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cheezvshcrvst's review against another edition
5.0
She was ever so brilliant. In brevity, such clarity, such poise and sharpness as to exact the sounds and sights of faerie laughter at the ordinary and tragically unexceptional even as she elevated these things to their rightful places of awesome. I delighted in this collection, and will do so for the rest of my days.
emmamme's review against another edition
4.0
Υπέροχα ποιήματα, πανέξυπνες και ενδιαφέρουσες ιδέες, ποικιλία θεμάτων με κύρια την τύχη, τη μοίρα, τη ζωή και το θάνατο, τη φύση, τον έρωτα. Φαίνεται η εξέλιξη της γραφής της καθώς περνάνε τα χρόνια και η έκδοση περιλαμβάνει και κάποια ανέκδοτα ποιήματα. Κάποια ποιήματα φυσικά και δεν τα κατάλαβα, αλλά το καλό με την ποίηση είναι ότι μπορείς να τη διαβάζεις και να τη μελετάς ξανά και ξανά. Είμαι πολύ χαρούμενη που ήρθα σε επαφή με το έργο της Szymborska. Αν και δεν μπορώ να προφέρω το όνομα της, σίγουρα θα την προτείνω σε κάθε συζήτηση για ποίηση.
jenlouden's review against another edition
Sly, surprising, deeply intelligent, Symborska's way of seeing the world rarely less than astonishes me.
hershey's review against another edition
4.0
Quite a few of these poems really spoke to me, but many went over my head. I'm sure I'll enjoy them more on my second read, but for now I'm content with the amount of poems I loved.
Just Some of my Favorites:
Theater Impressions
Under One Small Star
Lot's Wife
Hitler's First Photograph
The Three Oddest Words
A Few Words on the Soul
A Contribution to Statistics
Just Some of my Favorites:
Theater Impressions
Under One Small Star
Lot's Wife
Hitler's First Photograph
The Three Oddest Words
A Few Words on the Soul
A Contribution to Statistics
heatherr's review against another edition
I am not a fan of poetry. I think that is mostly because I am not a person who is in touch with my feelings or who wishes to have other people spilling their feelings all over me. I read poetry and if I understand it at all I end up mostly thinking, "Ugh, no one cares about your feelings." I am Scrooge.
So why did I request this book of poetry? It was Women in Translation month. I heard about this collection somewhere on Twitter. I'm always on the lookout for books from or about Poland that aren't mired in World War II. I'm 1/4 Polish and I want to learn more about it but it is hard to find anything that isn't miserable. Granted they've had more than their fair share of trouble but there has to be some literature that isn't just depressing, doesn't there? Also, my library happened to have this book which I thought was a bit odd for some reason.
This collection starts in the 1940s and continues to the 2000s. I'm not going to pretend that I understand every poem but I do get most of them. A lot of them are about things that I haven't seen written about in poetry before. They span a range of emotion from happy to sad.
One of my favorites is about talking to an uppity French woman who is dismissive of Poland as just a place where it is cold. The author spins a crazy fairy tale in her mind about freezing writers struggling against the elements while herding walruses but then realizes that she doesn't have the French vocabulary to be insultingly sarcastic back to this woman so has to just say "Pas de tout (Not at all)."
I'm not usually a poetry fan but I'm loving Wislawa Szymborska's Map. This was me trying to talk en francais. #WITMONTH #THEREADINGQUEST pic.twitter.com/2NfOJzs4N3
— Heather (@Dvmheather) August 17, 2017
This is a huge collection. I've renewed the book once but I'm not getting through it fast enough. To let you know how much I'm enjoying it I'll say, I ordered a copy of myself. Yes, I bought a poetry book. I even thought about buying the hardcover because it seemed like it needed that kind of respect. Then my cheap side of my brain reasserted itself and I got the paperback.
I want the husband to read this too. He likes poetry. He's into feelings. I'll impress him by pretending to be classy and reading poetry. We'll sneak the walrus herders up on him. This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story
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