Astonishment by Wisława Szymborska
Astonishment
Wisława SzymborskaWhy after all this one and not the rest?
Why this specific self, not in a nest,
but a house? Sewn up not in scales, but skin?
Not topped off by a leaf, but by a face?
Why on earth now, on Tuesday of all days,
and why on earth, pinned down by this star’s pin?
In spite of years of my not being here?
In spite of seas of all these dates and fates,
these cells, celestials and coelenterates?
What is it really that made me appear
neither an inch nor half a globe too far,
neither a minute nor aeons too early?
What made me fill myself with me so squarely?
Why am I staring now into the dark
and muttering this unending monologue
just like the growling thing we call a dog?
ABOUT WISłAWA SZYMBORSKA
Wisława Szymborska was born on July 2, 1923, in Bnin, a small town in western Poland. Her family moved to Krakow in 1931 where she lived most of her life. She studied Polish literature and sociology at Jagellonian University from 1945 until 1948. During her lifetime, Szymborska authored nearly twenty books of poetry. Her collections available in English include Monologue of a Dog (Harcourt, 2005); Miracle Fair: Selected Poems of Wisława Szymborska (W. W. Norton, 2001); Poems, New… (more)
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