Wisława Szymborska Quotes (92 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Wisława Szymborska: 92 quotes 6 likes

Famous Wisława Szymborska Quotes

“I remember it so clearly —
how people, seeing me, would break off in midword.
Laughter died.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Soliloquy for Cassandra"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
Context: I remember it so clearly —
how people, seeing me, would break off in midword.
Laughter died.
Lovers' hands unclasped.
Children ran to their mothers.
I didn't even know their short-lived names.
And that song about a little green leaf —
no one ever finished it near me.

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

When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.”

Wisława Szymborska

Source: Poems New and Collected

“Whose side are you on?" "I don't know."
"This is a war, you've got to choose." "I don't know."
"Does your village still exist?" "I don't know."
"Are those your children?”

Wisława Szymborska

"Yes."
"Vietnam"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)

“Those who knew
what this was all about
must make way for those
who know little.”

Wisława Szymborska

"The End and the Beginning"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The End and the Beginning (1993)
Context: Those who knew
what this was all about
must make way for those
who know little.
And less than that.
And at last nothing less than nothing.

“Gone, lost, scattered to the four winds. It still surprises me
how little now remains”

Wisława Szymborska

"A Speech at the Lost-and-Found"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Could Have (1972)
Context: Gone, lost, scattered to the four winds. It still surprises me
how little now remains, one first person sing., temporarily
declined in human form, just now making such a fuss
about a blue umbrella left yesterday on a bus.

“I am my own obstacle.”

Wisława Szymborska

Wisława Szymborska Quotes about time

“He managed to come into the world at what was still a fitting time.
All that was to pass passed in this house.
Not in housing projects,
not in furnished but empty quarters,
among unknown neighbors
on fifteenth floors
that student field trips rarely reach.”

Wisława Szymborska

"The Great Man's House"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)

“For the sake of research,
the big picture
and definitive conclusions,
one would have to transcend time,
in which everything scurries and whirls.”

Wisława Szymborska

"We're Extremely Fortunate"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The End and the Beginning (1993)

“We're extremely fortunate
not to know precisely
the kind of world we live in.
One would have
to live a long, long time,
unquestionably longer
than the world itself.”

Wisława Szymborska

"We're Extremely Fortunate"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The End and the Beginning (1993)

“Something doesn't start
at its usual time.
Something doesn't happen
as it should.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Cat in an Empty Apartment"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The End and the Beginning (1993)
Context: Something doesn't start
at its usual time.
Something doesn't happen
as it should.
Someone was always, always here,
then suddenly disappeared
and stubbornly stays disappeared.

“Our times are still not safe and sane enough
for faces to show ordinary sorrow.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Smiles"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)
Context: The going's rough, and so we need the laugh
of bright incisors, molars of goodwill.
Our times are still not safe and sane enough
for faces to show ordinary sorrow.

“"There's nothing new under the sun": that's what you wrote, Ecclesiastes. But you yourself were born new under the sun. And the poem you created is also new under the sun, since no one wrote it down before you. And all your readers are also new under the sun, since those who lived before you couldn't read your poem. And that cypress under which you're sitting hasn't been growing since the dawn of time. It came into being by way of another cypress similar to yours, but not exactly the same.”

Wisława Szymborska

The Poet and the World (1996)

Wisława Szymborska Quotes about the world

“Somewhere out there the world must have an end.”

Wisława Szymborska

“True love. Is it normal
is it serious, is it practical?
What does the world get from two people
who exist in a world of their own?”

Wisława Szymborska

Source: View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems

“The world — whatever we might think when terrified by its vastness and our own impotence, or embittered by its indifference to individual suffering, of people, animals, and perhaps even plants, for why are we so sure that plants feel no pain; whatever we might think of its expanses pierced by the rays of stars surrounded by planets we've just begun to discover, planets already dead? still dead? we just don't know; whatever we might think of this measureless theater to which we've got reserved tickets, but tickets whose lifespan is laughably short, bounded as it is by two arbitrary dates; whatever else we might think of this world — it is astonishing.”

Wisława Szymborska

The Poet and the World (1996)

“I'm working on the world,
revised, improved edition”

Wisława Szymborska

I'm Working on the World"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Calling Out to Yeti (1957)
Context: I'm working on the world,
revised, improved edition,
featuring fun for fools
blues for brooders,
combs for bald pates,
tricks for old dogs.

