Pan Cogito

by Zbigniew Herbert

Do lektur Pana Cogito należą proroctwa Izajasza i pisma filozofów, ale również codzienna gazeta. Znajduje się on w kręgu oddziaływania tysięcy lat europejskiej kultury, ale jest też pod naciskiem najnowszych mód i snobizmów o motylim żywocie. Nie jest o wiele mądrzejszy czy bardziej pewny swoich racji od rzeszy swych współczesnych i współziomków. Wyróżnia go to, że próbuje myśleć, że borykając się z niepewnością i zwątpieniem stara się mimo wszystko ocalić w sobie zdolność do niezależnego myślenia. I stąd jego imię. Herbert w pewnym sensie odwraca słowa& Kartezjusza; nie tylko „myślę, więc jestem”, ale również: skoro chcę istnieć naprawdę – muszę myśleć.

Stanisław Barańczak, „Polityka”, 1974

Genres: Poetry, Polish Literature, Classics, Fiction, Poland, Literature, Literary Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Zbigniew Herbert was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer, author of plays, and moralist. He was also a member of the Polish resistance movement. Herbert is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers, and has been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in literature.

Reviews

[Svetolik Taštinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

„[ležali smo] kao voće
opalo
s drveta života
koje truli posebice
svako na svoj način
jer samo je u tome dremao
ostatak čovečnosti

[...]

Adamovi krici
sastojaše se
od dva-tri samoglasnika
razapeta poput rebara vidokruga”

Čitajte!

[حسن · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who would've thought that Eastern European literature (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Russia) would have such a hold on an Arab..


I highly recommend these two articles by the Poetry Foundation and The Telegraph for an introductory analysis of his style, of his use of mythological references, on the irony and the satire in his poetry language, the pessimistic tonality, the symbolism, his anti-communism allusions (such as in his famous poem The Taste)...
The journalist quotes a short discussion he has had with Tomas Tranströmer (Swedish Nobel Laureate) on why Zbigniew did not get a Nobel prize like the two other great Polish poets Szymborska and Milosz..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/bo...

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems...


Mr Cogito On The Need For Precision

1
Mr Cogito
is alarmed by a problem
in the domain of applied mathematics
the difficulties we encounter
with operations of simple arithmetic
children are lucky
they add apple to apple
subtract grain from grain
the sum is correct
the kindergarten of the world
pulsates with a safe warmth
particles of matter have been measured
heavenly bodies weighed
and only in human affairs
inexcusable carelessness reigns supreme
the lack of precise information
over the immensity of history
wheels a spectre
the spectre of indefiniteness
How many Greeks were killed at Troy
– we don’t know
to give the exact casualties
on both sides
in the Battle of Gaugamela
at Agincourt
Leipzig
Kutno
And also the number of victims
of terror
of the white
the red
the brown
– O colours innocent colours –
– we don’t know
truly we don’t know
Mr Cogito
rejects the sensible explanation
that it was long ago
the wind has thoroughly mixed the ashes
the blood flowed to the sea
sensible explanations
intensify the alarm
of Mr Cogito
because even what
is happening under our eyes
evades numbers
loses the human dimension
somewhere there must be an error
a fatal defect in our tools
or a sin of memory
(...)
***

Mr. Cogito Meditates on Suffering

All attempts to remove
the so-called cup of bitterness–
by reflection
frenzied actions on behalf of homeless cats
deep breathing
religion–
failed
one must consent
gently bend the head
not wring the hands
make use of the suffering gently moderately
like an artificial limb
without false shame
but also without unnecessary pride
do not brandish the stump
over the heads of others
don’t knock with the white cane
against the windows of the well-fed
drink the essence of bitter herbs
but not to the dregs
leave carefully
a few sips for the future
accept
but simultaneously
isolate within yourself
and if it is possible
create from the matter of suffering
a thing or a person
play
with it
of course
play
entertain it
very cautiously
like a sick child
forcing at last
with silly tricks
a faint
smile
***

