<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-width: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; font-size: 22px;">Hatred</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-width: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; font-size: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-width: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; font-size: 22px;">
Look, how constantly capable<br>
and how well maintained<br>
in our century: hatred.<br>
How lightly she regards high impediments.<br>
How easily she leaps and overtakes.<br>
<br>
She's not like other feelings.<br>
She's both older and younger than they.<br>
She herself gives birth to causes<br>
which awaken her to life.<br>
If she ever dozes, it's not an eternal sleep.<br>
Insomnia does not sap her strength, but adds to it.<br>
<br>
Religion or no religion,<br>
as long as one kneels at the starting-block.<br>
Fatherland or no fatherland,<br>
as long as one tears off at the start.<br>
She begins as fairness and equityt.<br>
Then she propels herself.<br>
Hatred. Hatred.<br>
She veils her face with a mien<br>
of romantic ecstasy.<br>
<br>
Oh, the other feelings --<br>
decrepit and sluggish.<br>
Since when could that brotherhood<br>
count on crowds?<br>
Did ever empathy<br>
urge on toward the goal?<br>
How many clients did doubt abduct?<br>
Only she abducts who knows her own.</div><p style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-width: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; font-size: 22px;"> </p><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-width: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; font-size: 22px;">Talented, intelligent, very industrious.<br>
Do we need to say how many songs she has written.<br>
How many pages of history she has numbered.<br>
How many carpets of people she has spread out<br>
over how many squares and stadiums!<br>
<br>
Let's not lie to ourselves:<br>
She's capable of creating beauty.<br>
Wonderful is her aura on a black night.<br>
Magnificent cloud masses at rosy dawn.<br>
It's difficult to deny her pathos of ruins<br>
and her coarse humor<br>
mightily towering above them columns.<br>
<br>
She's the mistress of contrast<br>
between clatter and silence,<br>
between red blood and white snow.<br>
And above all she never tires of<br>
the motif of the tidy hangman<br>
above the defiled victim.<br>
<br>
She's ready for new tasks at any moment.<br>
If she must wait she'll wait.<br>
She said she was blind. Blind?<br>
She has the keen eyes of a sniper<br>
and boldly looks into the future<br>
--she alone</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-width: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; font-size: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-width: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; font-size: 22px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Wislawa Szymborska</div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(translated by Walter Whipple)</div></div></body></html>