So there's a poem called "Three Choruses"
from an unwritten drama entitled Hiroshima written in 1948.
But I've taken my time.
So I'll bring you to Europe.
The long poem that he wrote in 1948,
which was the main reason that we translated this book
was called Traktat Moralny: Treatise on Morals.
Later, he wrote a couple of what one--
people think is the greatest poem,
it's called "Treatise on Poetry."
And then in the years just before his death,
he wrote a treatise on theology, coming back to something
he wrestled with all his life which is,
if there is no God is there--
who decides good and evil?
So this early poem called "Trumped Up Morality"--
also impossible, because it's written in rhymed couplets.
It was an imitation of a poem of Auden,
written in rhymed couplets.
And as they described to me, the rhythm of a Krakow
cabaret song.
And its subject is, what happens now?
After you can see that now is the memory
of this violence, the survival, guilt, all of it, what's there?
And the poem-- his book of poems from the war
was called Ocalenie which means rescue or salvation, something
like that.
So this poem, "Traktat Moralny," begins, in quotation marks,
"So just what, O poet, did you propose to save?
Can anything save the Earth?
This so-called dawn of peace what is it given us?
A few morning glories among the ashes.
It gave hope bile, the heart cunning,
and I doubt it's aroused much pity."
--is how this begins.
So this is my subject for today.
From you, it will require the discipline
of paring things down.
And then he launches into a 12-page, 400-line poem
in rhymed couplets, that David, when
he was translating with me, was laughing at the rhymes.
Because he would rhyme really a crude word with a high brow
word, and so on.
At the center of the poem, he says, well, there--
that's what's really come out of the war, three things.
It is, for our morals, are concerned.
Existentialism, phenomenology, and vodka.
And he takes up each subject, and I won't give you--
I can give you a little flavor of it.
"I know what sort of temptation awaits us.
The new march sets off John Lee,
The posthumous hiccup of Heidelberg."
Home of-- origin of phenomenology.
"The solace of despairing intellectuals,
In spite of all the Ding an Sich still lingers on in them.
So lost amidst the chaos,
They have grasped at the new manner
And wishing to have something that lasts,
They jump on Sartre.
Et pourquoi?
I will gladly give them the palm of glory,
But these things are not to be had,
Since no one from that formation
Is likely to get off this train at some station,
To amuse himself pleasantly with a butterfly
For catching being and non-being."
And you get the tone.
The part-- just give a little of the flavor of it.
The part about vodka, which is quite striking.
"You have probably already noticed
I stress your way of life,
Since this is where you spend your time.
So my people, let's talk about alcohol.
Poland bows down in difficult times,
With little jokes and anecdotes
Before the idols of vodka and kielbasa.
Nostalgic for the mead of the old nobility
And before tears and after tears,
It reels in Earth's Slavonic fashion
And toting up its poverty and hiccups,
Finds a multitude of reasons for boasting.
The phenomenon of vodka is interesting,
It would be worth a dissertation.
Of all drinks, vodka alone
Is akin to the fumes of extermination.
In it, you can see the shimmer of burning cities.
Through its thin glass, the convicts go.
And when the houses hiss at night,
And the fire is a pupil in the eyes of the windows.
The Brothers Karamazov with grim faces
Have sat down to a lit leader.
And the smell of formic acid rises from an antheap
And grows stronger in the summer heat.
So the odor from these misfortunate lands
Gives a signal to travelers coming from afar.
And although it may seem strange to you
That I waste my time and energy,
Making verse about this non-conpulsory ego,
The question, though it not primary, matters.
Attend to it."
So you see the tone of this poem.
The other part of the poem is don't trust bureaucrats,
and that was what got him in trouble.