Journal 70 – The Century’s Decline by Wislawa Szymborska

In my previous journal I have written that the twentieth century experienced many cruel events. Right now, I would like to show you what the one of the most famous Polish poets thinks about that period. I am giving the voice to Wislawa Szymborska a winner the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. The title this poem is The Century’s Decline. The poem was translated by Prof. Stanislaw Baranczak from Harvard University.

The Century’s Decline

Our twentieth century was going to improve on the others.
It will never prove it now,
now that its years are numbered,
its breath is short.

Too many things have happened
that weren’t supposed to happen,
and what was supposed to come about
has not.

Happiness and spring, among other things,
were supposed to be getting closer.

Fear was expected to leave the mountains and the valleys.
Truth was supposed to hit home
before a lie.

A couple of problems weren’t going
to come up anymore;
hunger, for example,
and war, and so forth.

There was going to be respect
for helpless people’s helplessness,
trust, that kind of stuff.

Anyone who planned to enjoy the world
is now face
with a hopeless task.

Stupidity isn’t funny.
Wisdom isn’t gay.

Hope
isn’t that young girl anymore,
et cetera, alas.

God was finally going to believe
in a man both good and strong,
but good and strong
are still two different men.

“How should we live?” someone asked me in a letter.
I had meant to ask him
the same question.

Again, and as ever,
as may be seen above,
the most pressing questions
are naive ones.