Happy Birthday, Zbigniew Herbert! | Poems Rethabile Likes
🎂 Happy Birthday, Zbigniew Herbert!
Poet • Essayist • Playwright • born 29 October 1924
Today we celebrate the birthday of Zbigniew Herbert — one of the great moral voices of 20th-century poetry. He was a Polish poet who brought classical culture into conversation with the hard moral choices of modern history. Here is his "Elegy of Fortinbras" (Fortinbras's Elegy), which imagines the aftermath of Hamlet from the point of view of the Norwegian prince who inherits the ruined kingdom.
Elegy of Fortynbras
Now that we're alone we can talk prince man to man
though you lie on the stairs and see no more than a dead ant
you could be the Sphinx and still be looking philosophically
at the empty gallery where a mouse sleeps
and the yellow eye of a candle glows
you were a good prince but it's no use thinking about it
you fell into the net of a stupid plot
and there is no way out
and although you ask me
to what purpose
there is no answer
the four walls of the world are falling on you
so at least you've got a roof over your head
and since you were born in a country of paper and ink
you have nothing to fear from the storm
and although you ask me
is there any hope
there is no hope
and only the fool breaks the silence with his song
and only the idiot laughs at a wake
and only a dog howls at the moon
and only a corpse would laugh at the sky
and only a corpse would laugh at the sky
forgive me prince I have no tongue to tell you
how the rats have multiplied in the palace
and how the crown has become too big for my head
and how the kingdom has become too small for me
and how the kingdom has become too small for me
and the poor are still poor and the rich are still rich
and the wise are still sad and the fools are still glad
and the guilty are still free and the innocent are still in prison
and the kingdom is still the kingdom of Denmark
and the sky is still the sky
and the sea is still the sea
and the earth is still the earth
and the dead are still dead
and there is no hope
and there is no hope
and there is no hope
Zbigniew Herbert (1924–1998) was a Polish poet, essayist, and playwright. His first collection, Struna światła (String of Light, sometimes Chord of Light), appeared in 1956. He became particularly known for Mr Cogito, his recurring poetic alter ego, through whom he explored questions of conscience and human conduct. His 1983 collection Report from the Besieged City, addressing ethical dilemmas under martial law, appeared simultaneously through an émigré publisher and in an underground Polish edition — poetry as a means of preserving independent judgement under political pressure. He was awarded the Jerusalem Prize (1991) and the T.S. Eliot Prize (1995).
Read more: Herbert Foundation • Academy of American Poets • ThriftBooks
Read more: Herbert Foundation • Academy of American Poets • ThriftBooks
Comments
And i LOVE that the two poems are not the same!
Exactly!