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Apr 19 - Hitler's First Photograph - Wislawa Szymborska
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How chilling indeed. Thanks for putting up the picture. It really drives home the point. And the point being? Evil starts somewhere, I guess. And all baby's are cute.
It's all potential in the beginning, isn't it? Excellent poem. Since I teach small children all day and, especially since I became a parent myelf, I sometimes spontaneously see the child within an adult. It's hard to see it with Hitler, isn't it? The contrast in images here is perfect and she totally supports it in the poem.
Why Robert, you can be my cheering section any time you want. The poems here come from a list of nominations from members of Constant Reader, but this one happened to be my own nomination.This gives me chills every time I read it. Makes me wonder about the evil that can hide in lovely things unbeknownst to us all. Makes me think how unknowable the future is.
And I think, too, about the difficulty of translating such a poem, finding just the right silly, loving, baby talk in another language.
Yes it is remarkable, and remarkably thought provoking.The final lines remind me of Arendt's phrase "the banality of evil." Even the historian cannot read the signs of the times:
No one hears howling dogs, or fate's footsteps.
A history teacher loosens his collar
and yawns over homework.
While the imagery is superb and, like Philip, I appreciate the final three lines, I'm having some problems with the initial sentiments.I understand the primary sentiment, like Barbara, to be in the beginning it's all potential. But did Hitler really have such a rosy babyhood? Are the babyhoods of tyrants the same as the babyhoods of saints? Were there sufficient adults cooing over the baby Adolf, who I think was the fourth of six babies? Who knows. Perhaps that's what we're supposed to ponder.
I think my opinion is somewhat tainted by reading today the current short story "Helping," where the wife Grace says that some babies are just meant to be lost since their environments won't support them and that may be best since it won't perpetuate the cycle.
Then again, some monsters come from perfectly average environments.
Maybe, on today Hitler's birthday, that's what we're meant to consider. At what point do cute darling babies turn into stone-hearted killers (like some other April killers such as the Columbine and Virginia Tech killers)?
Just to stand up for the ladies, I'm assuming that Philip is referring to Hannah Arendt -- who oddly resumed relations with her Nazi-sympathizer lover/professor Martin Heidegger in the 1950s. But that's a whole other topic.What is more on topic is at what point is evil nipped in the bud? The Virginia Tech killer is a perfect example. Most people near to him knew he was dangerous but were powerless legally to stop him. Hitler never won a majority.
Just points to ponder.
I'd forgotten that I scheduled this poem for Hitler's birthday. I don't necessarilythink the poem shows Hitler as having a happy childhood, just that he was a baby once, and as such received the typical attention that a baby gets.
R
I hear what you're saying and I mostly agree.What's confusing to me is the second stanza with the "no dearth of signs on the earth and in the sky" referring to positive images and "then just before the labor his mother's fateful dream:
a dove seen in dream means joyful news,
if it is caught, a long-awaited guest will come."
Does this mean that all the signs pointed to the positive? Or that omens are unreliable? This is the stanza that makes me think his was a welcome birth, which I wonder if it was.
Or perhaps the imagery is meant similar to the opening scene of Toni Morrison's Beloved where horrible human cruelty is enacted during a beautiful sunny day. That there is a disconnect between the natural world and the world created by humans. That nature provides us with blessings that we misguidedly disregard.
Or not. I'm still pondering that second stanza.
By the way, as CR's resident poet, what's your favorite book about poetry? Just so you know, I've already pilfered the Donald Hall book you're currently reading for my list. I'm also looking for a good book on reading poetry more critically.
I hope Ruth makes a suggestion, but until she does, and speaking as someone who is definitely not a poet, personally I've found two books with basically the same title to be helpful- Terry Eagleton's How to Read a Poem and Edward Hirsch's How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry.
