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68th out of 218 books
—
120 voters
Miracle Fair: Selected Poems
Winner of the Heldt Prize for Translation. A new translation of the Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet, with an introduction by Czeslaw Milosz. This long-awaited volume samples the full range of Wislawa Szymborska's major themes: the ironies of love, the wonders of nature's beauty, and the illusory character of art. Szymborska's voice emerges as that of a gentle subversive, s...more
Paperback, 159 pages
Published
November 17th 2002
by W. W. Norton & Company
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Ms. Szymborska has that wonderful eastern European ability to show us that everything matters -- our words, our thoughts, our ancestors, our own mortality make us who we are, and who we are exists in an eternal Now. Reading Szymborska proves an entirely new way of looking at poetry. Szymborska is a very conscious and aware poet and she brings the outside political world inside and the inside personal world out. The microcosm and macrocosm of humanity is continually balanced and the poems will un...more
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This collection of Szymborska’s poetry only touches upon how gifted a poet she was. Here we are able to delve into life and hope, fear and despair as only Szymborska can describe it. She is somehow able to convey both the horror of humanity and the rich complexity of love with an immense compassion that fills every page. Included in this collection is the poem “The End and the Beginning,” one of the greatest pieces ever written about the human condition after war. Szymborska has a unique way of...more
She's a great poet. I realize this is a translation, but her lines are so uncluttered, so profound. This from the poem, Torture:
Nothing has changed. Maybe just the manners, ceremonies, dances.
Yet the movement of the hands in protecting the head is the same.
The body writhes, jerks and tries to pull away,
its legs give out, it falls, the knees fly up,
it turns blue, swells, salivates and bleeds.
Nothing has changed. Except for the course of boundaries,
the line of forests, coasts, deserts and glacier...more
Nothing has changed. Maybe just the manners, ceremonies, dances.
Yet the movement of the hands in protecting the head is the same.
The body writhes, jerks and tries to pull away,
its legs give out, it falls, the knees fly up,
it turns blue, swells, salivates and bleeds.
Nothing has changed. Except for the course of boundaries,
the line of forests, coasts, deserts and glacier...more
I was truly disappointed by this particular Szymborska collection of selected poems. The poems are poorly chosen, and are not representative of her best work. The translation appears to be mediocre, and poems that soar in the far superior collection, View With A Grain Of Sand, fall flat in Miracle Fair, due to the lack of flow for one poem to the next. None of this is the fault of the poet, whose genius flashes through in poems such as "Openness": "Here we are, naked lovers,/beautiful to each ot...more
This is the work of a firecely intellectual, calm and attentive mind. Szymborska once said that poetry involved sitting in a quiet room, pen in hand, and staring at a wall for hours. Hard to believe that that was where these beautiful and affirming poems were borne. While not as comprehensive as her collected poems, this is a winsome offering, superbly translated.
This was great -- the editing and arrangement of poems are an unusual twist; grouping the poems by loose themes as opposed to arranging them chronologically. As you can imagine, it works better at certain points than others. Translations are excellent and Szymborska's work is, as always, eminently readable, although I'll probably reread 'View with a Grain of Sand' before this collection.
От онези стихотворения, за които ми е най-добре да си мълча, защото, с всяка дума по техен адрес, имам усещането, че ги развалям:)
Ето едно от любимите ми:
The Three Oddest Words
When I pronounce the word Future,
the first syllable already belongs to the past.
When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.
When I pronounce the word Nothing,
I make something no non-being can hold.
(Или както казва Шимборска, "i prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.")
Ето едно от любимите ми:
The Three Oddest Words
When I pronounce the word Future,
the first syllable already belongs to the past.
When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.
When I pronounce the word Nothing,
I make something no non-being can hold.
(Или както казва Шимборска, "i prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.")
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Wislwa szymborska is MY ULTIMATE FANATIC POET!
Every poem was a journey through captivating blessings to the greatness of the spirit, I Loved every metphor, word, letter and title. It made me Happy. it's like rising through ashes!
AHA!! Eureka! :)
Every poem was a journey through captivating blessings to the greatness of the spirit, I Loved every metphor, word, letter and title. It made me Happy. it's like rising through ashes!
AHA!! Eureka! :)
I read this in conjunction with "Slaughterhouse Five," which was interesting, because she has a chapter that reflects on the horrors of war - " . . . too much has happened that was not supposed to happen . . ." My favorite poem is "Conversation with a Rock."
I found some poems by Wislawa Szymborska on a web search for European poets for my poetry group and I was just enthralled by them. Someone else in the group had this book so I couldn't wait to get hold of it and read more of her amazing poems.
I'm partial to the Szymborska translations of Claire Cavanaugh, but this translator brought a deeper dimension to some of my favorite pieces that I really like, including 'Cat in an Empty Apartment.'
I love Szymborska but I must say I prefer the translations in View With a Grain of Sand over the ones found in this book.
I really fucking love Szymborska but this is not the best collection. The little collages are cool.
Jan 13, 2009
Ilene
added it
The ordinary may be extraordinarily expressed. I read from this book
on a daily basis.
on a daily basis.
The poems are beautiful, but the translation occasionally yanked me out of the poem.
Miracle Fair: Selected Poems of Wislawa Szymborska by Wislawa Szymborska (2001)
Wonderful poetry. It was a pulitzer prize winner.
Again beautiful.
Nov 29, 2012
Iga Cullinan
added it
Magia
I'll be re-reading this ... some of the poems speak to me, some cause me to catch my breath, some zoom right past me.
My favorite Polish poet. Which is saying a lot! Perhaps Poland produces exemplary poets, or Polish translates particularly well into English, or maybe the fact that my great-grandparents came to Michigan from Poland makes Polish lines resonate with me in some special way. Whatever it is, "Wendy's favorite Polish poet" is a hard-won prize. This collection does not disappoint.
Actually, I didn't make it to the end. Nothing really compelled me to finish it. Perhaps it was the translation, or perhaps I'll come back in a few years and enjoy it more. It seemed rather flat to me.
Strength in vulnerability. Walking around with your eyes open, unafraid to peer into dark corners. Narrative in place of sharp edged opinion takes the form of Woman, or has been Woman all along. I love her.
If this truly is a lousy translation or not representative of her best work as some other reviewers claim, her other stuff must be effing phenomenal.
Beautiful poems by the Nobel Prize Polish poet Szymborska. One of my absolute poems of all times is "Love at First Sight". Highly recommend!
"i believe in commonplace miracle"
...i truly believe so.
...i truly believe so.
by best translator from Polish to English: J. Trzeciak
I am a rock, said the rock.
great selection of her work.
May 25, 2013
Srishti Chowdhury
marked it as to-read
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Wisława Szymborska (Polish pronunciation: [vʲisˈwava ʂɨmˈbɔrska], born July 2, 1923 in Kórnik, Poland) is a Polish poet, essayist and translator. She was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. In Poland, her books reach sales rivaling prominent prose authors[citation needed]—although she once remarked in a poem entitled "Some like poetry" [Niektórzy lubią poezję] that no more than two out of...more
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