Wisława Szymborska: Still

Wisława Szymborska was Polish writer. Explore interesting quotes on still.
Wisława Szymborska: 184 quotes6 likes

“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.

“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)

“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.

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)