Reconstruction of the Poet: Uncollected Works of Zbigniew Herbert

The work of Polish poet/playwright Herbert often pointed to the moral and political tragedies of his era and country. His plays wrestled with the decision to poetize rather than philosophize. In a play about Socrates’s last moments, should philosophic reasoning or poetic immersion be the chosen vehicle? The choice wasn’t easy, but Herbert was always a proponent of the felt moment. In another play about blind Homer, what kind of poetry should the moral man write? This collection of three short plays and 74 poems completes the work of translating and publishing his written corpus (counting finished versions only, not drafts or fragments). Several poems call back his fictional alter ego Mr. Cogito, whom Herbert used as a symbol of the ethical choices one is called on to make in a world where the classical values (reason, loyalty, courage) are no longer guarantees. His poetry was far from univocal: he wrote erotic poetry as well and poems in praise of his peers. But the aim of this collection, as of Herbert’s life, was to make sense of a near-senseless world.