Love at First Sight by Wislawa Szymborska
320 x 205mm / Digital Print / Hand Binding
Visual essay book of the poem "Love at First Sight" by Wislawa Szymborska
Love at First Sight
They are sure
that a sudden feeling united them.
Beautiful is such certainty,
but uncertainty more beautiful.
They think, that as they didn’t know each other earlier,
nothing ever happened between them.
But what would they say: those streets, stairways, and corridors
where they could have been passing each other for a long time?
I would like to ask them,
don’t you remember
maybe face to face once
in a revolving door?
an “excuse me” in a tight crowd?
a “wrong number” heard over the phone?
but I know their answer.
No, they don’t remember.
They would be quite surprised,
that for a long time
chance had been toying with them.
Not altogether ready
to turn into their fate,
it would draw them together, pull them apart,
cut them off on their path,
and, swallowing a giggle,
leap to the side.
There were signs, signals,
so what they were unreadable.
Maybe three years ago
or last Tuesday
some leaf flew from arm to arm?
Something got lost and then got picked up.
Who knows whether it wasn’t even a ball
in some childhood thicket?
There were doorknobs and doorbells,
where touch lay on touch
beforehand.
Suitcases next to one another in the baggage check.
Maybe one night the same dream,
blurred upon awakening.
Every beginning, after all,
is nothing but a sequel,
and the books of events
is always open in the middle.
Advisor: Edith Gruson, Simon Davies
