Wislawa Szymborska
Wislawa Szymborska
Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska was a Polish poet, essayist, translator and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Prowent, which has since become part of Kórnik, she later resided in Kraków until the end of her life. She is described as a "Mozart of Poetry". In Poland, Szymborska's books have reached sales rivaling prominent prose authors: although she once remarked in a poem, "Some Like Poetry", that no more than two out of a thousand people care...
NationalityPolish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth2 July 1923
CountryPoland
Nothing's a gift, it's all on loan. Out of every hundred people, those who always know better: fifty-two.
Let the people who never find true love keep saying that there's no such thing. Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die.
I don't know the role I'm playing. I only know it's mine, non-convertible.
I like being near the top of a mountain. One can't get lost here.
Even boredom should be described with gusto. How many things are happening on a day when nothing happens?
I am who I am. A coincidence no less unthinkable than any other.
In every tragedy, an element of comedy is preserved. Comedy is just tragedy reversed.
Nothing's a gift, it's all on loan
No one in my family has ever died of love. What happened, happened, but nothing myth-inspiring.
They say the first love's most important. That's very romantic, but not my experience.
You can find the entire cosmos lurking in its least remarkable objects.
All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.
Get to know other worlds, if only for comparison.
Existentialists are monumentally and monotonously serious; they don't like to joke.