Zbigniew Herbert’s Collected Poems, 1956-1998 is good news for those of us who have long admired his poetry. Or so I thought, until I read David Orr's NYT article about the Alissa Valles translations used in the new book.
It seemed to me that John and Bogdana Carpenter's translation embodied Herbert's voice—although, of course, I don't have the Polish to truly judge. Just because I can, here's a link to the Carpenters' translation of my favorite Herbert poem, "I Would Like to Describe".
