Wisława szymborska writing style

Wisława Szymborska

Polish poet and Nobel laureate (–)

"Wisława" redirects here. For the Tomasz Stańko album, see Wisława (album).

Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska[1][2] (Polish:[viˈswavaʂɨmˈbɔrska]; 2 July &#;– 1 February ) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Born in Prowent (now part of Kórnik in west-central Poland), she resided in Kraków until the end of her life.[3][4] In Poland, Szymborska's books have reached sales rivaling prominent prose authors', though she wrote in a poem, "Some Like Poetry" ("Niektórzy lubią poezję"), that "perhaps" two in a thousand people like poetry.[5]

Szymborska was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality".[6][7] She became better known internationally as a result.

Her work has been translated into many European languages, as well as into Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Persian and Chinese.

Life

Wisława Szymborska was born on 2 July in Prowent, the second daughter[8] of Wincenty Szymborski and Anna (née Rottermund) Szymborska. Her father was, at that time, the steward of Count Władysław Zamoyski, a Polish patriot and charitable patron.

After Zamoyski's death in , her family moved to Toruń, and in to Kraków, where she lived and worked until her death in early [4]

When World War II broke out in , she continued her education in underground classes. From , she worked as a railroad employee and managed to avoid being deported to Germany as a forced labourer.[4] During this time, her career as an artist began, with illustrations for an English-language textbook.

She also began writing stories and occasional poems. In , she began studying Polish literature before switching to sociology at Jagiellonian University in Kraków.[4] There, she became involved in the local writing scene, and met and was influenced by Czesław Miłosz. In March , she published her first poem, "Szukam słowa" ("Looking for words"), in the daily newspaper Dziennik Polski.

Her poems continued to be published in various newspapers and periodicals for a number of years.[4][9] In , she quit her studies without a degree, due to poor financial circumstances; the same year, she married poet Adam Włodek, whom she divorced in They remained close until Włodek's death in [4] Their union was childless.

Around the time of her marriage, she was working as a secretary for an educational biweekly magazine as well as an illustrator. Her first book was to be published in , but did not pass censorship as it "did not meet socialist requirements".[10]

Szymborska adhered to the People's Republic of Poland's (PRL) official ideology early in her career.

For example, during the Polish anti-religious campaign, she signed an infamous political petition condemning Polish priests accused of treason in a Krakówshow trial.[11][12][13] Her early work supported socialist themes, as 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 who are building Nowa Huta"), about the construction of a Stalinist industrial town near Kraków.[4] She became a member of the ruling Polish United Workers' Party.

Although initially close to the official party line, as the Polish Communist Party shifted from the Stalinist communists to "national" communists, Szymborska grew estranged from socialist ideology and renounced her earlier political work.[4] Although she did not officially leave the Communist party until , she began to establish contacts with dissident intellectuals.[4] As early as , she befriended Jerzy Giedroyc, the editor of the influential Paris-based émigré journal Kultura, to which she contributed.

In , she opposed a Communist-backed protest to The Times against independent intellectuals, demanding freedom of speech instead.[14]

In , Szymborska joined the staff of the literary review magazine Życie Literackie (Literary Life), where she continued to work until and from had a book review column, Lektury Nadobowiązkowe.[4] Many of her essays from this period were later published in book form.

From to , she was an editor of the Kraków-based monthly periodical NaGlos (OutLoud). In the s, she intensified her oppositional activities, contributing to the samizdat periodical Arka under the pseudonym "Stańczykówna", as well as to Kultura. In the early s, with a poem published in Gazeta Wyborcza, she supported the vote of no confidence in the first non-Communist government that brought former Communists back to power.

The last collection published while Szymborska was still alive, Dwukropek, was chosen as the best book of by readers of Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza.[4] She also translated French literature into Polish, in particular Baroque poetry and the works of Agrippa d'Aubigné, a Huguenot soldier-poet during the French Wars of Religion.

Polish poet wislawa szymborska biography married Her dislike of being in the limelight is by no means a sign of antisocial inclinations. Contact About Privacy. Retrieved 19 February Retrieved 25 July

In the Germanosphere, Szymborska is closely associated with Łódź-born literary translatorKarl Dedecius, who did much to popularize postwar Polish literature there.

