Hunger Camp at Jaslo by Wisława Szymborska
Hunger Camp at Jaslo by Wisława Szymborska

Hunger Camp at Jaslo

Wisława Szymborska * Track #3 On Poems New and Collected

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Hunger Camp at Jaslo by Wisława Szymborska

Hunger Camp at Jaslo Annotated

Write it. Write. In ordinary ink
on ordinary paper: they were given no food,
they all died of hunger. "All. How many?
It's a big meadow. How much grass
for each one?" Write: I don't know.
History counts its skeletons in round numbers.
A thousand and one remains a thousand,
as though the one had never existed:
an imaginary embryo, an empty cradle,
an ABC never read,
air that laughs, cries, grows,
emptiness running down steps toward the garden,
nobody's place in the line.

We stand in the meadow where it became flesh,
and the meadow is silent as a false witness.
Sunny. Green. Nearby, a forest
with wood for chewing and water under the bark-
every day a full ration of the view
until you go blind. Overhead, a bird-
the shadow of its life-giving wings
brushed their lips. Their jaws opened.
Teeth clacked against teeth.
At night, the sickle moon shone in the sky
and reaped wheat for their bread.
Hands came floating from blackened icons,
empty cups in their fingers.
On a spit of barbed wire,
a man was turning.
They sang with their mouths full of earth.
"A lovely song of how war strikes straight
at the heart." Write: how silent.
"Yes."

Hunger Camp at Jaslo Q&A

What is the (literary) tone of the poem?

Featuring crisp short sentences, the poem has a matter-of-factly, descriptive and didactic tone. Wislawa believes that the suffering of these victims is beyond measurement (“History counts its skeletons in round numbers/A thousand and one remains a thousand…”), and therefore uses such a tone to impa...

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What is the central theme? How is it reinforced and amplified?

Contrary what one’s intuition might lead to believe, the poem deals more directly with the nature of writing than with hunger (as a leitmotif). The poem both opens and ends with a didactic “write” spoken to someone. Although subject to subjectivity, the speaker here is likely the author herself, who...

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