Poetry

The three oddest words

When I pronounce the word Future,
the first syllable already belongs to the past.

When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.

When I pronounce the word Nothing,
I make something no non-being can hold.

By Wislawa Szymborska
Translated by S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh

Copyright © Wislawa Szymborska, S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh

To cite this section
MLA style: Poetry. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2020. Mon. 3 Aug 2020. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1996/szymborska/25558-poetry-1996-7/>

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