Collected poems of the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert, Translated by Czeslaw Milosz, Peter Dale Scott and Alissa Valles
OLD MASTERS
The Old Masters
did without names
their signatures were
the white fingers of the Madonna
or the pink towers
di cittá sul mare
also scenes from the life
della Beata Umiltá
they dissolved
in sogno
miracolo
crocifissione
they found shelter
under angels’ eyelids
behind hillocks of cloud
in the thick grass of paradise
drowned completely
in golden firmaments
without a cry of terror
or clamor for memory
their paintings’ surfaces
are smooth as a mirror
they are not mirrors for us
but mirrors for the chosen
I invoke you Old Masters
in hard moments of doubt
let pride’s serpent scales
fall from me by your aid
let me remain unmoved
by temptations of fame
I invoke you Old Masters
Painter of the Rain of Manna
Painter of the Embroidered Trees
Painter of the Visitation
Painter of the Sacred Blood
Zbigniew Herbert, translated by Alissa Valles
Alissa Valles was born to an American father and Dutch mother in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and studied languages, literature and history at the School of Slavonic & East European Studies in London and at universities in the U.S., Poland and Russia; she worked for the...
Valles's terse, learned, harsh collection is one of the standout first books of the year. The polyglot poet, who has lived in Amsterdam, Britain, Poland and Russia, stirred up controversy with her recent...
The remarkable fluency that Valles attains and maintains over nearly six hundred pages may owe something to her complete immersion in the translation process over a relatively short period of three years....
Note from the author coming soon...