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Wisława Szymborska Quotes
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Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska was a Polish poet, essayist, translator and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Prowent, which has since become part of Kórnik, she later resided in Kraków until the end of her life. In Poland, Szymborska's books have reached sales rivaling prominent prose authors: although she once remarked in a poem, "Some Like Poetry" , that no more than two out of a thousand people care for the art.Szymborska was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality". She became better known internationally as a result of this. Her work has been translated into English and many European languages, as well as into Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Persian and Chinese. Wikipedia  

✵ 2. July 1923 – 1. February 2012   •   Other names ویسواوا شیمبورسکا
Wisława Szymborska photo
Wisława Szymborska: 92   quotes 6   likes

Wisława Szymborska Quotes

“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)

Dead

“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)

Children , Home

“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)

Truth , Happiness

“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)

Memory

“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)

Sun

“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)

Feeling

“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)

Love , Way

“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)

Youth , Grass

“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)

Secret , Light

“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)

Hope , Angels , Silence , Cry

“My siblings died the day I left for dry land
and only one small bone recalls that anniversary in me.”

Wisława Szymborska

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

Siblings

“I knock at the stone's front door.
"It's only me, let me come in.""I don't have a door," says the stone.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Conversation with a Stone"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Salt (1962)

“Any knowledge that doesn't lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life.”

Wisława Szymborska

The Poet and the World (1996)

Life , Question , Knowledge

“God was finally going to believe
in a man both good and strong,
but good and strong
are still two different men.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Our Century's Decline"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)

Men , God , Strong

“They aren't obliged to vanish when we're gone.
They don't have to be seen while sailing on.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Clouds"
Poems New and Collected (1998), New Poems 1993 - 97

“And who's this little fellow in his itty-bitty robe?
That's tiny baby Adolf, the Hitlers' little boy!”

Wisława Szymborska

"Hitler's First Photograph"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)

Boy , Baby

“My dreams — even they're not as populous as they should be.
They hold more solitude than noisy crowds.”

Wisława Szymborska

"A Large Number"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)

Dreams , Solitude

“My choices are rejections, since there is no other way,
but what I reject is more numerous,
denser, more demanding than before.
A little poem, a sigh, at the cost of indescribable losses.”

Wisława Szymborska

"A Large Number"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)

Way , Loss

“And only we few who remain unstripped of fur,
untorn from bone, unplucked of soaring feathers,
esteemed in all our quills, scales, tusks, and horns,
and in whatever else that ingenious protein
has seen fit to clothe us with,
we, my lord, are your dream,
which finds you innocent for now.”

Wisława Szymborska

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

Dreams , Clothes

“My cry could only waken him. And what
a poor gift: I, confined to my own form,
when I used to be a birch, a lizard
shedding times and satin skins
in many shimmering hues.”

Wisława Szymborska

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

Time , Cry

“Here we are, naked lovers,
beautiful to each other—and that's enough.
The leaves of our eyelids our only covers,
we're lying amidst deep night.”

Wisława Szymborska

Openess
Poems New and Collected (1998), Calling Out to Yeti (1957)

Beauty , Lying , Lovers , Night