The 42 group has been talking about pleasures recently, and I was reminded of this poem, to which one of the group members introduced me a while ago. I think it’s delightful—a great example of a list poem. See what you think of ‘Pleasures‘ by Bertol Brecht.
The poem leaves me thinking about which of Brecht’s pleasures I share. I can relate to most of them, actually, but really value the reminder to stop and notice my enjoyment—to appreciate my appreciation. ‘Fascinated faces’ (I’ve seen it translated ‘enthusiastic’ elsewhere) are a delight to behold, all shining with the light of interest, even if you’re not necessarily the thing they’re fascinated by (!). Rediscovering a book, luxuriating in familiar music, discovering new music to fall in love with: all of it, yes, please. Not sure that the newspaper would cut it for me, not just for the cover-to-cover horror there’s likely to be but also because doomscrolling at the busstop is so different from the whole coffee, sections spread out on kitchen table, something noodling away quietly on the radio, contented shared silence newspaper-reading gestalt I think of when I think of ‘the newspaper’. I particularly love ‘comprehension’ as an entry, though: that wonderful sense of realising, knowing, getting something (or indeed being got). Not for nothing is the last definition of ‘Prayer‘ in Herbert’s wonderful sonnet ‘something understood’.
I love, too, the way Brecht mixes up different kinds of pleasures—’fascinated faces’ with ‘the dog’, ‘planting’ with ‘being friendly’. The poem has the sense of a list being jotted down quite quickly, added to when something else occurs to him: not sorted or prioritised but rather a delightful reckoning of some of the things which make life worth living. ‘Pleasures’ is a poem which gets you thinking about what your own version might be. How many people would be including ‘Dialectics’ on their list?? Come to think of it, how many would include ‘reading and sharing poetry’, or indeed “anoraking about the difference between, say, ‘First look out from morning’s window’ and ‘first look out of the window in the morning'” (another translator’s rendering of the first line). Comments invited about what pleasures mght make your list!
It has occurred to me while writing this post that one of mine would be: “The blissful period of time between finally finishing a poem (or post), being satisfied enough to put it out into the world, and the moment when you start wondering if it’s actually any good at all”…
