Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska (Polish: [viˈswava ʂɨmˈbɔrska]; 2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Prowent (currently part of Kórnik in west-central Poland), she maintained residence in Kraków throughout her life. Her literary works achieved sales figures comparable to those of renowned prose authors in Poland, despite her poetic assertion in "Some Like Poetry" ("Niektórzy lubią poezję") that "perhaps" only two in a thousand individuals appreciate poetry.
Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska (Polish: [viˈswavaʂɨmˈbɔrska]; 2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Prowent (now part of Kórnik in west-central Poland), she resided in Kraków until the end of her life. In Poland, Szymborska's books have reached sales rivaling prominent prose authors, though she wrote in a poem, "Some Like Poetry" ("Niektórzy lubią poezję"), that "perhaps" two in a thousand people like poetry.
In 1996, Szymborska received the Nobel Prize in Literature, recognized "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality." This accolade significantly elevated her international recognition. Her oeuvre has been translated into numerous European languages, alongside Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Persian, and Chinese.
Biography
Wisława Szymborska was born on 2 July 1923 in Prowent, the daughter of Wincenty Szymborski and Anna (née Rottermund) Szymborska, born as their second child. Her father served as the steward for Count Władysław Zamoyski, a notable Polish patriot and philanthropist. Following Zamoyski's demise in 1924, her family relocated to Toruń, subsequently moving to Kraków in 1931, where she resided and pursued her career until her passing in early 2012.
Upon the outbreak of World War II in 1939, she pursued her education through clandestine classes. Beginning in 1943, she secured employment as a railroad worker, thereby evading forced labor deportation to Germany. Concurrently, her artistic career commenced with illustrations for an English-language textbook, alongside her initial forays into writing stories and occasional poetry. In 1945, she enrolled at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, initially studying Polish literature before transitioning to sociology. During this period, she engaged with the local literary community, encountering and being influenced by Czesław Miłosz. Her inaugural poem, "Szukam słowa" ("Looking for words"), appeared in the daily newspaper Dziennik Polski in March 1945. Her poetic works subsequently continued to be featured in diverse newspapers and periodicals for several years. Financial constraints led her to discontinue her studies without obtaining a degree in 1948. That same year, she married poet Adam Włodek, a union that ended in divorce in 1954, though they maintained a close relationship until Włodek's death in 1986. The marriage produced no children. During the period of her marriage, she held positions as a secretary for an educational biweekly magazine and as an illustrator. Her initial book, slated for publication in 1949, was rejected by censors for failing to "meet socialist requirements."
In the nascent stages of her career, Szymborska aligned herself with the official ideology of the People's Republic of Poland (PRL). Notably, during the Polish anti-religious campaign, she affixed her signature to a controversial 1953 political petition that denounced Polish priests on charges of treason during a show trial in Kraków. Her initial literary output espoused socialist themes, exemplified by her debut collection, Dlatego żyjemy (That is what we are living for), which included poems such as "Lenin" and "Młodzieży budującej Nową Hutę" ("For the Youth who are building Nowa Huta"), addressing the construction of a Stalinist industrial town near Kraków. She subsequently joined the ruling Polish United Workers' Party.
While initially adhering closely to the official party doctrine, Szymborska progressively distanced herself from socialist ideology and disavowed her prior political engagements as the Polish Communist Party transitioned from Stalinist to "national" communist orientations. Despite not formally resigning from the Communist party until 1966, she initiated connections with dissident intellectuals. By 1957, she had formed a friendship with Jerzy Giedroyc, editor of the influential Paris-based émigré journal Kultura, to which she became a contributor. In 1964, she publicly opposed a Communist-supported protest published in The Times that targeted independent intellectuals, advocating instead for freedom of speech.
Szymborska commenced her tenure in 1953 at the literary review magazine Życie Literackie (Literary Life), where she remained employed until 1981. From 1968, she also contributed a book review column titled Lektury Nadobowiązkowe. Numerous essays she authored during this period were subsequently compiled and published as books. Between 1981 and 1983, she served as an editor for the Kraków-based monthly periodical NaGlos (OutLoud). During the 1980s, Szymborska escalated her involvement in oppositional movements, contributing to the samizdat periodical Arka under the pseudonym "Stańczykówna," and also to Kultura. In the early 1990s, a poem she published in Gazeta Wyborcza expressed her support for a vote of no confidence against the inaugural non-Communist government, which subsequently led to the return of former Communists to power. Her final collection published during her lifetime, Dwukropek, was acclaimed as the best book of 2006 by the readership of Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza. Additionally, she translated French literature into Polish, focusing particularly on Baroque poetry and the writings of Agrippa d'Aubigné, a Huguenot soldier-poet active during the French Wars of Religion. Within the German-speaking world, Szymborska is notably linked with Karl Dedecius, a literary translator born in Łódź, who significantly contributed to the popularization of postwar Polish literature in that region.
Commencing in 1967, she maintained a relationship with Kornel Filipowicz.
Demise and Posthumous Publications
In 2012, at the age of 88, Szymborska passed away peacefully from lung cancer in her sleep at her Kraków residence, surrounded by her friends and family. Although she was actively engaged in composing new poetry prior to her death, she could not finalize the arrangement of her last poems for publication according to her intentions. Her posthumous poetic works were subsequently released later in 2012. To commemorate her enduring legacy, the Wisława Szymborska Award was instituted in 2013.
