Synopses & Reviews
From a writer whom Charles Simic calls "one of the finest poets living" comes a collection of witty, compassionate, contemplative, and always surprising poems. Szymborska writes with verve about everything from love unremembered to keys mislaid in the grass. The poems will appear, for the first time, side by side with the Polish originals, in a book to delight new and old readers alike.
EVERYTHING
Everything-
a bumptious, stuck-up word.
It should be written in quotes.
It pretends to miss nothing,
to gather, hold, contain, and have.
While all the while it's just
a shred of a gale.
Review
PRAISE FOR WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA
"Szymborska is unquestionably one of the great living European poets. She's deeply human and a joy to read . . . [A] poet to live with."--Robert Hass, The Washington Post Book World
"She captures the nightmarish contingency of human survival, and the human callousness toward nature, with an ironic elegance miraculously free of bitterness."--The New Yorker
Review
"The wry and slyly tender voice of Wislawa Szymborska couldn't belong to anyone else."
Synopsis
In this collection of contemplative, witty, and always surprising new poems, Szymborska writes with verve about everything from love unremembered to keys mislaid in the grass, from small-scale naughtiness to the happiness of skating on thin ice, from the district firemen's ball to the cosmos. Hers is an odd perspective, recorded with sparkling intelligence and a rare intensity of feeling.
Another gift of remarkable poetry to the world.
About the Author
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA (1923–2012) was born in Poland and worked as a poetry editor, translator, and columnist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996.
CLARE CAVANAGH, professor of Slavic and comparative literature at Northwestern, has received a PEN Translation Award for her work, with Stanislaw Baranczak, on Szymborska's poetry.
Table of Contents
Forewordix
Monolog psa zaplatanego w dzieje 2
Monologue of a Dog Ensnared in History 3
Chwila 10
Moment 11
W zatrzesieniu 14
Among the Multitudes 15
Chmury 20
Clouds 21
Negatyw 24
Negative 25
Sluchawka 26
Receiver 27
Trzy slowa najdziwniejsze 28
The Three Oddest Words 29
Milczenie roslin 30
The Silence of Plants 31
Platon, czyli dlaczego 34
Plato, or Why 35
Mala dziewczynka sciaga obrus 38
A Little Girl Tugs at the Tablecloth 39
Ze wspomnien 42
A Memory 43
Kaluza 44
Puddles 45
Pierwsza milosc 46
First Love 47
Troche o duszy 48
A Few Words on the Soul 49
Wczesna godzina 54
Early Hour 55
W parku 58
In the Park 59
Przyczynek do statystyki 60
A Contribution to Statistics 61
Jacys ludzie 64
Some People 65
Fotografia z 11 wrzesnia 68
Photograph from September 11 69
Bagaz powrotny 70
Return Baggage 71
Bal 74
The Ball 75
Notatka 78
A Note 79
Spis 82
List 83
Wszystko 88
Everything 89
Uprzejmosc niewidomych 90
The Courtesy of the Blind 91
ABC 94
ABC 95