Wisława Szymborska

Wisława Szymborska (born July 2, 1923) is a Nobel Laureate, Polish poet, essayist and translator of French literature.

She was born in Bnin (now a part of Kórnik) near Poznan in Poland. In 1931 her family moved to Cracow. Since then, Szymborska has been linked with the city of Cracow where she studied, worked, and still resides in.

In March 1945, Szymborska published her first poem "Szukam słowa" ("I seek the word") in the daily paper "Dziennik Polski."

From 1945 to 1948 she studied Polish language and sociology at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow.

Her poems were published in a variety of newspapers and periodicals for a number of years immediately after World War 2.

In 1953, she joined the staff of the literature review magazine called "Życie Literackie" (Literary Life) where she continued to work until 1981. Szymborska wrote a book review column entitled "Lektury Nadobowiązkowe" (Non-required Reading). Many of the articles were later published in book form.

Szymborska has also translated French lyric poetry, especially Baroque poetry and Agrippa d'Aubigné.

During the 1980s, she was participated in the Polish "samizdat" movement and wrote under the pseudonym Stanczykówna for "Arka" and in the exile magazine "Kultura", which was published in Paris,France.

Her poetry has been translated to many European languages, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese and Chinese.

Prizes and Awards

The City of Cracow Prize for Literature 1954
The Polish Ministry of Culture Prize 1963
The Goethe Prize 1991
The Herder Prize 1995
Honorary Doctor of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan 1995
The Polish PEN Club prize 1996
Nobel Prize for Literature 1996

Major Works

Dlatego żyjemy (That's Why We Are Alive) (1952)
Pytania zadawane sobie (Questioning Yourself) (1954)
Wołanie do Yeti (Calling Out to Yeti) (1957)
Sól (Salt) (1962)
101 wierszy (101 Poems) (1966)
Sto pociech (No End of Fun) (1967)
Poezje wybrane (Selected Poetry) (1967)
Wszelki wypadek (Could Have) (1972)
Wielka liczba (A Large Number) (1976)
Ludzie na moście (People on the Bridge) (1986)
Poezje: Poems (bilingual Polish-English edition) (1989)
Lektury nadobowiązkowe (Non-required Reading) (1992)
Koniec i początek (The Beginning and the End) (1993)
Widok z ziarnkiem piasku (View with a Grain of Sand) (1996)
Sto wierszy - sto pociech (100 Poems - 100 Happinesses) (1997)
Chwila (Moment) (2002)
Rymowanki dla dużych dzieci (Rhymes for Big Kids) (2003)

Her poetic style is based on a tradition of 20th century poetry and humanistic mainstream. However, she detaches herself from current philosophical, artistic and cultural trends. Her poems include irony, paradoxes and jokes. She has also written limericks.

She has a wide group of devoted readers and her collections of poems regularly reach the circulation of some popular novels.