In 2024, Michał Rusinek, president of the Wisława Szymborska Foundation, formalized an agreement with Polskie Radio's OFF Radio Krakow, granting rights to utilize her voice recordings for generating speech in an interview-style program. The program, which aired on October 29 of the same year, elicited immediate condemnation from both Polish audiences and media professionals.
Thematic Elements
Szymborska consistently utilized literary devices including ironic precision, paradox, contradiction, and understatement to elucidate profound philosophical themes and recurrent preoccupations. A significant number of her poems address the subjects of war and terrorism. Her compositions often adopted unconventional perspectives, exemplified by a poem narrated from the viewpoint of a cat in its deceased owner's recently vacated apartment. Her esteemed reputation is founded upon a comparatively modest oeuvre, comprising fewer than 350 poems. When queried about the limited number of her published poems, she famously responded, "I have a trash can in my home."
Cultural Impact
In 1985, Barbara Maria Zakrzewska-Nikiporczyk composed a musical setting for Szymborska's poem "Buffo."
Her poem "Love at First Sight" was incorporated into the film Turn Left, Turn Right, featuring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung. Krzysztof Kieślowski's cinematic work Three Colors: Red also drew inspiration from "Love at First Sight."
During her final year, Szymborska engaged in a collaboration with Polish jazz trumpeter Tomasz Stańko, who subsequently dedicated his album Wisława (ECM, 2013) to her memory, drawing inspiration from their joint work and her poetic output.
Beata Poźniak adapted Szymborska's poem "People on the Bridge" into a film. This film received international screenings, including at a New Delhi film festival. As an accolade, it was subsequently screened an additional 36 times across 18 cities in India.
The poem Nothing Twice (Nic dwa razy) has served as inspiration for numerous musical adaptations, notably Łucja Prus's rendition at the 1965 Sopot International Song Festival and Maanam's composition Nic dwa razy, featured on their 1994 album Róża. In 2022, Sanah transformed the poem into a song as part of her project, Sanah śpiewa Poezyje, which focuses on Polish poetry.
Principal Literary Works
- 1952: Dlatego żyjemy ("That's Why We Are All Alive")
- 1954: Pytania zadawane sobie ("Questioning Yourself")
- 1957: Wołanie do Yeti ("Calling Out to Yeti")
- 1962: Sól ("Salt")
- 1966: 101 wierszy ("101 Poems")
- 1967: Sto pociech ("No End of Fun")
- 1967: Poezje wybrane ("Selected Poetry")
- 1972: Wszelki wypadek ("Could Have")
- 1976: Wielka liczba ("A Large Number")
- 1986: Ludzie na moście ("People on the Bridge")
- 1989: Poezje. Poems, a bilingual Polish-English edition.
- 1992: Lektury nadobowiązkowe ("Non-required Reading")
- "The End and the Beginning" was published in 1993.
- "View with a Grain of Sand" was released in 1996.
- The collection "100 Poems – 100 Happinesses" appeared in 1997.
- "Moment" was published in 2002.
- "Rhymes for Big Kids" was released in 2003.
- The work "Colon" was published in 2005.
- "Monologue of a Dog Ensnared in History" was also released in 2005.
- "Here" was published in 2009.
- The collection "Enough" was released in 2012.
- "The Glimmer of a Revolver" was published in 2013.
A comprehensive list of prizes and awards received.
- In 1954, the City of Kraków Prize for Literature was awarded.
- The Polish Ministry of Culture Prize was received in 1963.
- The Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta was bestowed in 1974.
- The Kościelski Award was granted in 1990.
- The Goethe Prize was awarded in 1991.
- In 1995, the Herder Prize was received.
- An Honorary Degree from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań was conferred in 1995.
- The Polish PEN Club prize was awarded in 1996.
- The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 1996.
- Wprost recognized her as Person of the Year in 1996.
- She was named an Honorary Resident of the Royal Capital City of Kraków in 1997.
- The Gold Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis was awarded in 2005.
- The Order of the White Eagle was received in 2011.
Critical reviews of her works.
- In 1998, the Boston Review featured a critique of Poems – New and Collected 1957–1997 by Frances Padorr Brent.
- The New Republic published a review in 2001 titled "Miracle Fair: Selected Poems of Wislawa Szymborska" by Ruth Franklin.
- Elizabeth Lund's article, A fascinating journey with two women poets, appeared in The Christian Science Monitor in 2006.
- Moondance magazine featured Lys Anzia's piece, Stories/Poems. Plain and Simple. – Mapping the Words of Wislawa Szymborska on Her Latest Book, Monologue of a Dog, in 2006.
- The Sarmatian Review published Mary Ann Furno's interpretation, Wislawa Szymborska's 'Conversation With a Stone' – An Interpretation, in 2006. The article was archived on February 25, 2012.
- W. Martin's review, Monologue of a Dog – New Poems of Wislawa Szymborska, was featured in Words Without Borders in 2006.
- Wally Swist's essay, Poetic Alchemy: Wislawa Szymborska's Map: Collected and Last Poems, was published in 2015 in "All roads will lead you home".
Moskalik (poetry).
- Moskalik (poetry)
- Wisława Szymborska Award.
References.
Media related to Wisława Szymborska. Quotations related to Wisława Szymborska.
Media related to Wisława Szymborska at Wikimedia Commons Quotations related to Wisława Szymborska at Wikiquote
- Wislawa Szymborska: Biography and Nobel speech.
- Wisława Szymborska, including the Nobel Lecture, "The poet and the world," delivered on December 7, 1996.
- List of Works.
- Wisława Szymborska entry in Encyclopædia Britannica.
- Wisława Szymborska's poems and biography.