baczyski: Krzysztof Kamil Baczyski (1921–1944) poet and Home Army soldier, one of the most renowned authors of the “Columbus Generation”—the young generation of poets born in the 1920s, many of whom perished in the Warsaw Uprising.
10I’ve left no heir here on earth…: from Juliusz Słowacki’s famous 1840 poem “Testament mój.”
The Collected Prose Page 88
