Böcker av Zbigniew Herbert

Published for the centenary of his birth, a gathering of lucid, intensely lyrical poetry from one of the twentieth century¿s pre-eminent literary voicesbe courageous when reason fails you becourageous in the final reckoning it is theonly thing that countsZbigniew Herbert was one of the best-known and most-translated poets of post-war Poland, opposed alike to Communism, Fascism, nationalism and the Church, yet moved, throughout his work, by `a powerful sense of right and wrong without a corresponding belief in a system¿ (New York Times).His is a poetry of compression, lucidity and profound humanity. The universe he conjures is deeply informed not only by his own time, but by history ¿ by that of the Medieval Mediterranean and Central Europe, as much as of the Classical world ¿ and by a taste for historical and philosophical paradox. In the early and middle works, the figure of the trickster never seems far from view. Throughout, Herbert asks questions about the nature and needs of sentient beings. His desire, always, is to `touch the essence¿: to get to the heart of life.Selected with an introduction and afterword by J. M. Coetzee and Alissa Valles, this outstanding gathering from the full range of Herbert¿s poetic output invites readers to experience the beauty and profundity of a remarkable body of work.

Polish poet and essayist Zbigniew Herbert easily stands beside Nobel Prize laureates Milosz and Szymborska as part of a remarkable literary tradition. Though Herbert is very much an Eastern European writer, the urgency, vitality, and relevance of his work extend far beyond the borders of his particular region and his particular time. His fascination with other subjects?from painting to all things Dutch?enriched the scope and depth of his poetry, and made for compelling explorations in his essays and short prose pieces.The first collected English edition of his prose work, this outstanding volume consists of four books?Labryinth on the Sea, Still Life with a Bridle, King of the Ants, and Barbarian in the Garden. Brilliant and erudite, dazzling and witty, these essays survey the geography of humanity, its achievements and its foibles. From Western civilization's past, as witnessed through the Greek and Roman landscape, to musings on the artistic that celebrate the author's discriminating eye, poetic sensibility, and gift for irony, humor, and the absurd; from a sage retelling of myths and tales that became twentieth-century philosophical parables of human behavior to thoughts on art, culture, and history inspired by journeys in France, Italy, and the Netherlands, Collected Prose is a rich compendium that celebrates the mastery and wisdom of a remarkable artist.

A gathering of artful essays by one of Poland's most translated post-war writers is here brought to a new audience. Poet and essayist Zbigniew Herbert takes an intriguing look at the cultural, artistic, and aesthetic legacy of 17th-century Holland. These sixteen essays reveal Herbert's discriminating artistic eye and poetic sensibility, one that revels in irony, humour, and a satirist's appreciation of the absurd. An inveterate museum-goer, he focuses on the art of the Dutch masters, using it as a stepping-off point for a thoroughly individual and entertaining examination of the foibles, genius, and character of the Dutch people as a whole, from Tulipmania to the devastating stirrings of early capitalism. Part travelogue, the result is an unorthodox and revealing glimpse into the past that gives us a keener understanding not only of a distant people, but of ourselves as well.