[CW-Grad] Wislawa Szymborska

[Rachelle Cruz]

Thank you for sending this, Andrew.

Szymborska was incredible.

Best,
Rachelle

*****
Rachelle Cruz,
Host of "The Blood-Jet Writing Hour" Radio Show
www.thebloodjet.wordpress.com






On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 4:35 PM, Gabriela Jauregui <
gabrielajauregui at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CWgrad-announcements mailing list
> CWgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu
> http://lists.ucr.edu/mailman/listinfo/cwgrad-announcements
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/cwgrad-announcements/attachments/20120202/d565f878/attachment.html