“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.

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Wisława Szymborska photo
Wisława Szymborska 92
Polish writer 1923–2012

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