

Wislawa Szymborska

Wislawa Szymborska, poet, died on February 1st, aged 88

See article

Readers' comments


El Fueguino

"At such a sight, I always lose the certainty
That that which is important
Is more important than that which is not."

I am normally very resistant to serious poetry, but Wislawa Szymborska's messages are so concisely and elegantly put, it's like reading a letter from an old friend.


The text is heavily stuffed with references to communism, Stalin and Peoples' Poland. I have already got used to this TE's nasty vice of reminding the world that Poland was once on the other side of the iron curtain, yet failing to refrain from making such remarks even on this occasion is rather tasteless, at least to my mind. Yes, Ms Szymborska was eating food which was contaminated with communism, yes, she was drinking water which smelled bad of Stalin and other communist apparatchicks, and SO WHAT???

we can't win, can we? If we don't mention Polish suffering, the Poles get cross for "ignoring" their history. And if we do mention it, then we are criticised for pigeonholing and stereotyping. how on earth is it irrelevant or inappropriate to mention the fact that she was a PZPR member for 21 years, or what she thought about that in retrospect? And that her work dealt with themes of conscience, suffering and resistance?

I am thinking. Maybe it is time we the Poles should not only accept, but even become boastful about our not so recent, after all, past? Everything should be appropriate and relevant. We had in Poland another poet, Jerzy Harasymowicz, who lived in Kraków (everybody probably knows how anti-Russian and anti-communist Kraków is - it has always been absolutely the most conservative and anti-Muscovite city in Poland); at one time Harasimowicz, otherwise known to be an excellent writer and poet, suddenly started to write and publish pro-communist poems, in which he was delighted with Russia and communism. After 1989 he was asked by one of his colleagues: "why did you write this horrible volume of poems? Didn't you realize that specifically in Kraków you were exposing yourself to more danger by being pro-Russian than by being anti-Russian in your poems?" To which Harasimowicz replied: "Exactly for this reason I wrote all those stupid poems, I just wanted to tell all those conceited Cracovians that I am not afraid of them and that they can't do anything to me, even when I write something pro-Russian". Now the late Ms Szymborska lived in Cracow, you know ....


_Baudouin de Courteney
Speaking of logic: "to agree" does not mean to "carve up". You are confusing modalities of possible (intended) and actual (undertaken). How Hitler felt (appreciated) about the events has nothing to do with our topic.
"Agression" and "force" are overstatements. There was zero or close to zero resistance. For legal intends and purposes the land was nullius. Anybody could have taken it. Note the difference with years 1918-19 when there w a s a state of Western Ukraine which put up rather serious resistance to Polish attempts to occupy it (Wovchuchy and Chortkiv offences).

Jozef Beck in reply to Yuri

According to wikipedia, "The Soviet Union marshaled 466,516 soldiers, 3,739 tanks, 380 armored cars, and approximately 1,200 fighters, 600 bombers, and 200 other aircraft against Poland". If that is neither force nor aggression, words have lost all meaning.

However, this discussion seems increasingly futile to me, and increasingly inappropriate in the context of the obituary of a great poet. I will not extend it any further.


Thank you for paying attention to where the borders are.
If Western Ukraine and Western Bielorus are "territory of an independent Poland" than obviously these parts are "annexed" unjustly and illegally. Right? Wrong! Yalta did not "recognise" occupation of Baltic States, although "consequences" there were exactly the same. Yalta just confirmed the obvious: belonging of the land to Ukraine and Bielorus.
Sorry, I did not have time to look up in Wikipedia whether the government of the "existing" state flew to Romania a day before or after September the 17th, 1939. Let us agree that 16 days were quite enough for Germans to put that existance into the end. Quite important fact about the state of the state ...

Baudouin de Courtenay in reply to Yuri

The logic of your answer to Jozef Beck is difficult to follow, but let's go back to your initial comment. You objected to the idea that Hitler and Stalin "carved up" Poland. Well, this is precisely what they agreed to in the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact(even if the wording was different). They implemented this by invading Poland, Germany on Sep 1, Soviet Union on 17 Sep. Prior to their pre-agreed and coordinated action, the land that SU annexed had belonged to Poland, a legal fact that was recognized by the SU itself. Even if we were to agree that Poland ceased to exist as a state the moment the first German bomb fell, this did not automatically make its Eastern provinces part of Ukraine and Belarus in any legal sense whatsoever.

