by Zbigniew Herbert
1
The most beautiful
is the object which does not exist
it does not serve to carry water
or to preserve the ashes of a hero
it was not cradled by Antigone
nor was a rat drowned in it
it has no hole and is entirely open
seen
from every side which means hardly anticipated
the hairs of all its lines join
in one stream of light
neither
blindness
nor
death
can take away the object which does not exist
2
mark the place where stood the object
which does not exist
with a black square it will be
a simple dirge for the beautiful absence
manly regret imprisoned in a quadrangle
3
now
all space swells like an ocean
a hurricane beats on the black sail
the wing of a blizzard
circles over the black square
and the island sinks
beneath the salty increase
4
now you have empty space
more beautiful than the objec
more beautiful than the place
it leaves it is the pre-world
a white paradise of all possibilities
you may enter there
cry out vertical-horizontal
perpendicular lightning
strikes the naked horizon
we can stop at that
anyway you have already created a world
5
obey the counsels of the inner eye
do not yield
to murmurs mutterings smackings
it is the uncreated world
crowding before the gates of your canvas
angels are offering
the rosy wadding of clouds
trees are inserting everywhere
slovenly green hair
kings are praising purple
and commanding their trumpeters to gild
even the whale
asks for a portrait
obey the counsels of the inner eye
admit no one
6
extract
from the shadow of the object
which does not exist
from polar space
from the stern reveries of the inner eye a chair
beautiful and useless like a cathedral in the wilderness
place on the chair a crumpled tablecloth
add to the idea of order
the idea of adventure
let it be a confession of faith
before the vertical struggling with the horizontal
let it be quieter than angels
prouder than kings
more substantial
than a whale
let it have the face of the last things
we ask reveal o chair the depths of the inner eye
the iris of necessity the pupil of death
Photo Credit: Time Does Not Exist by Lera