Debica

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zbigniew Herbert (29 October 1924 in Lvov – 28 July 1998 in Warsaw) was an influential Polish poet, essayist, drama writer, author of plays, and moralist. A member of the Polish resistance movement – Home Army (AK) during World War II, he is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers. He was first published in 1950; his writing debut was a volume of verse String of light and it was published in 1956. One of Herbert’s most valuable works is a cycle of writings about Pan Cogito (Mr. Cogito), a character that is very modern but still sticks to the European cultural tradition. He was a distant relation of the 17th century poet George Herbert. Herbert was a bachelor of the Order of the White Eagle and was educated as an economist and lawyer. In the 1980s Herbert was the main poet of the Polish opposition. Starting in 1986, he lived in Paris, where he cooperated with the journal Zeszyty Literackie. He came to Poland in 1992. On 1 July 2007 the Polish Government decided that 2008 would be the Year of Zbigniew Herbert.

Herbert's Works   (English translations):

  • Selected Poems, translators: Czesław Miłosz and Peter Dale Scott, with an introduction by Al Alvarez, Penguin Modern European Poets, 1968 reprinted by The Ecco Press in 1986.
  • Barbarian in the Garden, translators: Michael March and Jarosław Anders, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1985
  • Report From the Besieged City, translators: John Carpenter and Bogdana Carpenter, The Ecco Press, 1985.
  • Still Life with a Bridle- Essays and Apocrypha, translators: John Carpenter and Bogdana Carpenter, The Ecco Press, 1991.
  • Mr. Cogito, translators: John Carpenter and Bogdana Carpenter, The Ecco Press, 1993.
  • Elegy for the Departure, translators: John Carpenter and Bogdana Carpenter, The Ecco Press, 1999.
  • The King of the Ants, translators: John Carpenter and Bogdana Carpenter, The Ecco Press, 1999.
  • The Collected Poems: 1956-1998, translators: Czesław Miłosz, Peter Dale Scott and Alissa Valles, edited by Alissa Valles, with an introduction by Adam Zagajewski, The Ecco Press, 2007.
  • Zbigniew Herbert, Selected Poems, translators: Czesław Miłosz, Peter Dale Scott, John and Bogdana Carpenter, selected by: Tomasz Kunz, afterword by: John and Bogdana Carpenter, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2007.

 

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