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Dave Cottrell

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RE: Wislawa Szymborska, Nobel-prize winning Polish poet, dies at 88
9/20/2013 6:12:21 PM
Quote:

Life While-You-Wait

Wislawa Szymborska



Life While-You-Wait.
Performance without rehearsal.
Body without alterations.
Head without premeditation.
I know nothing of the role I play.
I only know it's mine. I can't exchange it.
I have to guess on the spot
just what this play's all about.
Ill-prepared for the privilege of living,
I can barely keep up with the pace that the action demands.
I improvise, although I loathe improvisation.
I trip at every step over my own ignorance.
I can't conceal my hayseed manners.
My instincts are for happy histrionics.
Stage fright makes excuses for me, which humiliate me more.
Extenuating circumstances strike me as cruel.
Words and impulses you can't take back,
stars you'll never get counted,
your character like a raincoat you button on the run ?
the pitiful results of all this unexpectedness.
If only I could just rehearse one Wednesday in advance,
or repeat a single Thursday that has passed!
But here comes Friday with a script I haven't seen.
Is it fair, I ask
(my voice a little hoarse,
since I couldn't even clear my throat offstage).
You'd be wrong to think that it's just a slapdash quiz
taken in makeshift accommodations. Oh no.
I'm standing on the set and I see how strong it is.
The props are surprisingly precise.
The machine rotating the stage has been around even longer.
The farthest galaxies have been turned on.
Oh no, there's no question, this must be the premiere.
And whatever I do
will become forever what I've done.
~ Wislawa Szymborska ~
(Poems New and Collected 1957-1997,
trans. S. Baranczak and C. Cavanagh)

She was a most amazing woman and more than that, a most amazing poet.
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Dave Cottrell

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RE: Wislawa Szymborska, Nobel-prize winning Polish poet, dies at 88
9/20/2013 6:14:16 PM
Quote:

Yesterday I've published SlideShare presentation dedicated to Wislawa Szymborska.



... And here is what I've found in my inbox today:




Very well done, Branka, and very well deserved. It was one of the best slideshare presentations I have seen. Never, ever sell yourself and your abilities short. You are an artist.

Dave
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Branka Babic

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RE: Wislawa Szymborska, Nobel-prize winning Polish poet, dies at 88
9/20/2013 9:11:06 PM
Dave,

I respect, appreciate and love you so much.
The density of the thoughts, impressions and feelings makes me speechless - what doesn't often happen to me.

Thank you.


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