I don’t know the role I’m playing. I only know it’s mine, non-convertible.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKAI’d have to be really quick to describe clouds – a split second’s enough for them to start being something else.
More Wislawa Szymborska Quotes
-
-
Secret codes resound. Doubts and intentions come to light.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
And whatever I do will become forever what I’ve done.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
Such certainty is beautiful, but uncertainty is more beautiful still.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
I’m fighting against the bad poet who is prone to using too many words.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
I’m one-time-only to the marrow of my bones.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
No one in my family has ever died of love. What happened, happened, but nothing myth-inspiring.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
It’s just not easy to explain to someone else what you don’t understand yourself.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
When I pronounce the word Future, the first syllable already belongs to the past. When I pronounce the word Silence, I destroy it.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
Let the people who never find true love keep saying that there’s no such thing. Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
Carry on, then, if only for the moment that it takes a tiny galaxy to blink!
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
I’m working on the world, revised, improved edition, featuring fun for fools blues for brooders, combs for bald pates, tricks for old dogs.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
They say the first love’s most important. That’s very romantic, but not my experience.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
Sometimes I write quickly, sometimes I spend several weeks on a single poem. I would really love for readers not to be able to guess which of the poems took so much work!
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA






