I have luckily just realized that is next Weds and not tomorrow which is some indication of my current level of distraction but it is not the dreamy distraction of the other-worldly Romantic poet, it is the ragged anxiety of someone adrift and losing their grip, which is less pretty. The world is too much with us.
On this occasion the long-suffering members of PPS will be excused my usual introductory essay and I'll keep it down to a minimum of remarks and then we can look at the poems, but I will say,
Wislawa Symborska (1923-2012) was perhaps not one of the best-known Nobel Prize winners when she was awarded the Literature prize in 1996, certainly not as famous as Bob Dylan. That would have been when I first heard of her and something prompted me to get View with a Grain of Sand, Selected Poems.
I liked it immediately for its 'sideways view' of the human condition, its gentle perception of absurdities and sometimes surreal look at ordinary life. Unless one is fluent in Polish, one can only appreciate her meaning in translation and can't access the 'poetry' itself but even without that she is very worthy of our attention.
Having been a member of 'the party', she finally left it in 1966 and associated with dissident elements.
And then, if nobody else has brought the poem, Museum, to read, we'll start with that.
