Thursday, February 02, 2012

Secret taken to the grave

I believe in the refusal to take part.
I believe in the ruined career.
I believe in the wasted years of work.
I believe in the secret taken to the grave.
These words soar for me beyond all rules
without seeking support from actual examples.
My faith is strong, blind, and without foundation.

Discovery, Wislawa Szymborska

4 comments:

Alexandre Fabbri said...

Yes, sad news. As you probably know, the poem Love At First Sight written by Wislawa Szymborska influenced Krzysztof Kieslowski in his making of Three Colours Red. I was thinking about going out to tonight to see a new comedy about Polish Solidarnosc of 1981 starring Boguslaw Linda (Decalogue 7, Blind Chance) but to be honest it is so cold it is freezing and snow is predicted to fall heavily later this evening so I might just stay in instead! Hope you are keeping well.

pranabk said...

Thanks for dropping by, Alexandre Fabbri. Yes, I did read (from your blog) about Wislawa Szymborska's poem influencing Kieslowski's Three Colours Red. I had been a bit caught up with things, so had been silent mostly. I think I read about this severe cold wave that recently caught Europe in its grip. Hope it passes soon.

Anonymous said...

Life is the only way to get covered in leaves, catch your breath on the sand, rise on wings; to be a dog, or to stroke it's warm fur; to tell pain from everything it's not; to squeeze inside events, dwadle in views, to seek the least of all possible mistakes. An extraordinary chance to remember for a moment a conversation held with the lamp switched off; and if only once to stumble on a stone, end up soaked in one downpour or another, mislay your keys in the grass; and to follow a spark on the wind with your eyes; and to keep not knowing something important. -Wislawa Szymborska

pranabk said...

@Anonymous: Thank you! Such breathtakingly wonderful lines these are! I needed to read these at the moment. Wislawa is a poet who I repeatedly keep coming back to, and feel things anew.