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View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems by Stanisław Barańczak, Wisława Szymborska, Clare Cavanagh
richardleis's review against another edition
5.0
The words in these poems are not Nobel Prize-winning because they are difficult and opaque, or because they are in fact quite accessible. The easiness of the imagery and the allusions, the grounding of the abstractions, the humor and the relatedness are also not necessary for winning Nobel Prizes. Poetry is not important because it is either difficult or easy, one approach to craft or another. Poetry is important because the poet reveals the world or a tiny piece of it, a moment or the sweep of cosmological time, and something maybe even they did not know was there before.
In the worlds of Wisława Szymborska a couple can be present at a train station because of their absence from it ("The Railroad Station.") Humanity can be a lab experiment ("Maybe All This") or entertaining "Slapstick" for angels to laugh at so hard they cry. A resumé ("Writing a Resume") and porn ("An Opinion on the Question of Pornography") are the repository of all of human history and human thought, and Death is terrible at its job ("On Death, Without Exaggeration.") Some of us should be able to remember "May 16, 1973" but we don't remember a single thing about it, not even "one whole second."
This collection of English translations of Szymborska's poems she wrote and published over several decades reminds me that human experience can be universal, even when the poet's eye describes the glint of the moment in a slightly different way than I have imagined. It does not matter that these poems are particularly clear in their meanings and deep with possible meanings, because even if they were difficult poems to parse, Szymborska's voice would let me see the world around me in a brand new light. That is her strength as a poet. I love her poems so much.
In the worlds of Wisława Szymborska a couple can be present at a train station because of their absence from it ("The Railroad Station.") Humanity can be a lab experiment ("Maybe All This") or entertaining "Slapstick" for angels to laugh at so hard they cry. A resumé ("Writing a Resume") and porn ("An Opinion on the Question of Pornography") are the repository of all of human history and human thought, and Death is terrible at its job ("On Death, Without Exaggeration.") Some of us should be able to remember "May 16, 1973" but we don't remember a single thing about it, not even "one whole second."
This collection of English translations of Szymborska's poems she wrote and published over several decades reminds me that human experience can be universal, even when the poet's eye describes the glint of the moment in a slightly different way than I have imagined. It does not matter that these poems are particularly clear in their meanings and deep with possible meanings, because even if they were difficult poems to parse, Szymborska's voice would let me see the world around me in a brand new light. That is her strength as a poet. I love her poems so much.
mercilala's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
ulubione: podziękowanie, portert kobiecy, życie na poczekaniu, pochwała złego o sobie mniemania, miłość szczęśliwa, prospekt, koniec i początek, jawa, kot w pustym mieszkaniu, pożegnanie widoku, miłość od pierwszego wejrzenia, dnia 16 maja 1973 roku.
ophiliae's review against another edition
4.5
I was so charmed by this collection. She’s so funny!! This was a poetry book that felt like mine. Poetry that I chose to read and thoroughly enjoyed. Amazing :)
pattydsf's review against another edition
4.0
“After every war
Someone has to tidy up.
Things won’t pick
themselves up, after all.”
From The End and the Beginning
“A drop of water fell on my hand,
drawn from the Ganges and the Nile,
from hoarfrost ascended to heaven off a seal’s whiskers,
from jugs broken in the cities of Ys and Tyre.”
From Water
“Nothing can ever happen twice.
In consequence, the sorry fact is
that we arrive here improvised
and leave without the chance to practice.”
From Nothing Twice
It took me literally years to get through this book of poetry. I would pick it up, read a poem and then put it back down in my to-be-read pile. This was no reflection on the poetry; I just don’t fall into a book of poetry like I do a novel. Thanks to the Bookriot Challenge (http://bookriot.com/2014/12/15/book-riot-2015-read-harder-challenge/), I actually made time to finish this book.
I could have easily quoted from other poems. One of the joys of reading poetry and especially this book of poetry is that phrases from poems can stick in your head. They are beautiful, or say something you could not find words for, or funny or just amazing. Szymborska’s poetry does all of these things.
It is hard to recommend that people should go pick up a book of poems. Very few of us manage to read a whole book. The number of poetry books on my shelf is infinitesimal. So, I don’t suggest that you run out and get this book. What I do suggest is that you go to the web, type in Szymborska and poetry and read a couple of her poems. You won’t be sorry. She wrote beautiful poetry.
Someone has to tidy up.
Things won’t pick
themselves up, after all.”
From The End and the Beginning
“A drop of water fell on my hand,
drawn from the Ganges and the Nile,
from hoarfrost ascended to heaven off a seal’s whiskers,
from jugs broken in the cities of Ys and Tyre.”
From Water
“Nothing can ever happen twice.
In consequence, the sorry fact is
that we arrive here improvised
and leave without the chance to practice.”
From Nothing Twice
It took me literally years to get through this book of poetry. I would pick it up, read a poem and then put it back down in my to-be-read pile. This was no reflection on the poetry; I just don’t fall into a book of poetry like I do a novel. Thanks to the Bookriot Challenge (http://bookriot.com/2014/12/15/book-riot-2015-read-harder-challenge/), I actually made time to finish this book.
I could have easily quoted from other poems. One of the joys of reading poetry and especially this book of poetry is that phrases from poems can stick in your head. They are beautiful, or say something you could not find words for, or funny or just amazing. Szymborska’s poetry does all of these things.
It is hard to recommend that people should go pick up a book of poems. Very few of us manage to read a whole book. The number of poetry books on my shelf is infinitesimal. So, I don’t suggest that you run out and get this book. What I do suggest is that you go to the web, type in Szymborska and poetry and read a couple of her poems. You won’t be sorry. She wrote beautiful poetry.
violantine's review against another edition
5.0
Con umiltà oso provare a dire che in questa raccolta sono contenuti secondo me alcuni tra i componimenti poetici più belli mai scritti.
graceless's review against another edition
4.0
The last time I read this from cover to cover was in high school. It feels like there's a poem for every occasion here, although the collection over all is pretty dark. I don't even remember how I got this book, but I've had it for over 20 years now and it remains a familiar comfort. Wilsawa Szymborska was a brilliant writer and worthy of all the accolades she received.
katcic's review against another edition
I'm not going to give this book a star rating simply because my gut feeling is that so much is lost in the translation of these poems, that they are impossible to comment on without being negative. She won the Nobel Prize and so I think that the poetry must be wonderful in the original language but I was left cold. Not by the feelings or sentiments expressed (they are wonderful musings on the human condition) but the fact that they read like prose compositions put into poetic forms (if that makes sense). There's just nothing in the translation to keep a sense of poetic form.
cheydaytaysaway's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5: Relentlessly smart, inquisitive, thoughtful, especially as she goes along. I'm normally much more of an imagist in taste, but these metaphorical/metaphysical musings were often truly captivating and stunning in their clarity. I'm still trying to understand how some of the more high-octane language play translates--Simic's blurb about how these poems sound like they were written in English makes complete sense, but that also leaves me very curious about what decisions were made. Not so much a complaint, as a curiosity ("how did they do that?"). Not every piece was my cup of tea but that's rare anyway and worth it for the ones that were. Would recommend!