Famous Poles Presentation by Polish Participants Sopot 2011 English Unlimited Discover the World Anew Project 2010/2011

Wisława Szymborska 2010/2011Discover the World Anew: famous Poles2

The Life Wisława Szymborska was born on 2 July 1923 in Prowent, now part of Kornik in Poland. Her family moved to Krakow in 1931 when she has lived and worked ever since. She loves Krakow. During the World War II she continued her education in underground lessons. From 1943 she worked as a railroad employee and managed to avoid being deported to Germany as a forced labourer. Next, she took up studies of Polish language and literature. She met and was influenced by Czeslaw Milosz. In 1948 she married a poet Adam Wlodek whom she divorced in Next she lived with Kornel Filipowicz till his death in /2011Discover the World Anew: famous Poles3

The Poetry In her poetry, Wisława Szymborska frequently employs literary devices such as irony, paradox, contradiction and understatement. Her poems are compacted and they touch the condition of people both as individuals and as members of human society. She has not published more than 250 poems to date. She is often described as a modest to the point of shyness. Her poetry has been set to music by Zbigniew Preisner. Szymborska became better known internationally after she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Szymborska's work has been translated into many European languages as well as into Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese and Chinese. 2010/2011Discover the World Anew: famous Poles4

PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN She must be willing to please. To change so that nothing should change. It's easy, impossible, hard, worth trying. Her eyes are if need be now deep blue, now gray, dark, playful, filled for no reason with tears. She sleeps with him like some chance acquaintance, like his one and only. She will bear him four children, no children, one. Naive yet giving he best advice. Weak yet lifting the weightiest burdens. Has no head on her shoulders but will have. Reads Jaspers and ladies' magazines. Doesn't know what this screw is for and will built a bridge. Young, as usual young, as always still young. Holds in her hands a sparrow with a broken wing, her own money for a journey long and distant, a meat - cleaver, poultice, and a shot of vodka. Where is she running so, isn't she tired? Not at all, just a bit, very much, doesn't matter. Either she loves him or has made up her mind to. For better, for worse, and for heaven's sake. 2010/2011Discover the World Anew: famous Poles5

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION :) Presentation prepared by: the group from Sopot, Poland Photographs: Internet 2010/2011Discover the World Anew: famous Poles6