36. Kein blinder Haß

With such thought provoking lines as “Whether you like it or not, your genes have a political past, your skin, a political cast, your eyes, a political slant,” Szymborska inspired and entertained an entire generation and had her place sealed in the highest echelons of poetry. Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski called her a ‘guardian spirit‘, “In her poems, we could find brilliant advice that made the world easier to understand,” he said. Having survived Nazi- occupied Europe during World War II and the Communist purges in Poland after the war, Szymborska’s observations are at once subtle and witty. ‘Blind‘ is an attribute usually associated to the emotion of hatred. But in a poem on the subject, Wislawa describes hatred as ‘having a sniper’s keen sight‘. By combining details with insight, Szymborska subtly pushes her readers to reinterpret the understanding of human conditions. / DIVYA TRIVEDI, The Hindu