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gijs's review against another edition
3.0
Maybe a lot is lost in translation, but overall the poems did not resonate with me.
coldprintcoffee's review against another edition
4.0
Beautiful collection. It's somewhere between a 3.5 and 4 for me, but I'll bump it up this time in the name of poetry and ancestry. Once again I am asking Goodreads for the preciseness of half-star ratings.
Notable poems: Comic Love Poem; Black Song; Key; Nothing Twice; Commemoration; Still; An Effort; Four a.m.; Museum; Starvation Camp near Jaslo; Water; Census; Wrong Number; Theater Impressions; Advertisement; Psalm; Evaluation of an Unwritten Poem; The Suicide's Room; Children of our Age; Tortures; The End and the Beginning; Hatred; Parting with a View; Maybe all This; The Three Oddest Words; Thoughts That Visit me on Busy Streets; Compulsion; Everyone Sometime; Hand; To my Own Poem; Map.
Notable poems: Comic Love Poem; Black Song; Key; Nothing Twice; Commemoration; Still; An Effort; Four a.m.; Museum; Starvation Camp near Jaslo; Water; Census; Wrong Number; Theater Impressions; Advertisement; Psalm; Evaluation of an Unwritten Poem; The Suicide's Room; Children of our Age; Tortures; The End and the Beginning; Hatred; Parting with a View; Maybe all This; The Three Oddest Words; Thoughts That Visit me on Busy Streets; Compulsion; Everyone Sometime; Hand; To my Own Poem; Map.
silverbirch's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Beautiful poet, reflection on life and what it means to be a sensitive person who lives in their worldview.
kjboldon's review against another edition
5.0
Beautiful, sad poetry w a touch of bright humor for dark times.
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
3.0
Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak are definitely the best translators of Wisława Szymborska's poetry I've ever read.
davidbythebay's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
This extensive collection of Szymborska's work was my introduction to her poetry. As with every poetry collection - especially one as large as this - there were hits and misses for me. Overall, I enjoyed her poetry. There were a few poems where I was lost in the allusions and meaning of her poem, but they were few compared to the collection as a whole.
"The Joy of Writing" was one stand-out poem I greatly admired and enjoyed. "A Large Number" was another. These two really impressed me with Szymborska's ability to take a simple scene and infuse it with immense tension and emotion. In particular, "The Joy of Writing" brings a great tension to the mood without actually setting a tense situation. It is a poem about writing a doe in the woods, about a hunter, and yet it is about writing this scene and how it is completely fake. Yet somehow there is this tension that resonates throughout. "A Large Number" speaks of the interconnection of people as well as the distance they have between them back in the 1976 collection it was initially part of. The themes of this poem and its words echo in today's social media filled world to the point where it really feels as though it was written today.
I really enjoyed this book. I was drawn to Szymborska's work for a few reasons. First, I love poetry but haven't read many non-English poets. This collection is translated from Polish. Second, my ancestry is Polish and I have yet to begin to explore Polish literature. Finally, Szymborska is a Nobel Prize winning author and I am interested in maybe reading Nobel Prize winning authors as a bit of an ongoing project. In the end, I am so glad I read this collection and experienced Szymborska's work at this point in my life. I don't think I would have appreciated it when I was younger as much as I do now.
"The Joy of Writing" was one stand-out poem I greatly admired and enjoyed. "A Large Number" was another. These two really impressed me with Szymborska's ability to take a simple scene and infuse it with immense tension and emotion. In particular, "The Joy of Writing" brings a great tension to the mood without actually setting a tense situation. It is a poem about writing a doe in the woods, about a hunter, and yet it is about writing this scene and how it is completely fake. Yet somehow there is this tension that resonates throughout. "A Large Number" speaks of the interconnection of people as well as the distance they have between them back in the 1976 collection it was initially part of. The themes of this poem and its words echo in today's social media filled world to the point where it really feels as though it was written today.
I really enjoyed this book. I was drawn to Szymborska's work for a few reasons. First, I love poetry but haven't read many non-English poets. This collection is translated from Polish. Second, my ancestry is Polish and I have yet to begin to explore Polish literature. Finally, Szymborska is a Nobel Prize winning author and I am interested in maybe reading Nobel Prize winning authors as a bit of an ongoing project. In the end, I am so glad I read this collection and experienced Szymborska's work at this point in my life. I don't think I would have appreciated it when I was younger as much as I do now.
lauren_endnotes's review against another edition
5.0
"I like maps, because they lie.
Because they give no access to the vicious truth.
Because great-heartedly, good-naturedly
they spread before me a world
not of this world."
- Map, by Wislawa Szymborska, translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanaugh.
This book, Map: Collected and Last Poems is my introduction to her work, but as the name implies some of her last work. It's a hefty collection of over 400 pages and about 220 poems. Many beg for re-reading, and I've journeyed through this Map collection all month for #witmonth.
Basking in the glow of Szymborska's words, and grateful that I've stumbled across her work, and that she was so prolific in her lifetime with both poetry, prose, and essays.
*Women in Translation month 2018
Because they give no access to the vicious truth.
Because great-heartedly, good-naturedly
they spread before me a world
not of this world."
- Map, by Wislawa Szymborska, translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanaugh.
This book, Map: Collected and Last Poems is my introduction to her work, but as the name implies some of her last work. It's a hefty collection of over 400 pages and about 220 poems. Many beg for re-reading, and I've journeyed through this Map collection all month for #witmonth.
Basking in the glow of Szymborska's words, and grateful that I've stumbled across her work, and that she was so prolific in her lifetime with both poetry, prose, and essays.
*Women in Translation month 2018