Wislawa Szymborska | © Privat
From Paris and Petersburg through Pakistan and Polynesia to Paraguay and Portugal, is there any other lyricist like this one anywhere in the world? Who shuns every fad and remains steadfastly true to herself? And yet who, in revealing what it is about this world and our human nature that pains and disconcerts us most, is way ahead of other writers – not to mention a fair number of philosophers, anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, historians and political scientists?
Stanislaw Barańczak, the poet and essayist who penned these words, was by no means the only great admirer of Wisława Szymborska’s works. In her Polish homeland, she was highly esteemed from the start as one of the foremost lyricists of her generation. Since winning the Nobel Prize in 1996, she enjoyed the same reputation abroad. She would have celebrated her 100th birthday this year: reason enough for her biographer Marta Kijowska (an author, translator and journalist born in 1955) and poet/translator Renate Schmidgall (born in 1955) to share with us an insight into Szymborska’s life and work. The voice of Sabine Kastius (radio, TV and documentary narrator, born in 1950) breathes life into Szymborska’s poetry.
Marta Kijowska‘s biography of the writer, Nichts kommt zweimal vor (Nothing repeats itself; Schöffling & Co., 2023), an anthology of her Gesammelte Gedichte (Collected Poems) and the work Sie sollten dringend den Kugelschreiber wechseln. Anregungen für angehende Literaten (You should really change your pen. Suggestions for budding litterati), translated by Renate Schmidgall, were all released this summer by the Suhrkamp publishing house.
Sponsored by Neustart Literatur (Fresh Start Literature), a program run by the Deutscher Literaturfonds (German Literature Fund) under the aegis of Neustart Kultur (Fresh Start Culture).
Tickets: 8 euros/6 euros (discount rate). Lyrik Kabinett members receive free admission. For more information, please visit the Lyrik Kabinett website. The event will be held in German.
LMU and the Lyrik Kabinett have worked together very intensively for over 30 years. The more than 70,000 works subsumed under the Lyrik Kabinett Foundation are available via OPAC to everyone related to LMU. Numerous events provide a fascinating insight into the current poetic landscape.