Death and last works

Surrounded by friends and relatives, Szymborska died peacefully of lung cancer in her sleep at home in Kraków in , aged [15][3][4][16][17] She was working on new poetry at the time of her death, but was unable to arrange her final poems for publication in the way she wanted.

Her last poetry was published later in [9] In , the Wisława Szymborska Award was established in honour of her legacy.[18]

In , the Wisława Szymborska Foundation president Michał Rusinek signed an agreement with Polskie Radio's OFF Radio Krakow for the rights to use her voice recordings for generated speech to be used for an interview-like programme.

The programme, broadcast on 29 October that year, was swiftly condemned by both Polish audiences and media producers.[19]

Themes

Szymborska frequently employed literary devices such as ironic precision, paradox, contradiction, and understatement to illuminate philosophical themes and obsessions. Many of her poems feature war and terrorism.[3][4][20] She wrote from unusual points of view, such as a cat in the newly empty apartment of its dead owner.[4] Her reputation rests on a relatively small body of work, fewer than poems.

When asked why she had published so few poems, she said, "I have a trash can in my home".[3]

Pop culture

Szymborska's poem "Buffo" was set to music by Barbara Maria Zakrzewska-Nikiporczyk in [21]

Her poem "Love at First Sight" was used in the film Turn Left, Turn Right, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung.

Krzysztof Kieślowski's film Three Colors: Red was also inspired by "Love at First Sight".[22]

In her last year, Szymborska collaborated with Polish jazz trumpeter Tomasz Stańko, who dedicated his record Wisława (ECM, ) to her memory, taking inspiration from their collaboration and her poetry.[23]

Szymborska's poem "People on the Bridge" was made into a film by Beata Poźniak.

It was shown worldwide and at a New Delhi film festival. As an award, it was screened 36 more times in 18 Indian cities.[24]

In , Sanah adapted Szymborska's poem "Nothing Twice" into a song as part of her project based around Polish poetry, Sanah śpiewa Poezyje.

Major works

  • Dlatego żyjemy ("That's Why We Are All Alive")
  • Pytania zadawane sobie ("Questioning Yourself")
  • Wołanie do Yeti ("Calling Out to Yeti")
  • Sól ("Salt")
  • wierszy (" Poems")
  • Sto pociech ("No End of Fun")
  • Poezje wybrane ("Selected Poetry")
  • Wszelki wypadek ("Could Have")
  • Wielka liczba ("A Large Number")
  • Ludzie na moście ("People on the Bridge")
  • Poezje.

    Poems, bilingual Polish-English edition

  • Lektury nadobowiązkowe ("Non-required Reading")
  • Koniec i początek ("The End and the Beginning")
  • Widok z ziarnkiem piasku ("View with a Grain of Sand")
  • Sto wierszy – sto pociech (" Poems – Happinesses")
  • Chwila ("Moment")[25]
  • Rymowanki dla dużych dzieci ("Rhymes for Big Kids")
  • Dwukropek ("Colon")[26]
  • Monolog psa zaplątanego w dzieje ("Monologue of a Dog Ensnared in History")
  • Tutaj ("Here")[27]
  • Wystarczy ("Enough")[28]
  • Błysk rewolwru ("The Glimmer of a Revolver")[29]

Prizes and awards

Reviews

See also

References

  1. ^Jarosław Malesiński Wspomnienie.

    2 February [dostęp 11 February ].

  2. ^Violetta Szostak Szymborscy – burzliwe fortuny , 9 February [dostęp 11 February ].
  3. ^ abcde"Polish Nobel winning poet Szymborska dies at 88".

    Polish poet wislawa szymborska biography Ludzie na moscie. These reviews have been collected and published in four separate volumes. It was shown worldwide and at a New Delhi film festival. Szymborska frequently employed literary devices such as ironic precision, paradox , contradiction, and understatement to illuminate philosophical themes and obsessions.

    Reuters. 1 February Retrieved 1 February

  4. ^ abcdefghijklmn"Nobel Prize-winning poet Szymborska dies aged 88".

