View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems

by Wislawa Szymborska

Overview

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

A remarkable, graceful collection from one of Europe’s most prominent and celebrated poets.

In these 100 poems, Wislawa Szymborska portrays a world of astonishing diversity and richness, in which nature is wise and prodigal and fate unpredictable, if not mischievous. With acute irony tempered by a generous curiosity, she documents life's improbability as well as its transient beauty.

"Wislawa Szymborska is not only one of the finest poets living today, but also one of the most readable. In these dazzling new translations Baranczak and Cavanaugh convey the full range of her wit and humor in poems that read as if they were written in English.” -Charles Simic

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780156002165
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/26/1995
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA (1923–2012) was born in Poland and worked as a poetry editor, translator, and columnist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. Her books include Monologue of a Dog, Map: Collected and Last Poems, and Poems New and Collected: 1957–1997.

Editorial Reviews

Wislawa Szymborska is not only one of the finest poets living today, but also one of the most readable. In these dazzling new translations Baranczak and Cavanaugh convey the full range of her wit and humor in poems that read as if they were written in English.”  — Charles Simic

“This is the third selection, by my count, of her poems in English. It is also the most dapper, the most fastidious, a crystallization entirely appropriate to this maker, whose poems depend so much on transparence. As with Cavafy, with Alberti, those saints of metaphorical intonation, everything depends on the envisioned vocalise. Accumulated versions, over years, reveal that Szymborska is a subtle, even subversive muse of vulnerability and a great European Poet.”  — Richard Howard

From the Publisher

The third collection in English by this celebrated Polish poet is characterized by sight and sentiment edged with irony, as if it were dangerous to know too well, to feel too deeply. Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh. Paper edition (unseen), $12. (RC) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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