Nothing Twice Poem by Wislawa Szymborska
Nothing Twice
Nothing can ever happen twice.
In consequence, the sorry fact is
that we arrive here improvised
and leave without the chance to practice.
Even if there is no one dumber,
if you're the planet's biggest dunce,
you can't repeat the class in summer:
this course is only offered once.
No day copies yesterday,
no two nights will teach what bliss is
in precisely the same way,
with precisely the same kisses.
One day, perhaps some idle tongue
mentions your name by accident:
I feel as if a rose were flung
into the room, all hue and scent.
The next day, though you're here with me,
I can't help looking at the clock:
A rose? A rose? What could that be?
Is it a flower or a rock?
Why do we treat the fleeting day
with so much needless fear and sorrow?
It's in its nature not to stay:
Today is always gone tomorrow.
With smiles and kisses, we prefer
to seek accord beneath our star,
although we're different (we concur)
just as two drops of water are.
translated by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak
I was lead to this poem by seeing that one of the people I follow, Savita Tyagi, had left a comment on it. I don't know about the original poem, but the translators did a marvelous job. This is beautiful!
So grateful to come across some of the marvelous poems of this poet.
Why do we treat the fleeting day with so much needless fear and sorrow? It's in its nature not to stay: Today is always gone tomorrow. With smiles and kisses, we prefer to seek accord beneath our star, although we're different (we concur) just as two drops of water are. - - Wow- What a lovely poem!
This was absolutely one of the very best poems I have ever read! And the translators Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak have done their job with consummate skill and poetic bent. Kudos to them for delivering this poem to us undamaged. I want to read this again and again
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/15/2024 4:32:24 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Wonderful thought provoking poem.