Wisława Szymborska is the most famous Polish poet ever. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in #Literature in 1996. Among the most loved and appreciated by the general public, her collections have reached incredible sales numbers, comparable to those of the most important prose authors, despite the fact that #Szymborska has ironically remarked several times that poetry appeals to no more than two readers out of a thousand.
Born on July 2, 1923, in a small town in western Poland called Kornik, Wisława Szymborska grew up in Krakow, where she studied Literature and Sociology.
She abandoned her studies due to her family’s economic problems and began working on the railways. Thanks to this job, she managed to escape German deportation during World War II. Later, Szymborska worked as a secretary for an educational magazine and, at the same time, as a book illustrator. Very active in the cultural life of the city, she collaborated post-war with the magazine “Walka” (Struggle).
Wisława Szymborska’s poems were published in various magazines before being compiled into actual poetry collections. The first poem, “I am Looking for a Word,” was published in March 1945 in the newspaper Dziennik Polski.
#Poetry “To My Heart on Sunday” [Wisława Szymborska]
I thank you, my heart:
you don’t stay still, you strive
without flattery, without reward,
with innate diligence.
You have seventy merits per minute.
Each of your systoles
is like pushing a boat
into the open sea
for a voyage around the world.
I thank you, my heart:
time after time
you extract me from the whole,
separated even in sleep.
You take care that dreaming I do not transcend in that flight,
in the flight
for which wings are not needed.
I thank you, my heart:
I have woken up again
and although it is Sunday,
a day of rest,
under the ribs
the usual pre-holiday bustle continues.
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