[HN Gopher] JM Coetzee on Zbigniew Herbert
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JM Coetzee on Zbigniew Herbert
Author : Caiero
Score : 40 points
Date : 2024-11-18 03:56 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.telegraph.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.telegraph.co.uk)
| vlad_ungureanu wrote:
| Unfortunately the article is behind paywall :(
| incubo4u wrote:
| https://tpmail.pl/
| dang wrote:
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42203177 was a reply here
| but I've pinned it to the top)
| litvos wrote:
| https://archive.ph/U7hx4
| fourgreen wrote:
| He is a good poet. Each time in my job when we miss a deadline,
| or when our implementation causes a bug on the production I read
| his "Why the classics" (https://allpoetry.com/Why-The-Classics),
| especially this fragment:
|
| generals of the most recent wars
|
| if a similar affair happens to them
|
| whine on their knees before posterity
|
| praise their heroism and innocence
|
| they accuse their subordinates
|
| envious colleagues
|
| unfavourable winds
|
| Thucydides says only
|
| that he had seven ships
|
| it was winter
|
| and he sailed quickly
| readthenotes1 wrote:
| Thanks! That was unexpectedly touching.
|
| "will it be lovers' weeping in a small dirty hotel when wall-
| paper dawns"
| ajuc wrote:
| I like his poem "The Power of Taste" the best:
| It did not take any great character our refusal dissent
| and persistence we had a scrap of necessary courage
| but essentially it was a matter of taste Yes taste
| which has fibers of soul and the gristle of conscience
| Who knows if we'd been better more prettily tempted sent
| women pink and flat as wafers or fantastic creatures out
| of Hieronymous Bosch but what did hell look like in those
| days a mud pit a cutthroat's alley a barracks
| called a Palace of Justice a moonshine Mephisto in a
| Lenin jacket sent Aurora's grandchildren into the field
| boys with potato-eaters' faces very ugly girls with red
| hands Truly their rhetoric was weaved of used
| sackcloth (Marcus Tullius turned in his grave)
| chains of tautologies a few ailing concepts torturers'
| dialectics reasoning without grace syntax devoid of the
| beauty of the subjunctive So in fact aesthetics can
| be an aid in life one shouldn't neglect the study of
| beauty Before we assent we must examine closely
| architectural forms rhythms of drum and flutes oficial
| colors the homely rituals of burial Our eyes and
| ears refused to submit our princely senses chose proud
| exile It did not take any great character we
| had a scrap of necessary courage but in essence it was a
| matter of taste Yes taste which tells you to walk
| out wince spit out your scorn even if for that your
| body's precious capital the head would roll
|
| https://lyricstranslate.com/pl/potega-smaku-power-taste.html
| corrections by me
| xhevahir wrote:
| He and Adam Zagajewski are really great poets. I've wondered why
| Milosz and Szymborska were given Nobel Prizes instead of those
| two. Maybe because of their political stances? I don't know
| Polish though so I'm no authority.
| robertlagrant wrote:
| PSA: "Coetzee" is pronounced like "curt sear".
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