Quotes from Wislawa Szymborska

But they know about us, they know, the four corners, and the chairs nearby us. Discerning shadows also know, and even the table keeps quiet.

I am who I am. A coincidence no less unthinkable than any other. I could have had different ancestors, after all. I could have fluttered from another nest or crawled bescaled from under another tree. Nature's wardrobe holds a fair supply of costumes: spider, seagull, field mouse. Each fits perfectly right off and is dutifully worn into shreds.

You were saved because you were the first. You were saved because you were the last. Alone. With others. On the right. The left. Because it was raining. Because of the shade. Because the day was sunny.

How light the raindrop's contents are; how gently the world touches me. From View With a Grain of Sand

My apologies to chance for calling it necessity. My apologies to necessity if I'm mistaken, after all. Please, don't be angry, happiness, that I take you as my due. May my dead be patient with the way my memories fade. My apologies to time for all the world I overlook each second.

the sorry fact is that we arrive here improvised and leave without the chance to practice.

Woods disguised as woods alive without end, and above them birds in flight play birds in flight.

Dividing earth and sky is not the right way to think about this wholeness. It only allows one to live at a more precise address-- were I to be searched for I'd be found much faster. My distinguishing marks are rapture and despair. From 'Sky', in the collection 'Miracle Fair

in daily speech, where we don't stop to consider every word, we all use phrases like the ordinary world, ordinary life, the ordinary course of events ... But in the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone's existence in this world.

How should we live? someone asked me in a letter. I had meant to ask him the same question. 0 likes

Estar en casa es tremendamente peligroso. A cada paso que damos hay peligro de muerte o mutilación. Incluso me atrevería a decir que cuantas más comodidades civilizadoras guardamos en casa, mayores son las posibilidades de que nos suceda una catástrofe. Vivir en una caverna era más seguro que todo eso, claro, siempre y cuando no irrumpiera en ella un tigre dientes de sable en ausencia de la gente que se encargaba de cazar.

La vida dura unos cuantos rasguños en la arena

the unthinkable / is thinkable.

Già splende il bosco nelle Ardenne. Non avvicinarti a me. Sciocca, sciocca, ho praticato il mondo.

Chiedo scusa alle grandi domande per le piccole risposte che ho dato.

Life, you're beautiful (I say) you just couldn't get more fecund, more befrogged or nightingaley, more anthillful or spoutsprouting,,, Oh how grassy is this hopper, how this berry ripely rasps... I tug at life by its leaf hem: will it stop for me, just once, momentarily forgetting to what end it runs and runs

nonrequired quotes Because the goal of relaxation is to get us to the point of where nothing bothers us. The ideal promulgated by this kind of popular how-to book is simply a healthy, well-rested idiot. 194 … don't I have bigger problems than the troubles of tailors on the Nile? Of course I have bigger problems. But that's no reason not to have small ones. 233-4 Non Required Reading

There's no life that couldn't be immortal if only for a moment. Death always arrives by that very moment too late. In vain it tugs at the knob of the invisible door. As far as you've come can't be undone.

Esperti degli spazi dalla terra alle stelle ci perdiamo nello spazio dalla terra alla testa.

Soñamos, ¡pero tan negligentemente, tan a la ligera! «Quiero ser un pájaro», dice este o aquel. Pero si el sumiso destino lo convirtiese en un pavo, se sentiría desencantado.

He who wishes to drown himself must have an ax at hand to cut the ice.

All'aeroporto Si corrono incontro a braccia spalancate, esclamano ridendo: Finalmente! finalmente!. Entrambi indossano abiti invernali, cappelli caldi, sciarpe, guanti, scarpe pesanti, ma solo ai nostri occhi. Ai loro – sono nudi.

Lying in wait, set to pounce on the blank page, are letters up to no good, clutches of clauses so subordinate they'll never let her get away. From, The Joy of Writing, Wislawa Szymborska

Generally speaking, life is so rich and full of variety; you have to remember all the time that there is a comical side to everything.