The Seventh Angel
 by Zbigniew Herbert

The seventh angel

is completely different

even his name is different

Shemkel

he is no Gabriel

the aureate

upholder of the throne

and baldachin

and he’s no Raphael

tuner of choirs

and he’s also no

Azrael

planet-driver

surveyor of infinity

perfect exponent of theoretical physics

Shemkel

is black and nervous

and has been fined many times

for illegal import of sinners

between the abyss

and the heavens

without a rest his feet go pit-a-pat

his sense of dignity is non-existent

and they only keep him in the squad

out of consideration for the number seven

but he is not like the others

not like the hetman of the hosts

Michael

all scales and feathery plumes

nor like Azrafael

interior decorator of the universe

warden of its luxuriant vegetation

his wings shimmering like two oak trees

not even like

Dedrael

apologist and cabalist

Shemkel Shemkel

-- the angels complain

why are you not perfect

the Byzantine artists

when they paint all seven

reproduce Shemkel

just like the rest

because they suppose

they might lapse into heresy

if they were to portray him

just as he is

black nervous

in his old threadbare nimbus

   translated by Alissa Valles

The Salon of Poetry presents The Seventh Angel

When: Sunday, November 30, 2008,  6:00pm

Where:  Polish Home, 1714 18th Avenue, Seattle (map)

Free admission

Music (piano) Jaana Dementieva

Zbigniew Herbert (1924-1998), was a Polish poet,and an essayist espousing European cultural roots; his Barbarian in the Garden and Still Life with Horse-Bit captivate readers with his admiration for the old masters.

"Zbigniew Herbert was one of the greatest Polish writers of this century. He is a figure comparable to, say, T.S. Eliot or W.H. Auden."

-The New Yorker

"Herbert is a poet with all the strength of an Antaeus.... He shoulders the whole sky and the scope of human diginty and responsibility."

- Seamus Heaney