    France24. 1 February Retrieved 1 February

  5. ^Szymborska, Wisława. "Some Like Poetry".
  6. ^"The Nobel Prize in Literature ". Nobelprize.

    Polish poet wislawa szymborska biography wikipedia See the essays on Poems, New and Collected, Some lived there for a short period of time, awaiting the rebuilding of Warsaw, but for Szymborska and others it was to be home for many years. W roku pierwszy tomik wierszy Szymborskiej pt. Born: Prowent-Bnin, 2 July

    7 October Retrieved 7 October

  7. ^"I Don't Know: The Nobel lecture". The New Republic. 30 December Retrieved 19 February
  8. ^Kowalczyk, Janusz R. (). "Wisława Szymborska". Retrieved 18 September
  9. ^ ab"Poland Nobel poetry laureate Wislawa Szymborska dies".

    Wislawa szymborska poems With the emergence of the Solidarity movement in , the Society and similar initiatives found themselves briefly freed from earlier encumbrances. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. She describes with remarkable force the "crash of silence on silence. Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

    BBC News. 1 February Retrieved 1 February

  10. ^"Wisława Szymborska – krótka biografia – Wisława Szymborska – " (in Polish). 22 August Retrieved 29 August
  11. ^Michał St. de Zieleśkiewicz, "Szymborska: zabić księży Kurii Krakowskiej."Bibula – pismo niezalezne, 21 January (in Polish)
  12. ^Waldemar Łysiak ().

    Stulecie kłamców. Ex Libris/Galeria Polskiej Książki. p.&#; ISBN&#;. Retrieved 3 February

  13. ^Stanisław Wilhelm.

    Polish poet wislawa szymborska biography wife: Krynski and R. Wishart, David J. Szymborska changed the tone of the poems to reflect support for the socialist state and her first collection Dlagtego zyjemy That's What We Live For was published in The Sydney Morning Herald.

    Pajęczyna III RP – Urzędnicy i Sędziowie; Anatomia manipulacji prawem. Stanislaw Wilhelm Grys. p.&#; ISBN&#;. Retrieved 3 February

  14. ^"portal poświęcony Polsce, rodzinie i tradycji". Archived from the original on 18 February Retrieved 3 February
  15. ^Anderson, Raymond H. (1 February ).

    "Wislawa Szymborska, Nobel-Winning Polish Poet, Dies at 88". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 July

  16. ^"Dates of birth and death for Wisława Szymborska".

  17. Wislawa szymborska quotes
  18. Wislawa szymborska death
  19. Wislawa szymborska influences
  20. Wislawa szymborska famous poems
  21. Wislawa szymborska poems

    22. Rmfpl. Retrieved 3 February

  22. ^"Notice of Wisława Szymborska's death". February Retrieved 3 February
  23. ^"The Wisława Szymborska International Literary Award". Retrieved 22 December
  24. ^Gera, Vanessa (23 October ). "Polish radio station replaces journalists with AI 'presenters'".

    AP News.

  25. Polish poet wislawa szymborska biography wife
  26. Polish poet wislawa szymborska biography death
  27. Polish poet wislawa szymborska biography husband

    28. Associated Press. Retrieved 5 November

  28. ^Duval Smith, Alex (14 October ). "A Nobel Calling: Years of Controversy". The Independent. UK: Independent Print Limited. Archived from the original on 24 December Retrieved 26 April
  29. ^"Barbara Zakrzewska". Polish Music Center.

    Retrieved 22 August

  30. ^"Polish poet railed at Stalin". The Sydney Morning Herald. 25 March Retrieved 21 September
  31. ^"ECM _05". Archived from the original on 9 February Retrieved 12 February
  32. ^"People on the Bridge HOLLYWOOD (Hollywood Today)".
  33. ^"Moment – Wisława Szymborska".

    .

  34. ^"Colon – Wisława Szymborska". .
  35. ^"Tutaj – Wisława Szymborska". .
  36. ^"Enough: Wisława Szymborska's Last Collection of Poems". .
  37. ^"The Poet's Eternal Spark in New Szymborska Discoveries". .

External links

Media related to Wisława Szymborska at Wikimedia Commons Quotations related to Wisława Szymborska at Wikiquote