They enroll in courses in falling to their knees

Mr Cogito on uprights attitudes
1
In Utica
the citizens
don’t want to put up a defense
in the city an epidemic broke out
of an instinct of self-preservation
the temple of freedom
has been turned into a flea market
the senate deliberates on how
not to be a senate
the citizens
don’t want to put up a defense
they enroll in accelerated courses
in falling to their knees
passively they wait for the enemy
write servile speeches
bury their gold
they sew new flags
innocent and white
teach children to lie
they’ve opened the gates
through which a column
of sand is now passing
apart from that as usual
commerce and copulation

2
Mr Cogito
would like to rise
to the occasion
that is
look fate
straight in the eye
like Cato the Younger
see Plutarch’s Lives
he does not have a sword
however
or an opportunity
to send his family overseas
so he waits with the others
pacing an insomniac room
despite the Stoics’ advice
he’d like to have a body
of diamond and wings
he watches from the window
as the sun of the Republic
sinks toward the West
not much is left to him
really only
the choice of the attitude
in which he wishes to die
the choice of a gesture
the choice of a last word
so he does not go to bed
to avoid
being throttled in his sleep
he would like to rise
to the occasion fully
fate looks him in the eye
in a place where he once
had a head

Zbigniew Herbert
Translation: Alissa Valles