| RECENZJA Z NIE NAPISANEGO WIERSZA | UNWRITTEN POEM REVIEWED |
Wis awa Szymborska - (Polish) |
trans. Adam Czerniawski |
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W pierwszych sowach utworu autorka stwierdza,  e Ziemia jest maa, niebo natomiast du e do przesady,a gwiazd, cytuj  : "wicej w nim ni trzeba."W opisie nieba czu  pewn bezradno ,autorka gubi si w strasznym przestworze,uderza j martwota wielu planeti wkrótce w jej umy le (dodajmy: niecisym) zaczyna rodzi si pytanie,czy aby jednak nie jeste my samipod slo  cem, pod wszystkimi na wiecie socami?Na przekór rachunkowi prawdopodobie stwa! I powszechnemu dzisiaj przekonaniu! Wbrew niezbitym dowodom, które lada dzie mog wpa w ludzkie rce! Ach, poezja.Tymczasem nasza wieszczka powraca na Ziemi , planet , która moe "toczy si bez wiadków," jedyn "science fiction, na jak sta kosmos." Rozpacz Pascala (1623-1662, przyp. nasz) wydaje si autorce nie mie konkurencjina adnej Andromedzie ani Kasjopei. Wy czno wyolbrzymia i zobowizuje, wy ania si wic problem jak y et caetera, albowiem "pustka tego za nas nie rozstrzygnie." "Mój Bo e, woa czowiek do Samego Siebie, ulituj si nade mn, owie mnie" ...Autork gnbi myl o yciu trwonionym tak lekko, jakby go by o w zapasie bez dna.O wojnach, które - jej przekornym zdaniem - przegrywane s zawsze po obydwu stronach. O "pa stwieniu si" (sic!) ludzi nad ludmi. Przez utwór prze wituje intencja moralna. Pod mniej naiwnym piórem rozb ysaby moe.Niestety, có . Ta z gruntu ryzykowna teza (czy aby jednak nie jeste my samipod s ocem, pod wszystkimi na wiecie socami) i rozwini cie jej w niefrasobliwym stylu (mieszanina wznios oci z mow pospolit) sprawiaj , e któ temu wiar da?Z pewno ci nikt. No wanie. |
In the opening words of her composition the author asserts that the Earth is small, while the sky in unconscionably vast and, I quote, "contains more than necessary" stars. In her description of the heavens one detects a certain helplessness, the author loses herself in the terrible void, she is struck by the lifelessness of many planets and presently her mind (which lacks rigour) poses the question whether, after all, we are alone under the sun, under all the suns of the universe. Flouting the calculus of probability! And all the generally accepted convictions! Despite incontrovertible proof which any day now may fall into our hands! Ah, well, poetry. Meanwhile, our oracle returns to Earth, a planet which perhaps "rolls on without witness", the sole "science-fiction cosmos can afford". The despair of Pascal (1623-1662 [Ed.]) appears to the author to have no match on Andromeda or Cassiopeia. Uniqueness exaggerates and obligates, and thus arises the problem of how to live, and so on, since "emptiness will not resolve that for us". "My God, man cries to His Own Self, have mercy on me, bring me light ..." The author is haunted by the thought of life so effortlessly frittered away, as though there were endless supplies of it; by wars which - according to her perverse opinion - are always lost on both sides; by man's "policification" (sic!) of man. A moral intent flickers in the work and would probably have glowed under a less naïve pen. A pity, though. This fundamentally risky thesis (are we, after all, perhaps alone beneath the sun, beneath all the suns of the universe) and its development in her happy-go-lucky style (a mixture of loftiness and common speech) causes us to ask whether anyone would believe it. No one surely. Quite so. |
NOTE: We have not found it practicable to use italics in the Polish text, and we hope that their use in the English will show what the poet intended.
Copyright © Wislawa Szymborska; Trans. Copyright © Adam Czerniawski 1990 - publ. Forest Books