Photo: vietnamplus

The first-ever poetry collection by late Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska-Wlodek, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996, has just been released here.

The collection, which was published by the Vietnam Writers' Association Publishing House, translated 119 poems into Vietnamese by Ta Minh Chau from the Polish language.

Szymborska (1923 – 2012) was a poet, essayist and translator. She was described as the "Mozart of Poetry."

Szymborska was awarded the Nobel Prize "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality."

Her work has been translated into English and many European languages, as well as into Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese and Chinese.

In Vietnam, her poems have been published in various literature publications, yet this is the first time a collection by her has been introduced.

"All of her works contain a common message: the beauty of life overwhelms every corner, every time, even in the simplest things," poet Nguyen Quang Thieu, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Writers' Association said.

"Through that, we understand a great artiste's attitude toward her responsibility in social reality," Thieu added.

Poet, translator Ta Minh Chau spent a long time studying and working in Poland, where he had met Szymborska several times.

He said though the poet had never been to Vietnam, she wrote on the wars in the country in two poems namely "The Shied" and "Vietnam."

The poems help people around the world get a better understanding on the just revolutions of the Vietnamese people, and the virtuosity of the people in general, and Vietnamese women in particular, he commented.

Michal Rusinek, Chairman of Wislawa Szymborska Foundation, who joined the book launching ceremony here on July 16, said he had accompanied her only for a part of her life as she always worked alone.

"She led a simple life," the former secretary of the great poet said.

She donated the entire 1 million USD she received from the Nobel Prize committee to the foundation. Now the foundation awards the best international poetry collection translated into Polish.

Source: VNA