I really love this poem by Szymborska--and I think the translator that I have (Cavanagh) did a great job on the baby-talk. What really gave me that "zero at the bone" feeling are the end-stopped lines and then that final enjambment. That's masterful. I teach two classes in Intro to Poetry, and I'm going to incorporate this poem into our class readings for tomorrow. We're discussing Plath's "Daddy" and I'd like to talk about two types of baby-talk--the "ooh" of the speaker in "Daddy," and the exaggerated tone of mother cooing and talking to her baby--babble/babel. Those simple cataloguing/counting games really are chilling here--especially considering the six million. I was really reminded of Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem by the lines:
looks just like his folks, like a kitten in a basket,
like the tots in every other family album.
There's the banality of evil, indeed.
When I read that second stanza, especially the lines that Happyreader cites above, I'm reminded of Hitler's reliance on astrology and other signs to determine the fate of the Reich. It's a counterpunch to the idea of the Magi scouring the skies at the time of Christ's birth, as well.
The motifs that relate to the baby's future and also the Third Reich are very layered and very well done. Kudos to this translation.
Great choice, Ruth--thanks for pointing me towards this group.
Thanks Philip for the suggestions. I'm adding the Hirsch book to my list (I couldn't find the Eagleton book in library holdings) plus I'm also adding Poemcrazy, simply because I own it, and Mary Oliver's Poetry Handbook.More suggestions are always welcome.
Just chiming in here to say, what a great discussion you have going.
Happy, you've gotten good suggestions. I also might add Frances Mayes' The Discovery of Poetry, and Molly Peacock's How to Read a Poem. (Philip, how did you make those nice links?)I don't particularly recommend the Donald Hall book (The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon) If that's the one you're talking about. I've been meaning to write a rather negative review. And it's not about poetry, anyway.
The Poet's Companion, by Kim Adonizzio and Dorianne Laux is good, but it's more focussed on writing poetry.
Now that you mention it, Pamela, I remember reading about Hitler's belief in astrology. And the business of signs at a birth also makes me think of the star of Bethlehem. Quite a different outcome, eh?
R
Thought you might like this as a contrast to the Symborska poem - Knopf have been emailing me a poem a day as they did last year for poetry month - this one is by Langston Hughes -Consider Me
Consider me,
A colored boy,
Once sixteen,
Once five, once three,
Once nobody,
Now me.
Before me
Papa, mama,
Grandpa, grandma,
So on back
To original
Pa.
(A capital letter there,
He
Being Mystery.)
Consider me,
Colored boy,
Downtown at eight,
Sometimes working late,
Overtime pay
To sport away,
Or save,
Or give my Sugar
For the things
She needs.
My Sugar,
Consider her
Who works, too—
Has to.
One don't make enough
For all the stuff
It takes to live.
Forgive me
What I lack,
Black,
Caught in a crack
That splits the world in two
From China
By way of Arkansas
To Lenox Avenue.
Consider me,
On Friday the eagle flies.
Saturday laughter, a bar, a bed.
Sunday prayers syncopate glory.
Monday comes,
To work at eight,
Late,
Maybe.
Consider me,
Descended also
From the
Mystery.
Since I'm the one who tossed in the Hannah Arendt phrase, though I'm certainly no philosopher, I'll link up a very brief Wiki entry and a nice longer treatment of her at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banality...
http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/arendt.htm
An excerpt from the latter regarding 'banality of evil' -- perhaps I used the phrase less precisely than she would have meant it:
She controversially uses the phrase 'the banality of evil' to characterize Eichmann's actions as a member of the Nazi regime, in particular his role as chief architect and executioner of Hitler's genocidal 'final solution' (Endlosung) for the 'Jewish problem'. Her characterization of these actions, so obscene in their nature and consequences, as 'banal' is not meant to position them as workaday. Rather it is meant to contest the prevalent depictions of the Nazi's inexplicable atrocities as having emanated from a malevolent will to do evil, a delight in murder. ... Arendt concluded that far from exhibiting a malevolent hatred of Jews which could have accounted psychologically for his participation in the Holocaust, Eichmann was an utterly innocuous individual. He operated unthinkingly, following orders, efficiently carrying them out, with no consideration of their effects upon those he targeted. The human dimension of these activities were not entertained, so the extermination of the Jews became indistinguishable from any other bureaucratically assigned and discharged responsibility for Eichmann and his cohorts.
