{"id":26552,"date":"2012-02-06T12:58:39","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T17:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=26552"},"modified":"2012-02-06T13:05:02","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T18:05:02","slug":"wislawa-szymborska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/","title":{"rendered":"Wis\u0142awa Szymborska"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-26556\" title=\"Wislawa Szymborska.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"311\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws-289x300.jpg 289w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a>Last week Wis\u0142awa Szymborska died in Krak\u00f3w at the age of eighty-eight. Szymborska received the Nobel Prize in 1996 and was Poland\u2019s best-loved living poet. Her poem \u201cNegative\u201d appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/back-issues\/144\">issue 144 of <em>The Paris Review<\/em><\/a>, translated by Joanna Trzeciak:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In the dun-colored sky<br \/> A cloud even more dun-colored<br \/> With the black outline of the sun.<\/p>\n<p>To the left, that is, to the right<br \/> A white cherry branch with black flowers.<\/p>\n<p>On your dark face, light shadows.<br \/> You have sat down at a small table<br \/> And laid your grayed hands on it.<\/p>\n<p>You give the impression of a ghost<br \/> Who attempts to summon the living.<\/p>\n<p>(Because I&#8217;m still counted among them,<br \/> I should appear and knock:<br \/> Good night, that is, good morning,<br \/> Farewell, that is, hello.<br \/> Not being stingy with questions to any answer<br \/> If they concern life,<br \/> That is, the storm before the calm.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week Wis\u0142awa Szymborska died in Krak\u00f3w at the age of eighty-eight. Szymborska received the Nobel Prize in 1996 and was Poland\u2019s best-loved living poet. Her poem \u201cNegative\u201d appeared in issue 144 of The Paris Review, translated by Joanna Trzeciak: In the dun-colored sky A cloud even more dun-colored With the black outline of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6149,6148,4279,3507,6150],"class_list":["post-26552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-memoriam","tag-joanna-trzeciak","tag-negative","tag-nobel-prize","tag-poland","tag-wislawa-szymborska"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wis\u0142awa Szymborska by Lorin Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"February 6, 2012 \u2013 Last week Wis\u0142awa Szymborska died in Krak\u00f3w at the age of eighty-eight. Szymborska received the Nobel Prize in 1996 and was Poland\u2019s best-loved living\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wis\u0142awa Szymborska by Lorin Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"February 6, 2012 \u2013 Last week Wis\u0142awa Szymborska died in Krak\u00f3w at the age of eighty-eight. Szymborska received the Nobel Prize in 1996 and was Poland\u2019s best-loved living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-06T17:58:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-02-06T18:05:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"311\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lorin Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lorin Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lorin Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b\"},\"headline\":\"Wis\u0142awa Szymborska\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-06T17:58:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-02-06T18:05:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/\"},\"wordCount\":149,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Joanna Trzeciak\",\"Negative\",\"Nobel Prize\",\"Poland\",\"Wislawa Szymborska\"],\"articleSection\":[\"In Memoriam\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/\",\"name\":\"Wis\u0142awa Szymborska by Lorin Stein\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-06T17:58:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-02-06T18:05:02+00:00\",\"description\":\"February 6, 2012 \u2013 Last week Wis\u0142awa Szymborska died in Krak\u00f3w at the age of eighty-eight. Szymborska received the Nobel Prize in 1996 and was Poland\u2019s best-loved living\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wis\u0142awa Szymborska\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b\",\"name\":\"Lorin Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lorin Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/lstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wis\u0142awa Szymborska by Lorin Stein","description":"February 6, 2012 \u2013 Last week Wis\u0142awa Szymborska died in Krak\u00f3w at the age of eighty-eight. Szymborska received the Nobel Prize in 1996 and was Poland\u2019s best-loved living","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wis\u0142awa Szymborska by Lorin Stein","og_description":"February 6, 2012 \u2013 Last week Wis\u0142awa Szymborska died in Krak\u00f3w at the age of eighty-eight. Szymborska received the Nobel Prize in 1996 and was Poland\u2019s best-loved living","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2012-02-06T17:58:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-02-06T18:05:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":311,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lorin Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lorin Stein","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/"},"author":{"name":"Lorin Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b"},"headline":"Wis\u0142awa Szymborska","datePublished":"2012-02-06T17:58:39+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-06T18:05:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/"},"wordCount":149,"commentCount":5,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg","keywords":["Joanna Trzeciak","Negative","Nobel Prize","Poland","Wislawa Szymborska"],"articleSection":["In Memoriam"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/","name":"Wis\u0142awa Szymborska by Lorin Stein","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg","datePublished":"2012-02-06T17:58:39+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-06T18:05:02+00:00","description":"February 6, 2012 \u2013 Last week Wis\u0142awa Szymborska died in Krak\u00f3w at the age of eighty-eight. Szymborska received the Nobel Prize in 1996 and was Poland\u2019s best-loved living","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ws.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/wislawa-szymborska\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wis\u0142awa Szymborska"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b","name":"Lorin Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lorin Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/lstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26552"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26564,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26552\/revisions\/26564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}