Wisława Szymborska: Trending quotes

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Wisława Szymborska: 184 quotes6 likes

“I lost a few goddesses while moving south to north
and also some gods while moving east to west.”

"A Speech at the Lost-and-Found".
Poems New and Collected (1998), Could Have (1972)

“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)

“I shake my memory.
Maybe something in its branches
that has been asleep for years
will start up with a flutter.No.
Clearly I'm asking too much.
Nothing less than one whole second.”

Wisława Szymborska

"May 16, 1973"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The End and the Beginning (1993)

“There's nothing more debauched than thinking.”

Wisława Szymborska

"An Opinion Concerning the Question of Pornography"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)

“I believe in the refusal to take part.
I believe in the ruined career.
I believe in the wasted years of work.
I believe in the secret taken to the grave.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Discovery"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Could Have (1972)

“Everything the dead predicted has turned out completely different.
Or a little bit different — which is to say, completely different.”

Wisława Szymborska

"The Letters of the Dead"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Could Have (1972)

“Toy balloon
once kidnapped by the wind —
come home, and I will say:
There are no children here.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Still Life with a Balloon"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Calling Out to Yeti (1957)

“So he's got to have happiness,
he's got to have truth, too,
he's got to have eternity —
did you ever!”

Wisława Szymborska

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

“"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)

“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)

“Yes, the memory still moves her.
Yes, just a little tired now. Yes, it will pass.
You may get up. Thank her. Say good-bye. Leave,
passing by the new arrivals in the hall.”

Wisława Szymborska

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

“On this third planet from the sun
among the signs of bestiality
a clear conscience is Number One.”

Wisława Szymborska

"In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)

“Born.
So he was born, too.
Born like everyone else.
Like me, who will die.
The son of an actual woman.
A new arrival from the body's depths.
A voyager to Omega.”

Wisława Szymborska

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

“He feels like a handle broken off a jug,
but the jug doesn't know it's broken and keeps going to the well.”

Wisława Szymborska

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

“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)

“Yes, she loved him very much. Yes, he was born that way.
Yes, she was standing by the prison wall that morning.
Yes, she heard the shots.
You may regret not having brought a camera,
a tape recorder. Yes, she has seen such things.”

Wisława Szymborska

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

“The counting of weekdays
would inevitably seem to be
a senseless activity;
dropping letters in the mailbox
a whim of foolish youth;
the sign "No Walking On The Grass"
a symptom of lunacy.”

Wisława Szymborska

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

“They say the first sentence in any speech is always the hardest. Well, that one's behind me, anyway.”

Wisława Szymborska

The Poet and the World (1996)

“Secret codes resound.
Doubts and intentions come to light.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Archeology"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)

“If there are angels
they must, I hope,
find this convincing,
this merriment dangling from terror,
not even crying Save me Save me
since all of this takes place in silence.”

Wisława Szymborska

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