2 poems by wislava szymborska [1923- 2012] : first love + true love ( http://www.poemhunter.com)

2 poems by W. Szymborska
(Nobel Literature of Poetry, 1996.)
http://poem.hunter.com


                             2 poems by wislava szymborska:
                    first love + true love 

                                        " All is mine but nothing owned, nothing owned for memory,
                                                                and mine only while I look."--   W. SZYMBORSKA (Nobel.prize. org)




                                                                FIRST LOVE
                                                          TRANSLATED. BY JOANNA  TRZECIAL



                                    They say
                                     the first love is the most important
                                     They's very romantic
                                     but it's not the case with me.


                                     There was something
                                      between us yet there wan't
                                      It transpired and expired.


                                      My hands don't tremble,
                                      When I stumble upon small momentos
                                      or a stack of letters .
                                      wrapped in twine
                                      -- not  even  ribbon.


                                       Our only meeting after all these years
                                       is a conversation between two chairs
                                       at a cold table.


                                       Other loves
                                       still breathe deeply within me
                                       This one backs the breathe to sigh.


                                        But still, just the way it is
                                        it can do what the rest are not yet able to do.
                                        unremembered
                                        not even of dreamt
                                        it accustoms me to death.



                                        TRUE LOVE


                                        True love.  It is normal
                                         is it serious, is it practical?
                                         What does the world get from two people
                                         who exist in a world of their own?


                                          Placed on the same pedestal for no good reason,
                                          drawn randomly from millions but convinced
                                          it had to happen this way -- in reward for what?
                                          For nothing.
                                          The light descends from nowhere.
                                           Why on these two and not on others?
                                           Doesn't it disrupt our painstakingly erected principles,
                                           and cast the moral from the peak? Yes on both accounts.


                                            Look at the happy couple.
                                            Couldn't they at least try to hide it,
                                            fake a little depression for their friends' sake?
                                            Listen to them laughing -- it's an insult.
                                            The language they use -- deceptively clear.
                                             And their little celebrations, rituals,
                                             the elaborate mutual routines --
                                             it's obviously a plot behind the human race's back!


                                              It's hard even to guess how far things might go
                                              it people start to follow their example.
                                              What could religion and poetry count on?
                                              What would be remembered? What renounced?
                                              Who'd want to stay within bounds?


                                               True love. It is really necessary?
                                               Tact and common sense tell us to pass over it in silence,
                                                like a scandal in Life's highest circles.
                                                Perfectly good children are born without its help.
                                                It couldn't populate the planet in a million years,
                                                it comes along so rarely.


                                                Let people who never find true love
                                                keep saying that there's no such thing.
                                                Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die.

                                                Wislava Szymborska