Zbigniew Herbert Poems

The pebble
is a perfect creature

equal to itself
...

Mr. Cogito never trusted
tricks of the imagination

the piano at the top of the Alps
...

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
...

Go where those others went to the dark boundary
for the golden fleece of nothingness your last prize

go upright among those who are on their knees
...

I would like to describe the simplest emotion
joy or sadness
but not as others do
reaching for shafts of rain or sun
...

A home above the year's seasons
home of children animals and apples
a square of empty space
under an absent star
...

Those who sailed at dawn
but will never return
left their trace on a wave--
...

1

Lucky Saint George
from his knight's saddle
...

Over a delicate arch--
an eyebrow of stone--

on the unruffled forehead
...

Of course
those who are standing at the top of the stairs
know
they know everything
...