Zbigniew Herbert

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English

Barbarian in the Garden
by Zbigniew Herbert

ISBN 0156106817 (0-15-610681-7)
Softcover, Harcourt

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The Collected Poems: 1956-1998
by Zbigniew Herbert , Czeslaw Milosz, Adam Zagajewski, Peter Dale Scott, Alissa Valles

ISBN 0060783958 (0-06-078395-8)
Softcover, Ecco Pr

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Book summary:
Zbigniew Herbert is one of the outstanding poets of the last century. This exceptional new translation brings together, for the first time in English in one volume, his entire poetic output - from his first book of poems, "String of Light", in 1956, to his volume, previously unpublished in English, "Epilogue of the Storm". As Joseph Brodsky said of Herbert's "Selected Poems", this definitive collection is 'bound for a much longer haul than any of us can anticipate'. [via]
More editions of The Collected Poems: 1956-1998:
- The Collected Poems, 1956-1998: ISBN 0060783907 (0-06-078390-7)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- The Collected Poems: 1956-1998: ISBN 0060783958 (0-06-078395-8)
  Softcover, Ecco Pr
Elegy for the Departure
by Zbigniew Herbert , John Carpenter, Bogdana Carpenter

ISBN 0880016191 (0-88001-619-1)
Hardcover, HarperCollins Publishers

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- Elegy for the Departure: ISBN 0880016191 (0-88001-619-1)
  Hardcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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King of the Ants
by Zbigniew Herbert

ISBN 0060797207 (0-06-079720-7)
Softcover, Ecco Pr

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- King of the Ants: ISBN 0060797207 (0-06-079720-7)
  Softcover, Ecco Pr
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The King of the Ants: Mythological Essays
by Zbigniew Herbert , John Carpenter, Bogdana Carpenter

ISBN 0880016183 (0-88001-618-3)
Hardcover, HarperCollins Publishers

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Book summary:
Although he never quite attained the fame of his compatriots Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska, the late Zbigniew Herbert was one of the giants of contemporary Polish letters--not to mention European literature at large. His witty, superbly ironical verse flourished in the face of totalitarian censorship: indeed, with its overlay of parable, allegory, and deadpan allusiveness, it seemed almost to be nourished by the ideological obstacle course of 20th-century Poland. But Herbert was an equally gifted essayist. The pieces collected in Barbarian in the Garden and Still Life with a Bridle are wickedly intelligent and unfailingly humane. And even when the author is letting loose with a satirical dart, his imagination always functions as "an instrument of compassion."
The King of the Ants combines his twin vocations. That is, these are short prose pieces, which Herbert called "mythological essays." Yet the form itself--in which he takes apart the classic myths and expertly tinkers with their innards--has the speed and epigrammatic suavity of his best poetry. Here, for example, is Herbert's take on Atlas, whom we might call the king of mythological heavy lifting:
The whole character of Atlas, his entire being, is contained in the act of carrying. This has little pathos, and moreover it is quite common. The titan reminds us of poor people who are constantly wrestling with burdens. They carry chests, bundles, boxes on their backs, they push them, or carry them behind, all the way to mysterious caves, cellars, shacks, from which they come out after a moment even more loaded, and so on to infinity.
Herbert is no less intrigued by Antaeus, who went head to head with Heracles himself in a celebrated wrestling match. On one hand, he tries to visualize the actual bout, taking his clues from accounts by Plato, Pindar, and the Renaissance miniaturist Antonio Pollaiuolo. But it's the metaphorical implications of the match that really get him going--the way it reverses our usual image of victor and vanquished. His subject, he reminds us, "had to overcome the concept, deeply rooted in us all, of what we call high and low, the elevation of the victor and the throwing of the defeated down into the dust. For every time Antaeus was lifted up, it meant death for him." In the author's hands, these musty figures become almost alarmingly contemporary--and entertaining. And while he never weighs down his essays with philosophical ballast, they do contain more than their share of casual wisdom. Like the philosophers he mentions in the title essay, Herbert too had "the not very tactful habit of teaching others how to live." --James Marcus [via]
More editions of The King of the Ants: Mythological Essays:
- The King of the Ants: Mythological Essays: ISBN 0880016183 (0-88001-618-3)
  Hardcover, HarperCollins Publishers
The Labyrinth On The Sea: Essays
by Zbigniew Herbert

ISBN 0060723823 (0-06-072382-3)
Hardcover, Ecco Pr

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More editions of The Labyrinth On The Sea: Essays:
- The Labyrinth On The Sea: Essays: ISBN 0060723823 (0-06-072382-3)
  Hardcover, Ecco Pr
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Mr. Cogito
by Zbigniew Herbert

ISBN 0880013818 (0-88001-381-8)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers

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Book summary:
A collection of poems by the recipient of the Jerusalem Prize includes the full sequence of forty poems originally published in Pan Cogito. [via]
More editions of Mr. Cogito:
Report from the Besieged City and Other Poems
by Zbigniew Herbert , John Carpenter, Bogdana Carpenter

ISBN 0880010940 (0-88001-094-0)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers

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More editions of Report from the Besieged City and Other Poems:
Selected Poems
by Zbigniew Herbert , John Carpenter, Bogdana Carpenter

ISBN 0192118617 (0-19-211861-7)
Hardcover, Oxford University Press

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- Selected Poems: ISBN 0192118617 (0-19-211861-7)
  Hardcover, Oxford University Press
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Selected Poems
by Zbigniew Herbert , John Carpenter, Bogdana Carpenter

ISBN 0880010991 (0-88001-099-1)
Softcover, Ecco Pr

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Book summary:
Blessed is the nation that in the course of a century could give the world two poets of Czeslaw Milosz's and Zbigniew Herbert's scope. Doubly blessed is the English-reader, for in this volume he gets Zbigniew Herbert's work rendered by Czeslaw Milosz: like the poor, or better yet like nature herself, Polish genius takes care of its own.
This collection is bound for a much longer haul than any of us can anticipate. For Zbigniew Herbert's poetry adds to the biography of civilization the sensibility of a man not defeated by the century that has been most thorough, most effective in dehumanization of the species. Herbert's irony, his austere reserve and his compassion, the lucidity of his lyricism, the intensity of his sentiment toward classical antiquity, are not just trappings of a modern poet, but the necessary armor--in his case well-tempered and shining indeed--for man not to be crushed by the onslaught of reality. By offering to his readers neither aesthetic norethical discount, this poet, in fact, saves them frorn that poverty which every form of human eviI finds so congenial. As long as the species exists, this book will be timely.
-- Joseph Brodsky
[via]
More editions of Selected Poems:
- Selected Poems: ISBN 0880010991 (0-88001-099-1)
  Softcover, Ecco Pr
Selected Poems
by Zbigniew Herbert , Czeslaw Milosz, Peter Dale Scott

ISBN 0856355437 (0-85635-543-7)
Softcover, Carcanet Press, Limited

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- Selected Poems: ISBN 0856355437 (0-85635-543-7)
  Softcover, Carcanet Press, Limited
Still Life with a Bridle: Essays and Apocryphas
by Zbigniew Herbert , John Carpenter, Bogdana Carpenter

ISBN 0880013060 (0-88001-306-0)
Hardcover, HarperCollins Publishers

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Book summary:
In Still Life with a Bridle, poet and essayist Zbigniew Herbert takes an intriguing look at the cultural, artisitic, and aesthetic legacy of 17th-century Holland. These sixteen essays reveal Hervert's discriminating artistic eye and poetic sensibility, one that revels in irony, humor, 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. 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.
[via]
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