Dikter 1945-2002

by Wisława Szymborska, Anders Bodegård (Translator, Editor), Leif Thollander (Contributor)

Genres: Poetry

381 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Wisława Szymborska (Polish pronunciation: [vʲisˈwava ʂɨmˈbɔrska], born July 2, 1923 in Kórnik, Poland) is a Polish poet, essayist, and translator. She was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. In Poland, her books reach sales rivaling prominent prose authors—although she once remarked in a poem entitled "Some like poetry" [Niektórzy lubią poezję] that no more than two out of a thousand people care for the art.

Szymborska frequently employs literary devices such as irony, paradox, contradiction, and understatement, to illuminate philosophical themes and obsessions. Szymborska's compact poems often conjure large existential puzzles, touching on issues of ethical import, and reflecting on the condition of people both as individuals and as members of human society. Szymborska's style is succinct and marked by introspection and wit.

Szymborska's reputation rests on a relatively small body of work: she has not published more than 250 poems to date. She is often described as modest to the point of shyness[citation needed]. She has long been cherished by Polish literary contemporaries (including Czesław Miłosz) and her poetry has been set to music by Zbigniew Preisner. Szymborska became better known internationally after she was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize. Szymborska's work has been translated into many European languages, as well as into Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese and Chinese.

In 1931, Szymborska's family moved to Kraków. She has been linked with this city, where she studied, worked.

When World War II broke out in 1939, she continued her education in underground lessons. From 1943, she worked as a railroad employee and managed to avoid being deported to Germany as a forced labourer. It was during this time that her career as an artist began with illustrations for an English-language textbook. She also began writing stories and occasional poems.

Beginning in 1945, Szymborska took up studies of Polish language and literature before switching to sociology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. There she soon became involved in the local writing scene, and met and was influenced by Czesław Miłosz. In March 1945, she published her first poem Szukam słowa ("I seek the word") in the daily paper Dziennik Polski; her poems continued to be published in various newspapers and periodicals for a number of years. In 1948 she quit her studies without a degree, due to her poor financial circumstances; the same year, she married poet Adam Włodek, whom she divorced in 1954. At that time, she was working as a secretary for an educational biweekly magazine as well as an illustrator.

During Stalinism in Poland in 1953 she participated in the defamation of Catholic priests from Kraków who were groundlessly condemned by the ruling Communists to death.[1] Her first book was to be published in 1949, but did not pass censorship as it "did not meet socialist requirements." Like many other intellectuals in post-war Poland, however, Szymborska remained loyal to the PRL official ideology early in her career, signing political petitions and praising Stalin, Lenin and the realities of socialism. This attitude is seen in her debut collection Dlatego żyjemy ("That is what we are living for"), containing the poems Lenin and Młodzieży budującej Nową Hutę ("For the Youth that Builds Nowa Huta"), about the construction of a Stalinist industrial town near Kraków. She also became a member of the ruling Polish United Workers' Party.

Like many Polish intellectuals initially close to the official party line, Szymborska gradually grew estranged from socialist ideology and renounced her earlier political work. Although she did not officially leave the party until 1966, she began to establish contacts with dissidents. As early as 1957, she befriended Jerzy Giedroyc, the editor of the influential Paris-based emigré journal Kultura, to which she also contributed. In 1964 s

Reviews

[Ludwig M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jag spenderade en lång tid med Szymborskas poesi. Dikterna är relativt lättillgängliga och jag uppskattar att det finns toner av en viss humor och "torrhet". Men dikterna föll mig inte helt i smaken. Poesi är för mig som en form av musik, tonaliteten och rytmen är det som primärt tilltalar. Detta var inte riktigt fallet här. Den dikt jag tar med mig:

Glädjen att skriva

Vart springer det skrivna rådjuret genom den skrivna skogen?
Ska det dricka ur den skrivna källan
som speglar dess mule likt en kopia?
Varför lyfter det huvudet, hör det någonting?
Det står på fyra ben lånade från sanningen,
och spetsar öronen under mina fingrar.
Tystnad – det ordet prasslar också över papperet
och för åt sidan
de av ordet”skog” föranledda grenarna.

Över det vita papperet lurar de på språnget
bokstäverna som kan hamna fel
de ansättande meningarna,
från vilka ingen räddning finns.

I bläckdroppen finns en betydande reserv
av jägare med spejande blickar,
redo att rusa ner för den branta pennan,
omringa rådjuret och lägga an.

De glömmer att det här inte är livet.
Andra lagar råder här, svart på vitt.
Ett ögonblick varar så länge som jag vill,
det låter sig uppdelas i mindre evigheter
fulla av kulor hejdade i flykten.
För evigt händer om jag så befaller, ingenting.
Utan min vilja kan inget löv falla
eller grässtrå krökas under hovens punkt.

Finns det alltså en värld
vars självständiga öde jag styr?
En tid som jag binder med skrivtecknens bojor?
En tillvaro ständigt på mina order?

Glädjen att skriva
Möjligheten att föreviga.
Hämnden från en dödlig hand.

[louise m.]

Rekommenderar:

Katt i tom våning, von oben, moln, glosor, under en liten stjärna, allt, returbagage, till arken, min systers lov, terroristen ser på, ett inlägg i pornografidebatten, fallande från skyarna, mitt minne, järnvägsstationen, den 16 maj 1973, intervju med ett barn, ett ögonblick i Troja, en självmördares rum, nära ögat, dröm, otal, häpnad, oväntat sammanträffande, guldbröllop, övermått, det slutande seklet, tortyren, vakan, cirkusdjur, utopia, foto från 11 september,

farväl till en utsikt, utsikt med sandkorn.

Szymborskas bästa.

[Evelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not a huge reader of poetry, but I try to challenge myself sometimes. I enjoyed Zsymborska’s poetry more than I had expected, it felt accessible. There are some poems that I will come back for later in life. The one that hit the hardest this time was The End and the Beginning.