And in the legal sense, Poland did exist on 17 September. From the military perspective, Warsaw, the capital, had nearly two more weeks to go before capitulation. And again: Hitler would doubtless have prevailed without Soviet aid in carving Poland up, but he surely appreciated the fact that he got it.

Jozef Beck in reply to Yuri

You are confusing two separate issues.

There are many countries which are not ethnically homogeneous (the Soviet Union at the time being a rather prominent example). That does not mean that unproked aggresion against them is somehow made legitimate. It would not now be right for Poland to seek to move its borders to the east by military aggression; it was not then right for the Soviet Union to seek to moves its borders to the west by aggression.

As for the land belonging to Ukraine and Bielarus, they were (at that time, not now) simply fictions: they were not on any sensible measure indepdendent states. Russian colonialism might or might not have been preferred to Polish colonialism (if that is what you are arguing that it was), but pretending that September 1939 had anything whatsoever to do with self-determination is historical nonsense.

Jozef Beck

Yuri is not only off topic but absurd.

Soviet troops invaded the territory of Poland, in accordance with an agreement with Hitler, and occupied a large area of the state internationally recognised - including by the Soviet Union - as an independent country. Yalta recognised the consequences of that, not least because nobody was in a position to contest it on the ground, but that didn't make it legal retrospectively and certainly doesn't change the fact that the Soviet Union invaded an independent country and annexed part of its territory. And none of that "opens up disputes about borders" - they are what they are, but there is no point pretending that they came about other than by the illegitimate use of force.


Sorry to go off-topic, but "Stalin" did not carve up Poland. Soviet troops occupied Western Ukraine, Western Bielorus and Vilnus region of Lithuania in late September 1939, when Poland as a state did not exist. Legality of the move was later confirmed in Yalta by great Western powers. We are not trying to open up disputes about borders in Europe, are we?

Baudouin de Courtenay in reply to Yuri

Soviet Union invaded Poland on 17 September, which is hardly "late September", i.e. just 16 days after the German invasion. Poland did exist as a state on that day and had not yet capitulated. While Germany in all likelihood would have overcome Poland on its own, Stalin's aid (which had been earlier secured under the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact)accelerated that.

And no, this clarification is not about revising borders in Europe.

Jasiek w japonii

Not only Ella Fitzgerald but also Aniela, heroine whom Polish actress Danuta Szaflarska performed in 2007 Polish film ‘Time to Die’ (‘Pora umierać’ in Polish), has often been superimposed over Szymborska within me since I saw the film.

haridas s pal

72. "Death be not proud, though some have called thee"

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, 5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, 10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,

John Donne


the most famous line, at least when i was going to school, was:
"we know about ourselves only so much as others have tested on us" (tyle w sobie wiemy na ile nas sprawdzono).
i learned about Ms. Szymborska's passing from a tweet in Spanish and the Polish press lamented about unwieldy tweets about Ms. Szymborska coming from the politicians.
would any of her poems cut through the social clutter of today?

wszycho in reply to greg_not_so

"...only so much as others have tested on us"

I know about Ms. Szymborska that she definitely passed her test by demanding in her last will to have a completely secular funeral, something sort of heroic in today's Poland which is virtually swarmed by intrusive, omniscient, and above all extremely arrogant and conceited clergymen. When the Church is controlling everything in Poland, a mere wish to have a funeral without a Mass is an act of heroism. Only the very great Poles could afford to successfully demand a non-catholic funeral: prof. Religa (he carried out the first heart transplantation in Poland) and Mr Zapasiewicz (a very famous actor in Poland) are the other few who had this courage in recent years. This last will of hers showed the world how much a simple and humble poet can do to contribute to the freedom of speech, of conscience and of thoght in Poland (her words not to be underestimated - they remain with us). This Nobel Prize nomination was not a mistake, definitely.


Latest blog posts - All times are GMT
Crimea votes to secede: Ukraine's amputation
Eastern approaches 17 mins ago
Car ban in the French capital: Paris in the smog
Charlemagne 1 hrs 21 mins ago
Bitcoin: New money
Free exchange March 17th, 8:18
The Economist on China: Weekly round-up
Analects March 17th, 4:34


Products & events