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Quote by Wislawa Szymborska

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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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“Quando si ha già la risposta non bisognerebbe farsi troppe domande. Come l’arcobaleno. È utile domandarsi perché è bello? No. È bello e basta. Anzi, sapere se è il sole che si infrange nel vapore acqueo o se è la pioggia che incontra i raggi del sole toglie poesia allo spettacolo. Possiamo cambiare l’ordine delle parole ma la bellezza dell’arcobaleno non cambia. E poi l’arcobaleno, quello vero, quello raro, che unisce i due estremi della città dopo un temporale, dura talmente poco che buttare via il tempo a cercare spiegazioni fisico-scientifiche invece di ammirarlo e di goderselo sarebbe demenziale.”

“...'I've never told you this, but when you were in your teens one of your teachers called us. He said you'd been fighting in the playground again. With two of the boys from the grade above, but this time it hadn't turned out so well--they'd had to send you to the hospital to have your lip sewn and a tooth taken out. I stopped your allowance, remember? Anyway, Øystein told me about the fight later. You flew at them because they'd filled Tresko's knapsack with water from the school fountain. If I remember correctly, you didn't even like Tresko much. Øystein said the reason you'd been hurt so badly was that you didn't give in. You got up time after time and in the end you were bleeding so much that the big boys became alarmed and went on their way.' Olav Hole laughed quietly. 'I didn't think I could tell you that at the time--it would only have been asking for more fights--but I was so proud I could have wept. You were brave, Harry. You were scared of the dark, but that didn't stop you going there.'...”

“Anna took love very seriously. She loved love. No, worshipped, that's the word. She worshipped love. That was the only thing which had any place in her life. That and hatred. Do you know what neutron stars are?' 'They're planets with such compactness and high surface gravity that if I dropped this cigarette on one of them it would strike with the same force as an atom bomb. It was the same with Anna. Her gravitation to love-and hatred-was so strong that nothing could exist in the space between them. Every tiny detail caused an atomic explosion. Do you understand? It took me time to understand. She was like Jupiter-hidden behind an eternal cloud of sulphur. And humour. And sexuality.”