The Silence of Plants by Wisława Szymborska
Talking with you is essential and impossible.
The Silence of Plants
Our one-sided acquaintance grows quite nicely. I know what a leaf, petal, ear, cone, stalk is, what April and December do to you. Although my curiosity is not reciprocal, I specially stoop over some of you, and crane my neck at others. I've got a list of names for you: maple, burdock, hepatica, mistletoe, heath, juniper, forget-me-not, but you have none for me. We're traveling together. But fellow passengers usually chat, exchange remarks at least about the weather, or about the stations rushing past. We wouldn't lack for topics: we've got a lot in common. The same star keeps us in its reach. We cast shadows based on the same laws. We try to understand things, each in our own way, and what we don't know brings us closer too. I'll explain as best I can, just ask me: what seeing with two eyes is like, what my heart beats for, and why my body isn't rooted down. But how to answer unasked questions, while being furthermore a being so totally a nobody to you. Undergrowth, coppices, meadows, rushes— everything I tell you is a monologue, and it's not you who listens. Talking with you is essential and impossible. Urgent in this hurried life and postponed to never.
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Monologue of a Dog (2002, Harcourt) translated by Clare Cavanagh from the Polish
This poem parallels Rilke’s “Rose, Oh Pure Contradiction” in interesting ways. For example, both poems could be depicting the circumstance of a mirror (talking to oneself, revealing necessary information about oneself) unknowingly experienced, triggering thoughts that otherwise wouldn’t spawn, through a plant. Rilke’s poem is more of a Brahman-type revelation, and Szymborska’s poem is more of a secular-type revelation. Sparks for rereading the poem: the above are just thoughts, off the cuff, and require of me more time to think through.
How often do we ignore the wisdom of plants around us?. This poem keeps us grounded and rooted in nature. the closing lines are utterly beautiful: "Urgent in this hurried life
and postponed to never. " What else can you expect from Wislawa Szymborska.