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De La Mort Sans Exagérer
"Ecris [...] / comme si tu te tenais à distance" (p. 100). Recueil anthologique (1957-1993) consacré à l'auteure polonaise, lauréate du prix Nobel de littérature en 1996. Une oeuvre tonique qui allie la vivacité à l'ironie, et fait de la "conscience une valeur de référence" (P. K.). Une poésie dans laquelle pensée métaphysique et philosophie "vertèbrent l'intelligence" (P. Kéchichian). [SDM].
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
3 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Wisława Szymborska
210 books1,574 followersWisława 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 9, 2023
4.5/5 trop trop trop beau
August 3, 2021
J’étais toute emballée à l’idée de découvrir une poétesse polonaise ; je ne connais que très mal la littérature polonaise, ma seule référence restant de la Fantasy avec Sapkowski. Je dois avouer être restée étrangère au recueil, pour mon plus grand malheur. Quelques fulgurances ont fait frémir la petite fibre poétique que je recherche mais le frisson s’est très vite essoufflé. S’agit-il d’un trop grand écart dû à la traduction ou simplement d’une absence d’affinité ? Je ne saurais le dire…
November 20, 2025
Gros gros coup de cœur
November 5, 2024
La poésie de Wisława Szymborska est simplement rafraîchissante. Originale mais sans jamais paraître fausse ou forcée, l'excentricité de ses vers est toute naturelle et réussie à bien s'ancrer dans notre monde. Les qualités narratives de ces poèmes souvent un peu absurdes, ou tout du moins surprenants, sont très fortes et leur donnent parfois des airs de fables ou de petits contes malicieux. Il y a quelque chose de mordant, de taquin dans cette écriture et la vision du quotidien qu'elle propose, une mélancolie légère que chasse le rire et l'ironie.
J'ai l'impression d'avoir lu le journal d'un petit gnome facétieux, qui a déjà vécu longtemps mais n'a pas pour autant cessé d'apprécier l'existence et de s'amuser de ses curiosités.
J'ai l'impression d'avoir lu le journal d'un petit gnome facétieux, qui a déjà vécu longtemps mais n'a pas pour autant cessé d'apprécier l'existence et de s'amuser de ses curiosités.
August 25, 2022
J'avoue avoir lu cette anthologie parce que Wislawa Szymborska fut un prix Nobel « surprise » en 1996. J'ai retenu de cette lecture assez lointaine un certain nombre de thèmes.
Le christianisme d'abord : il s'en prend quelques vertes et pas mûres, même en Pologne, patrie de Jean-Paul II, où il devait être populaire pourtant (cf.La femme de Loth)
Le « mélange » ensuite est au centre de l'œuvre de Wislawa Szymborska avec l'image fréquente de la tour de Babel.
La mort est perpétuellement vaincue : toute vie est immortelle de la propre durée selon la poétesse.
La perfection vient souvent des objets (l'oignon, sans intestins, le vin, qui rend beau) et non pas de l'homme, fort imparfait.
Mais il y a aussi les clichés pas toujours absents. Autre angle de vision : Wislawa Szymborska cherche à produire quelques « clichés originaux » d'objets de la vie ou d'ailleurs, voire quelques pensées abstraites qui sortent des sentiers battus et dénonce un certain conformisme (aimer la poésie comme un plat de lentilles… ou les compliments).
Le christianisme d'abord : il s'en prend quelques vertes et pas mûres, même en Pologne, patrie de Jean-Paul II, où il devait être populaire pourtant (cf.La femme de Loth)
Le « mélange » ensuite est au centre de l'œuvre de Wislawa Szymborska avec l'image fréquente de la tour de Babel.
La mort est perpétuellement vaincue : toute vie est immortelle de la propre durée selon la poétesse.
La perfection vient souvent des objets (l'oignon, sans intestins, le vin, qui rend beau) et non pas de l'homme, fort imparfait.
Mais il y a aussi les clichés pas toujours absents. Autre angle de vision : Wislawa Szymborska cherche à produire quelques « clichés originaux » d'objets de la vie ou d'ailleurs, voire quelques pensées abstraites qui sortent des sentiers battus et dénonce un certain conformisme (aimer la poésie comme un plat de lentilles… ou les compliments).
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews