About the Book

A "delectable and profound" collection of poems from Nobel Prize–winner Szymborska (Booklist).

When Here was published in Poland, reviewers marveled, “How is it that she keeps getting better?”

These twenty-seven poems, as rendered by prize-winning translators Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak, are among her greatest ever. Whether writing about her teenage self, microscopic creatures, or the upsides to living on Earth, she remains a virtuoso of form, line, and thought.

From the title poem:

I can’t speak for elsewhere,
but here on Earth we’ve got a fair supply of everything.
Here we manufacture chairs and sorrows,
scissors, tenderness, transistors, violins, teacups, dams, and quips. . .

Like nowhere else, or almost nowhere,
you’re given your own torso here,
equipped with the accessories required
for adding your own children to the rest.
Not to mention arms, legs, and astonished head.

Critical Praise

"No reader, not even poetry-phobes, should miss the bright revelations of Nobel laureate Szymborska. [...] Syzmborska is sharply ironic and lithely philosophical, pondering the phenomenal precision of dreams and the elusiveness of meaning. The neat, prancing lyrics collected in this slender, piercing book are delectable and profound." --Booklist —

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Product Details

• ISBN: 9780547592091
• ISBN 10: 0547592094
• Imprint: Ecco
• On Sale: 08/07/2012
• Trimsize: 5.000 in (w) x 8.000 in (h) x 0.310 in (d)
• Pages: 96
• List Price: $14.95
• BISAC1 : POETRY / European / General
• BISAC2 : POETRY / Ancient & Classical
• BISAC3 : POETRY / European / German
• BISAC4 : POETRY / European / Italian