Zdroj: [Kněžourková, Lucie, Szymborská, Wisława – portrét, iliteratura.cz, 2010-04-27, 2011-02-16, http://www.iliteratura.cz/Clanek/26223/szymborska-wisawa-portret-]
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“I remember it so clearly —
how people, seeing me, would break off in midword.
Laughter died.”
"Soliloquy for Cassandra"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
Kontext: 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.
“Those who knew
what this was all about
must make way for those
who know little.”
"The End and the Beginning"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The End and the Beginning (1993)
Kontext: 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”
"A Speech at the Lost-and-Found"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Could Have (1972)
Kontext: 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.
"Yes."
"Vietnam"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
"On Death, Without Exaggeration"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)
"Lot's Wife"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)
Kontext: 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.
“Only what is human can truly be foreign.”
"Psalm"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)
Kontext: 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.
"A Film from the Sixties"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
"Soliloquy for Cassandra"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
"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”
"Tarsier"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
Kontext: 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.”
"View with a Grain of Sand"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)
Kontext: 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.”
"Archeology"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)
Kontext: 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.
“It looks like poets will always have their work cut out for them.”
The Poet and the World (1996)
Kontext: 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”
"In Heraclitus' River"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Salt (1962)
Kontext: 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.
“Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know."”
The Poet and the World (1996)
Kontext: 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.”
"On Death, Without Exaggeration"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)
Kontext: 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.
"Under One Small Star"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Could Have (1972)
Kontext: 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.
“He's no end of fun, for all you say.
Poor little beggar.
A human, if ever we saw one.”
"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.”
The Poet and the World (1996)
Kontext: 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”
"No End of Fun"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
Kontext: 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!
“Our stockpile of antiquity grows constantly”
"Census"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
Kontext: 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.
"The End and the Beginning"
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.”
"Cat in an Empty Apartment"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The End and the Beginning (1993)
Kontext: 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.
“Even sight heightened to become all-seeing
will do you no good without a sense of taking part.”
"Conversation with a Stone".
Poems New and Collected (1998), Salt (1962)
Kontext: 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.
“The window has a wonderful view of a lake,
but the view doesn't view itself.”
"View with a Grain of Sand"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)
Kontext: 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.
"Under One Small Star"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Could Have (1972)
“I felt age within me. Distance.
The futility of wandering. Torpor.”
"Lot's Wife"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)
Kontext: 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.
"A Film from the Sixties"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
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