Dictators and regimes don’t like distinctive faces. They prey on the inertia of the idle crowd in the background of their own angry countenances, or let’s call them what they really are—ugly phizzes. When I read today about the Iranian regime targeting Iranian activists across Europe with threats and harassment, the first thing that came to mind was a poem by my compatriot, one of the greatest Polish poets, Zbigniew Herbert, titled The Power of Taste (subtitled recording of the poet reading his poem himself). For many, his words were a compass, helping them survive the communist regime in Poland.

The Power of Taste

For Professor Izydora Dąmbska

It didn’t require much character at all
our refusal disagreement and stubbornness
we had a modicum of necessary courage
but ultimately it was a matter of taste
Yes a taste
that contains the fibres of the soul and the cartilage of the conscience

Who knows if we had been tempted better and more beautifully
they would have sent us women pink flat as a wafer
or fantastic creations from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch
but hell at that time was what
a wet pit an alley of murderers a barrack
called the Palace of Justice
rotgutted Mephisto in Lenin’s jacket
sent Aurora’s grandchildren into the field
boys with potato faces
and very ugly girls with red hands

Indeed their rhetoric was too clumsy
Marcus Tullius was turning in his grave
chains of tautologies a few concepts like flails
dialectic of torturers no distinction in reasoning
syntax devoid of the beauty of conjunctive

So aesthetics can be helpful in life
the study of beauty should not be neglected
Before we declare our accession we must carefully study
the shape of the architecture the rhythm of drums and fifes
the official colours the nefarious ritual of funerals

Our eyes and ears refused to listen
the princes of our senses chose proud exile

It didn’t require much character at all
we had a modicum of requisite courage
but it was basically a matter of taste
Yes a taste
that tells you to leave grimace drawl the sneer
even if it means losing a priceless capital of your body
your head