Poetry Lesson

By Poland

What is important to us?

In the 21st century in Poland kids don’t have such big problems as our grandfathers and grandmothers had. We did’nt have to fight for our nation as they had to so for them the country was very important. Now Polish kids are like typical 21st century kids. Almost everyone has got Facebook and other social networks. Where I to describe us in one sentence I would say that we are the citizens of the world.

Priorytet

Why this Poem?We chose this poem because we thought that it is one of the ways we could honor our Noble Prize Winner Wisława Szymborska. The poem also says many interesting things about us young Poles.

Few words about: Wisława Szymborska

Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012)

A Polish poet. Born in Kórnik. Her father was the steward of Count Władysław Zamoyski, a Polish patriot. After the death of Count Zamoyski in 1924, her family moved to Torun, and in 1931 to Cracow. When World War II broke out in 1939, she continued her education in underground classes. From 1943, she worked as a railroad employee and managed to avoid being deported to Germany as a forced labourer. After the war her career as an artist began with illustrations for an English-language textbook. She also began writing stories and occasional poems. Beginning in 1945, she began studying Polish literature before switching to sociology at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow.

Her first book was to be published in 1949, but did not pass censorship as it "did not meet socialist requirements". In 1953, Szymborska joined the staff of the literary review magazine „Życie Literackie” (Literary Life), where she continued to work until 1981 and from 1968 ran her own book review column, called „Lektury Nadobowiązkowe”. Many of her essays from this period were later published in book form.

Szymborska was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality". She became better known internationally as a result of this. Her work has been translated into English and many European languages. She was described as a "Mozart of Poetry".

The final collection published while Szymborska was still alive, Dwukropek, was chosen as the best book of 2006. She died in Kraków in February 2012. Szymborska wrote many books with poems: Dlatego żyjemy ("That'sWhy We AreAlive"),1954: Pytania zadawane sobie ("QuestioningYourself"), 1957: Wołanie do Yeti ("Calling Out to Yeti"), 1962: Sól ("Salt"), 1967: Sto pociech ("No End of Fun"), 1972: Wszelki wypadek ("CouldHave"), 1976: Wielka liczba ("A Large Number"), 1986: Ludzie na moście ("People on the Bridge"), 1993: Koniec i początek ("The End and the Beginning"), 1997: Sto wierszy – sto pociech ("100 Poems – 100 Happinesses"), 2002: Chwila (Moment), 2005: Dwukropek (Colon) and 2012: Wystarczy (Enough).Wisława’s work had also impact on popculture: her poem "Nothing Twice" has been turned into a song by composer Andrzej Munkowski, rock singer Kora cover of "Nothing Twice" was a hit in 1994.Three Colors: Red, a film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, was inspired by Szymborska's poem, "Love At First Sight".

Prizes and awards

• 1954: The City of Cracow Prize for Literature

• 1963: The Polish Ministry of Culture Prize

• 1991: The Goethe Prize

• 1995: The Herder Prize

• 1995: Honorary Doctor of the Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan)

• 1996: The Polish PEN Club prize

• 1996: Nobel Prize in Literature

• 2011: Order of the White Eagle

By Wisława Szymborka

Nothing twice

Nothing happens twice

and it never will. For this reason,

we were born without skills

and we will die without routine.

Even if we were the worst students

In the school of world

We won’t repeat

Any winter, any summer

Any day won’t repeat

There are no similar nights,

Two the same kisses,

Two the same glances in the eyes.

Yesterday, when your name

Someone said loudly next to me

I felt like a rose had fallen

Through an open window into my room

Today, when we’re together,

I turned my face to the wall.

Rose? How does a rose look like?

Is it a flower? Or is it a rock?

Why do you, oh evil hour

Bring the unneeded fear?

You live - so you must perish

You pass away- how charming this is.

Delighted, caught in one’s arms

Seeking harmony

Although we differ

As two peas in a pod…

Nothing Twice- analisis

The poem „Nothing twice” is written by the polish poet Wisława Szymborska. The narrator claims that nothing happens twice and nothing repeats.

The narrator (in the first two stanzas is in the plural form, in the fourth turns out to be a woman) in the question about the rose (“Rose? What does the rose look like?”/ Is it a flower? Or perhaps a stone?), wonders what love is and reflects on passing away, the ability to stop time and the necessity of dying. She confronted two different states: before the separation and after saying goodbye to the beloved person, comes to the painful conclusion that it is extremely difficult to capture the nature of the most important human emotions. Just yesterday, someone loved her and now, a few hours later she suffers from repudiation, betrayal or just a change of feelings (“as if someone/ fate threw a stone at her”) Describing yesterday's emotions of the narrator is difficult for her (“sometime it was like if...”), does not remember what she was feeling some time ago.

Although it is a poem about loneliness, it also gives hope for the pleasures of tomorrow. The world isn’t predictable or boring. It’s surprising and interesting, full of beautiful moments that are yet to come.

The closing sentence provokes a lot of thinking. In fact, this is contrasting two people, who are very different and yet very the same. We share the same problems, thanks to which we are so alike.

Group work

Please translate this poem from English into your language.

THANKS FOR ATTENTION