Mr Cogito And The Imagination

1
Mr Cogito never trusted
tricks of the imagination

the piano at the top of the Alps
played false concerts for him

he didn't appreciate labyrinths
the Sphinx filled him with loathing

he lived in a house with no basement
without mirrors or dialectics

jungles of tangled images
were not his home

he would rarely soar
on the wings of a metaphor
and then he fell like Icarus
into the embrace of the Great Mother

he adored tautologies
explanations
idem per idem

that a bird is a bird
slavery means slavery
a knife is a knife
death remains death

he loved
the flat horizon
a straight line
the gravity of the earth

2
Mr Cogito will be numbered
among the species minores

he will accept indifferently the verdict
of future scholars of the letter

he used the imagination
for entirely different purposes

he wanted to make it
an instrument of compassion

he wanted to understand to the very end

- Pascal's night
- the nature of a diamond
- the melancholy of the prophets
- Achilles' wrath
- the madness of those who kill
- the dreams of Mary Stuart
- Neanderthal fear
- the despair of the last Aztecs
- Nietzsche's long death throes
- the joy of the painter of Lascaux
- the rise and fall of an oak
- the rise and fall of Rome

and so to bring the dead back to life
to preserve the covenant

Mr Cogito's imagination
has the motion of a pendulum

it crosses with precision
from suffering to suffering

there is no place in it
for the artificial fires of poetry

he would like to remain faithful
to uncertain clarity
***

[Данило Судин · Rating 5 out of 5]

Як завжди - геніально!
Поезія Герберта майстерна і лаконічна.
А образи запам'ятовуються

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Cogito is a persona used by Zbigniew Herbert to cogitate about the world in unworldly ways. Not all poems in this thin book employ the good Cogito, but the thinking is surely the same--strange. I do feel that the earlier poems (and the shorter ones) are stronger than the later (and longer) ones.

As is the case with all poetry not written in English, the translation can't help but be fraught and, to people in the know (not me), controversial to some degree. In this 1993 release, John and Bogdana Carpenter have given us a Herbert collection that shuns punctuation. What's different, however, is how the line break can't always be counted on as a safety net, either. Reading these poems takes some adjustments on the part of the reader. Sometimes, without cue, a pause is in order mid-line. This forces the reader into a recursive mode. I was constantly spinning back, rereading lines, then going, "Ah, yes. NOW, read THAT way, it makes sense."

Herbert studied law, economics, and philosophy at the Universities of Krakow, Torun, and Warsaw, so of course his poems give the whiff of academia and act like humanists of the first order. Here's a taste of his style:

The Envoy of Mr Cogito

Go where those others went to the dark boundary
for the golden fleece of nothingness your last prize

go upright among those who are on their knees
among those with their backs turned and those toppled in the dust

you were saved not in order to live
you have little time you must give testimony

be courageous when the mind deceives you be courageous
in the final account only this is important

and let your helpless Anger be like the sea
whenever you hear the voice of the insulted and beaten

let your sister Scorn not leave you
for the informers executioners cowards—they will win
they will go to your funeral and with relief will throw a lump of earth
the woodborer will write your smoothed-over biography

and do not forgive truly it is not in your power
to forgive in the name of those betrayed at dawn

beware however of unnecessary pride
keep looking at your clown’s face in the mirror
repeat: I was called—weren’t there better ones than I

beware of dryness of heart love the morning spring
the bird with an unknown name the winter oak

light on a wall the splendour of the sky
they don’t need your warm breath
they are there to say: no one will console you

be vigilant—when the light on the mountains gives the sign—arise and go
as long as blood turns in the breast your dark star

repeat old incantations of humanity fables and legends
because this is how you will attain the good you will not attain
repeat great words repeat them stubbornly
like those crossing the desert who perished in the sand

and they will reward you with what they have at hand
with the whip of laughter with murder on a garbage heap

go because only in this way will you be admitted to the company of cold skulls
to the company of your ancestors: Gilgamesh Hector Roland
the defenders of the kingdom without limit and the city of ashes

