[CW-Grad] Wislawa Szymborska

[Gabriela Jauregui]

Dear all,
Yesterday was a very sad day, from Szymborska's death to Mike Kelley's
untimely death as well. He was a pioneer in contemporary art, he was
generous, hardcore, rigorous, and gave much to young californian artists
and fellow artists of his generation too. He will be missed. He will be
remembered.
from Mexico City with love,
Gabriela

On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 5:24 PM, Juan F Herrera <juan.herrera at ucr.edu> wrote:

>  One of the best - so true, so luminous...
>
>  ¡Szymborska Presente!
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* Andrew Winer [andreww at ucr.edu]
> *Sent:* Thursday, February 02, 2012 2:37 PM
> *To:* RezaAslan at yahoo.com; Nalo Hopkinson; Goldberry Long; 'susan
> straight'; 'Chris Abani'; Michael Jayme; Tom Lutz; Laila Lalami; Juan F
> Herrera; Christopher Buckley; Michael Ryan Davis; 'Stephen Ellis'; 'Emily
> Margaret Wells'; 'Ricardo Zamorano'; cwgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu;
> fatimafmirza at gmail.com; Stephen E Cullenberg; Vorris Nunley; Traise
> Yamamoto; Perry Link
> *Subject:* Wislawa Szymborska
>
>   Dear All,
>
>
>
> One of the modest giants of letters passed from the world yesterday.  Here
> is one of her poems.
>
>
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
> NO TITLE REQUIRED
>
> It has come to this: I'm sitting under a tree
>
> beside a river
>
> on a sunny morning.
>
> It's an insignificant event
>
> and won't go down in history.
>
> It's not battles and pacts,
>
> where motives are scrutinized,
>
> or noteworthy tyrannicides.
>
> And yet I'm sitting by this river, that's a fact.
>
> And since I'm here
>
> I must have come from somewhere,
>
> and before that
>
> I must have turned up in many other places,
>
> exactly like the conquerors of nations
>
> before setting sail.
>
> Even a passing moment has its fertile past,
>
> its Friday before Saturday,
>
> its May before June.
>
> Its horizons are no less real
>
> than those that a marshal's field glasses might scan.
>
> This tree is a poplar that's been rooted here for years.
>
> The river is the Raba; it didn't spring up yesterday.
>
> The path leading through the bushes
>
> wasn't beaten last week.
>
> The wind had to blow the clouds here
>
> before it could blow them away.
>
> And though nothing much is going on nearby,
>
> the world is no poorer in details for that.
>
> It's just as grounded, just as definite
>
> as when migrating races held it captive.
>
> Conspiracies aren't the only things shrouded in silence.
>
> Retinues of reasons don't trail coronations alone.
>
> Anniversaries of revolutions may roll around,
>
> but so do oval pebbles encircling the bay.
>
> The tapestry of circumstance is intricate and dense.
>
> Ants stitching in the grass.
>
> The grass sewn into the ground.
>
> The pattern of a wave being needled by a twig.
>
> So it happens that I am and look.
>
> Above me a white butterfly is fluttering through the air
>
> on wings that are its alone,
>
> and a shadow skims through my hands
>
> that is none other than itself, no one else's but its own.
>
> When I see such things, I'm no longer sure
>
> that what's important
>
> is more important than what's not.
>
> ~ Wislawa Szymborska ~
>
>
>
> (Poems New and Collected 1957-1997,
>
> trans. S. Baranczak and C. Cavanagh)
>
> _______________________________________________
> CWgrad-announcements mailing list
> CWgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu
> http://lists.ucr.edu/mailman/listinfo/cwgrad-announcements
>
>


-- 
http://www.gabrielajauregui.net
http://www.surplusediciones.org
http://www.nidada.net
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