Wisława Szymborska: Trending quotes

“There's no life
that couldn't be immortal
if only for a moment.Death
always arrives by that very moment too late.In vain it tugs at the knob
of the invisible door.
As far as you've come can't be undone.”

Wisława Szymborska

"On Death, Without Exaggeration"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)

“They were neither good nor evil now — every living thing
was simply creeping or hopping along in the mass panic.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Lot's Wife"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)
Context: I felt age within me. Distance.
The futility of wandering. Torpor.
I looked back setting my bundle down.
I looked back not knowing where to set my foot.
Serpents appeared on my path,
spiders, field mice, baby vultures.
They were neither good nor evil now — every living thing
was simply creeping or hopping along in the mass panic.

Evil

“Only what is human can truly be foreign.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Psalm"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)
Context: And how can we talk of order overall
when the very placement of the stars
leaves us doubting just what shines for whom?Not to speak of the fog's reprehensible drifting!
And dust blowing all over the steppes
as if they hadn't been partitioned!
And the voices coasting on obliging airwaves,
that conspiratorial squeaking, those indecipherable mutters!
Only what is human can truly be foreign.

Wisława Szymborska Quotes

“Within him, there's awful darkness, in the darkness a small boy. God of humor, do something about him, OK?
God of humor, do something about him today.”

Wisława Szymborska

"A Film from the Sixties"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)

God

“I'm sorry that my voice was hard.
Look down on yourselves from the stars, I cried,
look down on yourselves from the stars.
They heard me and lowered their eyes.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Soliloquy for Cassandra"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)

“Nothing's a gift, it's all on loan.
I'm drowning in debts up to my ears.
I'll have to pay for myself
with my self,
give up my life for my life.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Nothing's a Gift"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The End and the Beginning (1993)

“I am a tarsier and a tarsier's son,
the grandson and great-grandson of tarsiers”

Wisława Szymborska

"Tarsier"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
Context: I am a tarsier and a tarsier's son,
the grandson and great-grandson of tarsiers,
a tiny creature, made up of two pupils
and whatever simply could not be left out...

“We call it a grain of sand
but it calls itself neither grain nor sand.”

Wisława Szymborska

"View with a Grain of Sand"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)
Context: We call it a grain of sand
but it calls itself neither grain nor sand.
It does just fine without a name,
whether general, particular,
permanent, passing,
incorrect or apt.

“I no longer require
your stone gods, your ruins with legible inscriptions.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Archeology"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)
Context: Millennia have passed
since you first called me archaeology.
I no longer require
your stone gods, your ruins with legible inscriptions.
Show me your whatever
and I'll tell you who you were.

God

“It looks like poets will always have their work cut out for them.”

Wisława Szymborska

The Poet and the World (1996)
Context: Granted, in daily speech, where we don't stop to consider every word, we all use phrases like "the ordinary world," "ordinary life," "the ordinary course of events"… But in the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone's existence in this world.
It looks like poets will always have their work cut out for them.

“In Heraclitus' river
a fish has imagined the fish of all fish”

Wisława Szymborska

"In Heraclitus' River"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Salt (1962)
Context: In Heraclitus' river
a fish has imagined the fish of all fish,
a fish kneels to the fish, a fish sings to the fish,
a fish begs the fish to ease its fishy lot.

Imagination , Fish

“Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know."”

Wisława Szymborska

The Poet and the World (1996)
Context: Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. There is, there has been, there will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners — I could list a hundred more professions. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem that they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know."

“There's no life
that couldn't be immortal
if only for a moment.”

Wisława Szymborska

"On Death, Without Exaggeration"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)
Context: There's no life
that couldn't be immortal
if only for a moment.Death
always arrives by that very moment too late.In vain it tugs at the knob
of the invisible door.
As far as you've come can't be undone.

Life

“Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,
then labor heavily so that they may seem light.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Under One Small Star"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Could Have (1972)
Context: I know I won't be justified as long as I live,
since I myself stand in my own way.
Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,
then labor heavily so that they may seem light.

Light

“He's no end of fun, for all you say.
Poor little beggar.
A human, if ever we saw one.”

Wisława Szymborska

"No End of Fun"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)

“Contemporary poets are skeptical and suspicious even, or perhaps especially, about themselves.”

Wisława Szymborska

The Poet and the World (1996)
Context: Contemporary poets are skeptical and suspicious even, or perhaps especially, about themselves. They publicly confess to being poets only reluctantly, as if they were a little ashamed of it. But in our clamorous times it's much easier to acknowledge your faults, at least if they're attractively packaged, than to recognize your own merits, since these are hidden deeper and you never quite believe in them yourself.

