Point Regarding Books View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems
| Title | : | View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems |
| Author | : | Wisława Szymborska |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 214 pages |
| Published | : | May 26th 1995 by Mariner Books (first published 1995) |
| Categories | : | Poetry. Cultural. Poland. European Literature. Polish Literature. Nobel Prize |
Wisława Szymborska
Paperback | Pages: 214 pages Rating: 4.33 | 3912 Users | 260 Reviews
Interpretation Concering Books View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems
Nobel poetry! This got under my skin!I think I owe it partly to this collection that I started loving modern poetry and sharing this love with the next generation.
I remember a class when we read Szymborska's "Some Like Poetry". We took it apart, and wrote our own poems following the same idea and pattern. One student looked at me and said:
"But this doesn't have anything to do with Humanities!"
I remember being worried about this. Why could poetry not express the questions taught in Humanities? So I brought this small collection to class, and we read Szymborska's poem from 1956, titled "Two Monkeys by Brueghel":
I keep dreaming of my graduation exam:
in a window sit two chained monkeys,
beyond the window floats the sky,
and the sea splashes.
I am taking an exam on the history of mankind:
I stammer and flounder.
One monkey, eyes fixed upon me, listens ironically,
the other seems to be dozing--
and when silence follows a question,
he prompts me
with a soft jingling of the chain.
After looking at Breughel's sad and beautiful painting, talking about the situation in Szymborska's home country in 1956, and analysing the different attitudes the two monkeys display, we all sat quiet for a moment, taking in the message from all those different perspectives.
We realised that it was easy to identify with the sarcastic monkey who was staring at the world, thinking it was not worth the effort to care. But all agreed that the other one, seemingly dozing, but then gently jingling his chain, loved mankind more, and had secret hopes for a different future. Otherwise he would not help out!
Ever since then, when I try to find my way through the maze of contemporary politics, I imagine being like the monkey prompting students with that soft jingling of the chain, reminding them of the course of history, that we are studying in the hope of one day making this world a better place. We cannot get rid of the chains of the past, but we can be better at passing the exam of the history of mankind in the future. And by passing that exam, we are less likely to repeat mistakes.
I can't imagine anything more powerful than the combination of Breughel's art and Szymborska's verse to make the chain of history come alive. The only other poet I have experienced in the same way is her fellow Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, whose Human Chain left a similar mark on me. When history is made tangible through the medium of poetry, it gets under your skin. Through its language and art it reaches you on an emotional level and enhances the factual, historical knowledge. From year to year, I have expanded the integration of poetry into my history units, and there is no end to the possibilities, once the initial hesitancy to "mix English and Humanities" is overcome. The chain is also a link. Heaney taught me that!
The way Szymborska's short, prosaic poems analyse her time and place in history and yet remain part of a universal, human quest for truth is simply breath-taking.
Love it! I'll jingle the chain to remind you all of this gem!
Define Books Toward View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems
| Original Title: | Widok z ziarnkiem piasku |
| ISBN: | 0156002167 (ISBN13: 9780156002165) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | PEN Translation Prize for Stanislaw Baranczak & Clare Cavanagh (1996) |
Rating Regarding Books View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems
Ratings: 4.33 From 3912 Users | 260 ReviewsRate Regarding Books View With a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems
"Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,then labor heavily so that they may seem light." -- Wisława Szymborska, View With a Grain of SandSuch a great overview of Szymorska's poetry. Once in Hungary I watched a guy ride two horses at full gallop while standing on their backs. Reading Szymorska reminds me of that. I grasp the technicals of what she is doing. I understand that nothing she writes in either style or practice actually defies the ACTUAL physics of writing, butMuch of what we lose in translation is the art of mystification. Some works circumvent with footnotes, end notes, even an odd completely separate 'guide' and more commonly hashed around Wiki pages for purposes of filling in the much voiding blank, but there's still the matter of whether you're a native speaker of the translated from, the translated to, or neither. Reading my one-trick-pony English translated from Polish, I can't latch on to a rhyme, a particular beat of metaphor, a singular
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA: MOZART OF POETRYBestowing Nobel Prize for literature on relatively unknown poets has some merits. I must confess that I was totally unaware of the Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska poet till she won the Nobel Prize in 1996. Szymborska received the 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, according to Nobel prize citation. Having read almost all her collections of
What amazes me about Szymborska's poetry is the profound levity she finds in the ordinary. The poems read humorously, but their meaning leaves you unnerved. I enjoyed them thoroughly.
I feel that poetry may be considered "wack" by anyone born after 1970, but, seriously, assholes, there is some good shit out there, e.g. this book. I know, I know, I know: where are the undead? where are the plastic explosions? where are the ersatz realities? Shove it all up your butt, Mugwumps! In an interview someone asked her why she didn't publish very frequently and the card replied, "I have a trash can in my home."
Tortures Nothing has changed.The body is susceptible to pain,it must eat and breathe air and sleep,it has thin skin and blood right underneath,an adequate stock of teeth and nails,its bones are breakable, its joints are stretchable.In tortures all this is taken into account.Nothing has changed.The body shudders as it shudderedbefore the founding of Rome and after,in the twentieth century before and after Christ.Tortures are as they were, it's just the earth that's grown smaller,and whatever
I remember Wislawa Szymborska was for me a difficult poet to get into at first, and after reading this, my third book, she is now very much a rewarding one, and easily one of my favourite female poets. Her themes here vary, with some poems feeling light and almost humorous, whilst others were dark, deeper, and more challenging. Some of these poems I have come across before, but that didn't matter to me, as it was a pleasure to get to read them again.Anyone who has a true love for poetry, simply
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