Be faithful Go


Note how the lack of periods actually helps the finish in this poem. One feels the need to go when one reaches the end, in other words. No punctuation is going to stop you. Here's a shorter one I liked:

Ordinariness of the Soul

In the morning mice scamper
over the head
over the floor of the head
shreds of conversations
scraps of a poem
the room's muse
enters
in a blue apron
she sweeps

such important guests
visit my master
Heraclitus the Ephesian for example
of the prophet Isaiah

today no one rings

the master paces about impatiently
talks to himself
tears up innocent papers

in the evening goes out in an unknown direction

the muse unties her blue apron
rests her elbows on the window sill
leans out
waits
for her sergeant
with red moustaches


As a poet, I'm always looking to learn from poets who know their way around a poem (I'm in the labyrinth compared to the heavyweights outside, playing with Ariadne's balls of yarn). Herbert proves that punctuation need not constrict the poet, that you can experiment with words liberated from such conventions. He's a master of the short line, of uneven lines, of one-line stanzas, of the ordinary dressed up in extraordinary rags, of the odd tangent thought dropped carelessly for readers to step over or pick up.

Something to cogitate over, in other words. And to expand your reading and writing horizons...

[Peycho Kanev · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest poets. Ever! Period.

[Bart Dierickx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bedrieglijk eenvoudige, maar meesterlijk spitsvondige dichtbundel. Meneer Cogito is mijn favoriete observator van de menselijke natuur.

[Alarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zbigniew Herbert did not leap to my list of favorite poets, but he did show me once again that it's good not just to leave one's comfort zone once in a while, but to plunge off a cliff with a poet. Likely translation made this a bigger jump, but the poems are thought-provoking and very quirky. I really enjoyed this book, especially the poems about Mr. Cogito (Mr. I Think).

I suspect Mr. Cogito had two grandfathers who helped raise him. One was a modern Plato or Confucius, the other Mr. Magoo or Inspector Clouseau. He does believe he's brilliant. He even achieves some brilliance, but by stumbling over it.

"About Mr. Cogito's Two Legs" shows us the kind of mixed matched parts that make up his whole being:

"The left leg normal
one could say optimistic
a little too short
boyish
with exuberant muscles
and a well-shaped calf

the right leg
God help us –
thin
with two scars
one along the Achilles tendon
the other oval
pale pink
shameful minder of an escape...

Mr. Cogito
goes
through the world
staggering slightly"

In other thoughts about thoughts, he uses these contrasting metaphors:

"sometimes they come
to the bursting river of another's thoughts
they stand on the shore
on one leg
like hungry herons..."

and my favorite

"they sit on stones
wringing their hands

under the cloudy
low
sky
of the skull"

For me, the most powerful poem of this collection is "Meditations of Mr. Cogito on Redemption."
It ends

"he should not have sent his son
it was better to reign
in a baroque palace made of marble clouds
on a throne of terror
with a sceptre of death"

[HannaMikulska · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Poeta w pewnym wieku w środku niepewnego wieku..."

Bardzo mi się podobał Herbert, tyle że jego poezja to naprawdę twardy orzech do zgryzienia pod względem kontekstu.Chyba nigdy nie musiałam wyszukiwać w internecie aż tyle pojęć, nazwisk i aluzji do mitologii i historii. Przepiękna zabawa rytmem (który bardzo mi się w liryce podoba) i samym językiem, już samą śmierć Marsjasza mogłabym czytać w kółko.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own all of Herbert's other books. This one I got from the library. I would like to own it. The price (used copies, it is out of print as are most of his other books) is outrageous. Anyone know why this particular book is so expensive?

Whatever the reason it is worth it. I copied it and will be re-reading it for a long time.

[Rui Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my absolute favorite book of poetry. Brilliant!