“He has only just learned to tell dreams from waking”

Wisława Szymborska

"No End of Fun"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
Context: He has only just learned to tell dreams from waking;
only just realized that he is he;
only just whittled with his hand né fin
a flint, a rocket ship;
easily drowned in the ocean's teaspoon,
not even funny enough to tickle the void:
sees only with his eyes;
hears only with his ears;
his speech's personal best is the conditional;
he uses his reason to pick holes in reason.
In short, he's next to to one,
but his head's full of freedom, omniscience and the Being
beyond his foolish meat —
did you ever!

Dreams , Learning

“Our stockpile of antiquity grows constantly”

Wisława Szymborska

"Census"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
Context: Our stockpile of antiquity grows constantly,
it's overflowing,
reckless squatters jostle for a place in history,
hordes of sword fodder,
Hector's nameless extras, no less brave than he,
thousands upon thousands of singular faces,
each the first and last for all time,
in each a pair of inimitable eyes.
How easy it was to live not knowing this,
so sentimental, so spacious.

“After every war
someone has to tidy up.
Things won't pick themselves up, after all.Someone has to shove
the rubble to the roadsides
so the carts loaded with corpses
can get by.”

Wisława Szymborska

"The End and the Beginning"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The End and the Beginning (1993)

War

“Even sight heightened to become all-seeing
will do you no good without a sense of taking part.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Conversation with a Stone".
Poems New and Collected (1998), Salt (1962)
Context: No other sense can make up for your missing sense of taking part.
Even sight heightened to become all-seeing
will do you no good without a sense of taking part.
You shall not enter, you have only a sense of what the sense should be,
only its seed, imagination.

Sense , Parting

“The window has a wonderful view of a lake,
but the view doesn't view itself.”

Wisława Szymborska

"View with a Grain of Sand"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)
Context: The window has a wonderful view of a lake,
but the view doesn't view itself.
It exists in this world
colorless, shapeless,
soundless, odorless, and painless.

“My apologies to the felled tree for the table's four legs.
My apologies to great questions for small answers.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Under One Small Star"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Could Have (1972)

Question

“I felt age within me. Distance.
The futility of wandering. Torpor.”

Wisława Szymborska

Age

“This adult male. This person on earth.
Ten billion nerve cells. Ten pints of blood
pumped by ten ounces of heart.
This object took three billion years to emerge.”

Wisława Szymborska

"A Film from the Sixties"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)

“And how can we talk of order overall
when the very placement of the stars
leaves us doubting just what shines for whom?”

Wisława Szymborska

Star

“Few of them made it to thirty.
Old age was the privilege of rocks and trees.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Our Ancestors' Short Lives"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)
Context: Few of them made it to thirty.
Old age was the privilege of rocks and trees.
Childhood ended as fast as wolf cubs grow.
One had to hurry, to get on with life
before the sun went down,
before the first snow.

Age , Tree

“Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists.”

Wisława Szymborska

“Within him, there's awful darkness, in the darkness a small boy.”

Wisława Szymborska

"A Film from the Sixties"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
Context: Within him, there's awful darkness, in the darkness a small boy. God of humor, do something about him, OK?
God of humor, do something about him today.

Boy

“I'd have to be really quick
to describe clouds —
a split second's enough
for them to start being something else.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Clouds"
Poems New and Collected (1998), New Poems 1993 - 97
Context: I'd have to be really quick
to describe clouds —
a split second's enough
for them to start being something else. Their trademark:
they don't repeat a single
shape, shade, pose, arrangement.

“I am too close for him to dream of me.
I don't flutter over him, don't flee him
beneath the roots of trees. I am too close.
The caught fish doesn't sing with my voice.
The ring doesn't roll from my finger.
I am too close.”

Wisława Szymborska

"I Am Too Close..."
Poems New and Collected (1998), Salt (1962)

Dreams

“Our humans
don't know how to talk to one another.”

Wisława Szymborska

"An Unexpected Meeting"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Salt (1962)
Context: Our snakes have shed their lightning,
our apes their flights of fancy,
our peacocks have renounced their plumes.
The bats flew out of our hair long ago. We fall silent in mid-sentence,
all smiles, past help.
Our humans
don't know how to talk to one another.