„Myślałem: nigdy się nie zmieni” – konflikt oczekiwań w „Mamie” Zbigniewa Herberta

The article analyzes and interprets a very important poem by Zbigniew Herbert – Mama from Struna światła (1956). While the work seems to deal with the poet’s personal experience, it can also be read as the universal human immersion in intimacy and separation. The very subtitle of the poem conveys its main assumption. Herbert depicts the relationship with mother as a specific conflict of expectations, in which love possesses and appropriates. The true affection requires approval for independence; unity – paradoxically – requires approval for otherness.