WISŁAWA WISŁAWA SZYMBORSSZYMBORS

KAKA

Presented by:Presented by:

Michalina Michalina OgrodnikOgrodnik

Life ofLife of Wisława Wisława

SzymbosrkaSzymbosrka

Wisława Szymborska was born in Kórnik in Wisława Szymborska was born in Kórnik in western Poland on 2 July1923, but moved to western Poland on 2 July1923, but moved to Cracow at the age of eight, and has lived there ever Cracow at the age of eight, and has lived there ever since. She studied sociology and Polish literature at since. She studied sociology and Polish literature at famous Jagelloński University. Her first published famous Jagelloński University. Her first published poem, entitled ,,I Seek the Word” (,,Szukam poem, entitled ,,I Seek the Word” (,,Szukam słowa”), appeared in March, 1945, a supplement to słowa”), appeared in March, 1945, a supplement to the Cracow newspaper Dziennik Polski (Polish the Cracow newspaper Dziennik Polski (Polish Daily).Daily).

Szymborska has published Szymborska has published

16 collections of poetry:16 collections of poetry:

Dlatego żyjemyDlatego żyjemy (1952), Pytania zadawane sobiePytania zadawane sobie (1954),

Wołanie do YetiWołanie do Yeti (1957), SólSól (1962),

Sto pociechSto pociech (1967), Wszelki wypadekWszelki wypadek (1972),

Wielka liczbaWielka liczba (1976),Ludzie na mościeLudzie na moście (1986),

Koniec i początekKoniec i początek (1993),102 wiersze (1996).

Early in her career, Szymborska wrote a few short stories, but never published them. She has no dramatic work to her credit, and has never even considered trying her hand at a novel. She is an accomplished translator from the French, but only in verse. In fact, the only nonpoetic from she has cultivated is the short book review. Between 1967 and 1972, she comented on some 130 books, by Polish and non-Polish writers, almost none of them bells-letters except from a few classics of antiquality. The range is enormous: popular science, dictionaries and ecyclopedias, histories, psychology, painting, music, humor-to name just a few. Any close student of her poetry is likely appreciate that many of the books under review have sggested themes and images for the poems, but the wit, sparkle, and pithiness of these pieces make them well worth reading for themselves.

 Prizes and awardsPrizes and awards * The City of Cracow Prize for Literature, 1954 * The Polish Ministry of Culture Prize, 1963 * The Goethe Prize, 1991 * The Herder Prize, 1995 * Honorary Doctor of the Adam Mickiewicz University

in Poznań, 1995 * The Polish PEN Club prize, 1996 * Nobel Prize for Literature, 1996

Major works Major works    Dlatego żyjemy (That's Why We Are Alive) (1952) Pytania zadawane sobie (Questioning Yourself) (1954) Wołanie do Yeti (Calling Out to Yeti) (1957) Sól (Salt) (1962) 101 wierszy (101 Poems) (1966) Sto pociech (No End of Fun) (1967) Poezje wybrane (Selected Poetry) (1967) Wszelki wypadek (Could Have) (1972) Wielka liczba (A Large Number) (1976) Ludzie na moście (People on the Bridge) (1986) Poezje: Poems (bilingual Polish-English edition) (1989) Lektury nadobowiązkowe (Non-required Reading) (1992) Koniec i początek (The End and the Beginning) (1993) Widok z ziarnkiem piasku (View with a Grain of Sand) (1996) Sto wierszy - sto pociech (100 Poems - 100 Happinesses) (1997) Chwila (Moment) (2002) Rymowanki dla dużych dzieci (Rhymes for Big Kids) (2003) Dwukropek (Colon) (2005)

POEMSPOEMS

Utopia Island where all becomes clear. Solid ground beneath your feet.The only roads are those that offer access.Bushes bend beneath the weight of proofs.The Tree of Valid Supposition grows herewith branches disentangled since time immermorial.The Tree of Understanding, dazzling staight and simple.sprouts by the spring called Now I Get It.The thicker the woods, the vaster the vista:the Valley of Obviously.If any doubts arise, the wind dispels them instantly.Echoes stir unsummonedand eagerly explain all the secrets of the worlds.On the right a cave where Meaning lies.On the left the Lake of Deep Conviction.Truth breaks from the bottom and bobs to the surface.Unshakable Confidence towers over the valley.Its peak offers an excellent view of the Essence of Things.For all its charms, the island is uninhabited,and the faint footprints scattered on its beachesturn without exception to the sea.As if all you can do here is leaveand plunge, never to return, into the depths.Into unfathomable life.

                        

Three Oddest Words

When I pronounce the word Future,the first syllable already belongs to the past.

When I pronounce the word Silence,I destroy it.

When I pronounce the word Nothing,I make something no nonbeing can hold.

                        Néhány szó a lélekről (Trochę o duszy)Van lelkünk, van.Ám egyikünknek sincs folyton-folyvástés mindig.Nap nap után,esztendő esztendőre iseltelhet nélküle.Olykor csak a gyermekkorfélelmeiben, rajongásábantelepszik meg egy időre.Olykor csak a felismerésben,hogy megöregedtünk.Csak elvétve segédkezikolyan keserves tennivalóknál,mint bútorokat tologatni,bőröndöket cipelni vagyórákig gyalogolni egy szűk cipőben.Űrlapok kitöltésekorvagy húsdarálás idejénrendszerint szabadnapos.Ezer beszélgetésünkbőlegyben ha részt vesz,és még ez sem törvényszerű,hiszen többre tartja a csendet.Ha testünk szaggatni kezd és kínozni,lopva távozik a Válogatós fajta:nem szívesen lát minket tömegben,