[Klara · Rating 5 out of 5]

easily one of the best things i’ve read in a long while - searingly, hauntingly, detachedly good verse with each poem bringing a lot to the table. but the most striking thing about this is how well it works as a whole: it’s the rare collection that feels not only curated and meaningful as a book but where each poem adds a new slice of meaning to the overall picture until the absolute gut punch of “the envoy of mr cogito” - a poem i knew very well going in and have read many times but which was so recontextualized and expanded by the poems that precede it that i actually gasped when i turned the page and encountered it as the concluding poem of the collections overall arc. eternally good work, made all the more potent the current resonance of its thinking through the simultaneous futility and importance of political resistance, the small meaningless scope of an individual life in the currents of history, the difficulty and necessity of preserving your private thoughts under authoritarianism. be faithful Go

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Czeslaw Milosz and Adam Zagajewski are two of my favorite poets. Zbigniew Herbert is fast becoming another favorite.

"Houses on the Outskirts" and "The Envoy of Mr. Cogito" were highlights for me.

I need to read more Wislawa Szymborska soon here as well.

[Idril · Rating 4 out of 5]

ciekawe

[marysia · Rating 5 out of 5]

na mojej duszy wyryte są słowa rozmyślań Pana Cogito o odkupieniu i Pana cogito i perły (uwielbiam, gdy nie rozumiem połowy wierszy, jak można mieć taki łeb, skąd on te nazwy zna)

[Czarnuch · Rating 5 out of 5]

modlitwa pana cogito podróżnika on top

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book went out of print almost immediately upon its english translation. I just found one for my very own and fell upon it. It is brilliant and heartbreaking and wry, in the way that eastern european poets tend to be. But he is also so invested in the importance of history and art that it has sparked my interest in filling somewhat the gaping holes in my classical education--gilgamesh, upanishads, plato and the greeks. A writer whose books need to be held and appreciated for the physicality of literature.

[Yana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Словом — це прекрасно. Але одним словом не обмежишся. «Одним словом» у випадку з паном Cogito — це злочин.

Пан Cogito — це і про полеміку з західноєвропейською літературою, і про певне зловтішання з філософської думки Заходу. Але найперше це — про Польщу з її травматичним досвідом совєтської окупації. Alter ego автора розривають питання свободи, смерті, плинності памʼяті, конечності героїзму, питання історії та відмови від неї, питання спасіння, умертвіння релігії та її заміщення перевинайденою магію, болісного усвідомлення своєї самотності поміж «зрадників і катів». Як пише Герберт: «поет у певному віці / серед непевного віку…»

Багато-багато питань, але хто ж урешті любить відповіді? У панові Cogito — як у справжній інтелектуальній поезії — умовно все. Іншими словами, це — поетичний цикл про мандри свідомості. Примара Калігули ходить тут поряд з Гаймом і Спінозою. А Прометей зʼявляється у вже геть непристойному світлі старості і збайдужіння. Так, це вже не Прометей Дельвіля, цей Прометей — справжнісінький герой 20 століття! Та попри усю цю пишноту відчаю долинає насамкінець оце: «будь відважний коли зраджує розум будь відважний / за великим рахунком тільки це чогось варте…».

«… йди бо тільки так тебе приймуть до грона холодних черепів
грона твоїх предків: Гільгамеша Гектора Роланда
захисників безмежного королівства і спопелілого міста

Будь вірний Іди»

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard of Zbigniew Herbert via one of the many great literary essays written by JM Coetzee. Herbert's Mr. Cogito looks and observes and considers what layers of history - genetic, dynastic, personal - lie in the landscape around us, in our fields and cities, in ourselves. Herbert is Polish and rode through the 20th century, born in 1924 and died in 1998.

beginning of MR COGITO STUDIES HIS FACE IN THE MIRROR

Who wrote our faces chicken pox for sure
marking its o's with a calligraphic pen
but who bestowed on me my double chin
what glutton was it when my whole soul
yearned for austerity why are my eyes
set so closely together it was him not me
waiting in the scrub for the Vened invasion
the ears that protrude two fleshy seashells
no doubt left me by an ancestor who strained for an echo
of the thunderous march of mammoths across the steppes

