Zbigniew Herbert on WWB

[Melissa Frazier]

Dear Seelangers,

I'm posting the notice below for a former student.

Thank you,

Melissa Frazier



Dear Friends, this month on the WWB Book Clubs we're discussing the
new *Collected
Poems *of Zbigniew Herbert. James Marcus and Cynthia Haven will be
moderating, as well as commenting on individual poems. Do stop by the forums
and feel free to join in the discussion.


*ZBIGNIEW HERBERT'S COLLECTED POEMS *

*THIS JANUARY AT WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS *



*the piano at the top of the Alps
played concerts false to his ear

he had no regard for labyrinths
the Sphinx filled him with disgust

he lived in a cellarless house
without mirrors or dialectics
*

*jungles of tangled images
were never his homeland

*

*--Zbigniew Herbert, "Mr. Cogito and the Imagination" *





We kick off the year in book clubs with a fantastic new installment in
the *Reading
the World* series. All this month, guest bloggers James Marcus and Cynthia
Haven ruminate and lead discussion on Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert's
*Collected
Poems*.



Herbert's work, with its pained dignity and seemingly sporadic punctuation
provides a modernist thrill from the world of postwar poetry. Contributors
to the forum will include Peter Dale Scott, Anna Frajlich, Andrzej
Franaszek, William Martin, and Alissa Valles (who translated most of the new
Ecco collection).



Though Herbert never attained the fame of his compatriots Czeslaw Milosz and
Wislawa Szymborska in the English-speaking world, he remains one of the
giants of Polish literature and we hope you'll join us as we delve deeper
into his work.



James Marcus's introduction to Herbert is already online and can be found
over
here <http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?thread=HerbertIntro>



Cynthia Haven picks up the thread with a fascinating conversation with Peter
Dale
Scott<http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?thread=PeterDaleScottInterview>,
one of the earliest translators of Herbert:

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