Szymborska, the Nobel Prize in Literature 1996, was born in Kórnik (western Poland) in 1923. Since 1931 she is living in Kraków. She studied Polish literature and sociology at the Jagiellonian University.
WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA
A memory
We were chatting
and suddenly stopped short.
A beautiful girl stepped onto the terrace,
so beautiful,
too beautiful
for us to enjoy our vacation.
Basia shot her husband a panicky look.
Krystyna took Zbyszek`s hand
reflexively.
I thought: I`ll call you,
tell you, don`t come just yet,
they`re predicting rain for days.
Only Agnieszka, a widow,
met the lovely girl with a smile.
Early hour
I`m still asleep,
but meanwhile facts are taking place.
The window grows white,
the darknesses turn gray,
the room works its way from hazy space,
pale, shaky stripes seek its support.
By turns, unhurried,
since this is a ceremony,
the planes of walls and ceiling dawn,
shapes separate,
one from the other,
left to right.
The distances between objects irradiate,
the first glints twitter
on the tumbler, the doorknob.
Whatever had been displaced yesterday,
had fallen to the floor,
been contained in picture frames,
is no longer simply happening, but is.
Only the details
have not yet entered the field of vision.
But look out, look out, look out,
all indicators point to returning colors
and even the smallest thing regains its own hue
along with a hint of shadow.
This rarely astounds me, but it should.
I usually wake up in the role of belated witness,
with the miracle already achieved,
the day defined
and dawning masterfully recast as morning.
Some people
Some people flee some other people.
In some country under a sun
and some clouds.
They abandon something close to all they`ve got,
sown fields, some chickens, dogs,
mirrors in which fire now preens.
Their shoulders bear pitchers and bundles.
The emptier they get, the heavier they grow.
What happens quietly: someone`s dropping from exhaustion.
What happens loudly: someone`s bread is ripped away,
someone tries to shake a limp child back to life.
Always another wrong road ahead of them,
always another wrong bridge
across an oddly reddish river.
Around them, some gunshots, now nearer, now farther away,
above them a plane seems to circle.
Some invisibility would come in handy,
some grayish stoniness,
or, better yet, some nonexistence
for a shorter or a longer while.
Something else will happen, only where and what.
Someone will come at them, only when and who,
in how many shapes, with what intentions.
If he has a choice,
maybe he won`t be the enemy
and will let them live some sort of life.
Photograph from September 11
They jumped from the burning floors –
one, two, a few more,
higher, lower.
The photograph halted them in life,
and now keeps them
above the earth toward the earth.
Each is still complete,
with a particular face
and blood well-hidden.
There`s enough time
for hair to come loose,
for keys and coins
to fall from pockets.
They`re still within the air`s reach,
within the compass of places
that have just now opened.
I can do only two things for them –
describe this flight
and not add a last line.
Published in poetry book “Moment”, by Wydawnictwo ZNAK, Kraków 2003.
Copyright for the translation by Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak
WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1996
WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA was born in Kórnik in Western Poland on 2 July 1923. Since 1931 she has been living in Kraków, where during 1945-1948 she studied Polish Literature and Sociology at the Jagiellonian University. Szymborska made her debut in March 1945 with a poem „Szukam słowa” (I am looking for a word) in the daily „Dzienik Polski”.
During 1953-1981 she worked as poetry editor and columnist in the Kraków literary weekly „Życie
Literackie”.Szymborska has published 16 collections of poetry. She has also translated French poetry.
Her poems have been translated (and published in book form)in English, German, Swedish, Italian, Danish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Czech, Slovakian, Serbo-Croatian, Romanian, Bulgarian and other languages. They have also been published in many foreign antologies of Polish poetry.
Szymborska is the Goethe Prize winner (1991) and Herder Prize winner (1995). She has a degree of Honorary Doctor of Letters of Poznań U
niversity (1995). In 1996 she received the Polish PEN Club prize.
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