Ruth, thanks for the additional recommendations. Even though I haven't read the book yet, I'm curious about the source of your negative response to the Donald Hall book, which intrigued me because I've always wondered about that relationship. I saw so many positive Goodreads reviews, with some comparing it positively to A Year of Magical Thinking. I will await your review and reconsider. It's not next on my list of to-reads regardless.Pamela, any favorite poetry books that you use with your students?
Ricki, I really enjoyed "Consider Me." It's not just me, it's me and all who came before me and all who originate from the same mystery. While universal, I imagine it was even more poignant at the time it was penned when African Americans were not considered at all. Consider me a human of the same origin and the same needs as you.
Philip, thanks also for the additional Arendt research. I've read about her but have never read her actual writings. I think your usage still fits. Everyday acquiescence leads to evil -- and in the poem, it's an everyday, not extraordinary, existence that does the same.
I love the Mary Oliver selections, but when I use them they serve as more for beginning craft resources. I can highly recommend Kenneth Koch's Sleeping on the Wing. That's one of my personal favorites. I also like the Hirsch recommendation above. This semester, the class is using the Kim A./D. Laux book above. I plan to use it next fall, too.
When I get to my office at school tomorrow, I'll scour the shelves. I know I'm forgetting something I love.
Here's another one by the inimitable Koch--Making Your Own Days. I'd start with those two by Koch, and build up from there. He's so funny and unassuming that you don't realize you're learning so much technical business, and he's a genius at explicating poems.
Pamela, thank you. Based on recommendations so far, I think I'm going to begin with the Hirsch book followed by the Koch book. Pamela, if you see any other good books on your shelves, please post them.Everyone, I'm sure I'm not the only person who finds these recommendations helpful. Thanks.
I like Making Your Own Days, too. It's sitting on the shelf behind me as I type. I'll have to take a look at the other one, now you've recommended it, Pamela.R
Wislawa Szymborska was born in Poland in 1923. She studied Polish Literature and Sociology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She has published more than fifteen books of poetry. Her poems have been translated into many languages.
Among her many honors and awards are a Goethe Prize, a Herder Prize, and a Polish PEN Club prize. Wislawa Szymborska won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. She has lived in Krakow since 1931.
In 2007 we read Wislawa Szymborska’s Photograph from Sept 11. Here is another chilling poem.
And here is a baby photo of Hitler to go with it.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/hoaxipedia/re...
Hitler's First Photograph
-------Wislawa Szymborska
And who's this little fellow in his itty-bitty robe?
That's tiny baby Adolf, the Hitlers little boy!
Will he grow up to be an LL.D.?
Or a tenor in Vienna's Opera House?
Whose teensy hand is this, whose little ear and eye and nose?
Whose tummy full of milk, we just don't know:
printer's, doctor's, merchant's, priest's?
Where will those tootsy-wootsies finally wander?
To garden, to school, to an office, to a bride,
maybe to the Burgermeister's daughter?
Precious little angel, mommy's sunshine, honeybun,
while he was being born a year ago,
there was no dearth of signs on the earth and in the sky:
spring sun, geraniums in windows,
the organ-grinder's music in the yard,
a lucky fortune wrapped in rosy paper,
then just before the labor his mother's fateful dream:
a dove seen in dream means joyful news,
if it is caught, a long-awaited guest will come.
Knock knock, who's there, it's Adolf's heartchen knocking.
A little pacifier, diaper, rattle, bib,
our bouncing boy, thank God and knock on wood, is well,
looks just like his folks, like a kitten in a basket,
like the tots in every other family album.
Shush, let's not start crying, sugar,
the camera will click from under that black hood.
The Klinger Atelier, Grabenstrasse, Braunau,
and Braunau is small but worthy town,
honest businesses, obliging neighbors,
smell of yeast dough, of gray soap.
No one hears howling dogs, or fate's footsteps.
A history teacher loosens his collar
and yawns over homework.
--- Stanislaw Baranczak and
Clare Cavenagh, translators
from The People on the Bridge