SOURCE: Worozbyt, Theodore. Review of View with a Grain of Sand and Selected Poems, by Wislawa Szymborska. Prairie Schooner 73 (summer 1999): 197-202.

In the following review, Worozbyt notes the subtle differences between the English translations of View with a Grain of Sand and Selected Poems, arguing that each translation provides valuable insight and retrospection on Szymborska's verse.

Few tasks present the reviewer more difficulty than assessing a poet's work in translation. Add to this reviewer's dilemma a total unfamiliarity with the language of original composition, in this case Polish, and the resulting stewpot of critical and aesthetic conundrums effuses, once set to simmer, an aroma of rather tart vexation. Robert Frost's remark that what we lose in the translation of a poem is precisely the poetry itself inevitably and unhappily drifts into mind. But to what varying degrees is this true? Certain poets seem, by their very working methods...