<![CDATA[View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems]]>

false <![CDATA[View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166131875m/10203.jpg 10203 6 True, the gentlemen of the Swedish Academy have made more than their share of bloopers. But when they bestowed the Nobel Prize upon Wislawa Szymborska in 1996, they got it right, rescuing a major poet from minor obscurity. Two previous collections of her work had appeared in English, of course. Yet View with a Grain of Sand is by far the best introduction to the Polish writer, conveying not only the fantastic lightness of her touch but the entire worlds she manages to pack into, as it were, a grain of sand. Miniscule wonders are her specialty, such as the tableau she records in "Miracle Fair": "The usual miracle: / invisible dogs barking / in the dead of night. / One of many miracles: / a small and airy cloud / is able to upstage the massive moon." Yet Szymborska is also a love poet of peculiar tartness: True love. Is it really necessary? Tact and common sense tell us to pass over it in silence, like a scandal in Life's highest circles. Perfectly good children are born without its help. It couldn't populate the planet in a million years, it comes along so rarely. What comes along so rarely, in fact, is a writer of this quality--and a translation that does her justice. Szymborska's brilliance would probably overpower even a second-rate rendering into English. But thanks to the efforts of Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh, she is not only brilliant but supremely readable--an intellectual comedian for whom "there's nothing more debauched than thinking." 12929 26 5 1995 View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems total:461|5:247|4:158|3:53|2:3|1:0| 461 2032 614 59 5 18 false false Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Feb 17 22:31:13 -0800 2009 Wed Jun 24 09:23:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 2 false false Tue Sep 11 08:25:28 -0700 2007 Wed Feb 27 07:29:36 -0800 2008

Nothing has changed.
The body is susceptible to pain,
it must eat and breathe air and sleep,
it has thin skin and blood right underneath,
an adequate stock of teeth and nails,
its bones are breakable, its joints are stretchable.
In tortures al...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jul 29 13:34:32 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 29 13:43:35 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sat Feb 02 20:17:05 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 21:21:58 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 18:48:49 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 19:02:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue May 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Feb 27 17:20:51 -0800 2008 Tue May 27 06:16:53 -0700 2008
succulent poetry.]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 10:14:56 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 14 08:13:43 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Feb 18 15:11:40 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 15:14:20 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 06:11:13 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 15 18:45:41 -0700 2009
Yeti, down there we've got Wednesday,
bread and alphabets.
Two times two is four.

Favorites:

Notes from a Nonexistent Himalayan Expedition
Nothing Twice
Vocabulary
Coloratura
Conversation with a Stone
Could Have
Adve...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jun 26 19:26:34 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 26 19:31:31 -0700 2009 4 0 true false Tue Dec 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 12 19:02:56 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 19:05:34 -0700 2009 1
Beautifully captivating, Szymborska's honest and bold prose is tender, yet dazzles the reader with every word.

Truly a genius through and through.

Simply amazing! ]]> 5 0 false false Wed Aug 20 19:27:43 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 20 19:39:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 1997 Sat Feb 14 18:51:39 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 14 18:52:55 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Fri Jan 16 23:16:22 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 23:20:43 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sat Nov 29 14:08:08 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 29 14:09:22 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Sat Aug 15 01:34:57 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 15 01:36:22 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 17:17:34 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 17:18:43 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Mar 18 23:03:09 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 23:06:18 -0700 2009 re-read often.]]> 5 0 true false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Wed Nov 04 21:26:18 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 21:27:31 -0800 2009 5 0 0 false false Fri Oct 23 17:45:29 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 17:46:15 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=10203