[Daniel Seifert · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been said that Herber's Mr Cogito is a persona he frequently used to disabuse his readers of their Cartesian prejudices. It reads with rich idiosyncratic, revealing and magnetic verse in the sense of the pull on one's own self-reflexivity. It orbits paradoxical encounters in life where there are dark boundaries, where the mind is easily deceived and the call of vigilance and courage is an essential solidarity for ensuring viable responses against biological and historical determinism that pose threats to safety and buoyancy on the journey. - "to be as masters recommended / empty and / amazing"

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cogito ergo sum. I think therefore I am. This collection of poems, written during the Soviet occupation of Poland, follows Mr Cogito trying to be what his name suggests—a thinker—in a world hostile to thought. But the main antagonist is himself. Mr Cogito is a human being with a body and family and all sorts of hang-ups, not a brain in a vat. He thinks while melancholy and while enraptured by the “lightning of flowers.” He “goes / through the world / staggering slightly,” Herbert writes. And so do these poems. They alternate from mundane to high-brow with endearing jolts. This is poetry for thinkers with heartache and backache.

[Margaryta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Herbert w zbiorze wierszy zmienia znaczenie słynnego cytatu Kartezjusza “Cogito ergo sum” na “istnieję, stąd myślę”. Pan Cogito, człowiek, będący świadkiem wojen oraz zmian ustrojów politycznych, dostrzega wokół siebie także, paradoksy codzienności oraz analizuje swoją tożsamość. W wierszach, podmiot liryczny obserwuje i reflektuje nad dzieciństwem, rodzicami, utratą i miłością. Sztuka i kultura są dla Pana Cogito maską człowieka, który nie może odnaleźć własne biologiczne “ja” na świecie oraz swoje przeznaczenie. Herbert opisuje tę koncepcje wierszem, bez rym, ale z wyraźnym rytmem. Używa przy tym dobrze dobranych słów, podkreślając ich moc. Wybitne!

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for some Polish poetry that'll smash you're head in, pick this up.

Nice job, translator. Wish I could read it in the original, but you done good. There's a great voice and color of language being captured here that I know must be in close keeping with the original.

I loved these, although some did wax a bit too philosophical in the middle.

Recommended for all the Mr. Ergo Sums out there.

[Maria Borges · Rating 5 out of 5]

When approaching a book by a 20th-century Polish poet, one already knows it will be extraordinary, but Mr. Cogito exceeded all my expectations. It is one of the funniest and yet most introspectiv books I've ever read.
There is literature, there is philosophy, there is irony. The poems are deep and yet so simple and lovely. It reminded me of the important things and made me laugh more times than I could count.
Mr. Cogito is simply sublime.

[Ignacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moja pierwsza poezja (do której usiadłem samodzielnie, a nie została mi zaserwowana w szkole). Nie przypadła mi szczególnie do gustu. Początkowo zachęciły mnie pojedyncze wiersze które widziałem na lekcjach polskiego, po przeczytaniu całego tomu doszedłem do wniosku, że były one lepsze od pozostałych. Najwyraźniej nie bez powodu zostały wybrane.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cohesive poetry collections are always a delight, and this character piece is one of the best I've encountered. My first time reading Herbert but I assure you it won't be my last. Which of his books should I read next?

[hjh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Cogito as an extended persona for the poet to investigate deepest desires through the lens of great irony… very generative

"this is how I lost the tournament with my face" (3)

"play
with it
of course
play" (11)

[Mahatma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Herbert schrijft kleine grotten van wijsheid, humor en overpeinzing. Soms helder en direct, soms duister en warm. Heerlijk om in te verdwalen en thuis te komen.

[Filip Antosik · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/4

[Hadrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

[Natalia575 · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,75 🌟
Piękne.