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Quote by Wislawa Szymborska

Work

Poems New and Collected

This book compiles a selection of poems, including both new works and previously released pieces, showcasing the author's poetic range and development over time. more

Author

Wislawa Szymborska
Wislawa Szymborska

Wisława Szymborska was a distinguished Polish poet celebrated for her concise, witty, and thought-provoking verses. Born on July 2, 1923, in Kraków, she spent much of her life in the city, which deeply influenced her work. Szymborska's poetry often explores themes of human experience, nature, and the absurdity of life. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996, making her the sixteenth woman to receive the honor. She passed away on February 1, 2012. more

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“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.”

“I've had the good fortune to read a lot of great American writers in translation, and my absolute beloved, for me one of the greatest writers ever, is Mark Twain. Yes, yes, yes. And Whitman, from whom the whole of 20th-century poetry sprung up. Whitman was the origin of things, someone with a completely different outlook. But I think that he's the father of the new wave in the world's poetry which to this very day is hitting the shore.”

“Most of the earth's inhabitants work to get by. They work because they have to. They didn't pick this or that kind of job out of passion; the circumstances of their lives did the choosing for them. Loveless work, boring work, work valued only because others haven't got even that much, however loveless and boring - this is one of the harshest human miseries. And there's no sign that coming centuries will produce any changes for the better as far as this goes.”