Zbigniew Herbert

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Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert, 1955
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Thorns and Roses by Zbigniew Herbert

Thorns and Roses

Saint Ignatius

pale and fiery

passing by a rose

flung himself on the bush

mutilating his flesh

with the bell of his black frock

he wished to stifle

the beauty of the world

which gushed from earth as from a wound

and lying at the bottom

of the cradle of thorns

he saw

that the blood flowing from his brow

was clotting on his lashes

in the shape of a rose

and the blind hand

seeking out thorns

was pierced through

by petals’ soft touch

the defrauded saint wept

amid flowers’ mockeries

thorns and roses

roses and thorns

we seek happiness


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Translated from the English translation(Czeslaw Milosz & Peter Dale Scott) of: THORNS AND ROSES: Zbigniew Herbert's Collected Poems ( New York, 2007)



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