“A Szymborska poem is always charming, wonderfully charming, charming as a small child singing, charming as a great pop-song lyric. But her poems are also, to use an old word, ‘deep,’ mysteriously so, about the very nature of existence.” —Adam Gopnick, the New Yorker

From the Nobel Prize winner, a classic collection of witty and contemplative poems, featuring a foreword by Billy Collins

In Monologue of a Dog, Wisława Szymborska writes with her signature mix of intellect and humor about everything from love unremembered to keys lost in the grass, finding in the smallest moments a path to the vast questions of existence. What begins as a passing thought ends, in her hands, as an x-ray of the human condition.

This bilingual edition, with translations from the incomparable Clare Kavanagh, serves as a perfect introduction for new readers and an essential companion for devoted fans.

PRAISE FOR WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA "Szymborska is unquestionably one of the great living European poets. She's deeply human and a joy to read . . . [A] poet to live with."--Robert Hass, The Washington Post Book World "She captures the nightmarish contingency of human survival, and the human callousness toward nature, with an ironic elegance miraculously free of bitterness."--The New Yorker —

WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA (1923–2012) was born in Poland and worked as a poetry editor, translator, and columnist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. Her books include View with a Grain of Sand, Here, The Acrobat, Monologue of a Dog, and Map: Collected and Last Poems, and Poems New and Collected: 1957–1997.