my body effervesces

I am born for the second time.

I am light

as the eyelash of the wind.

I froth, I am froth.

I walk dancing,

if I wish, I will soar.

The condensed lightness

of my body

condenses most forcibly

in the lightness of my foot

and its five toes.

The foot skims the earth

which gives way like compressed air.

An elastic duo

of the earth and of the foot. A dance

of liberation.

I am born for the second time,

happiness of the world

came to me again.

My body effervesces,

I think with my body which effervesces.

If I wish,

I will soar.

~ Anna Swirszczynska

translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan

Anna Swir (Świrszczyńska) was born in Warsaw, Poland, to an artistic though impoverished family. She worked from an early age, supporting herself while she attended university to study medieval Polish literature. In the 1930s she worked for a teachers’ association, served as an editor, and began publishing poetry. Swir joined the Resistance during World War II and worked as a military nurse during the Warsaw Uprising; at one point she came within an hour of being executed before she was spared. Czeslaw Milosz writes of knowing her during this time and has translated a volume of her work. Her experiences during the war strongly influenced her poetry. In 1974 she published "Building the Barricade", a volume which describes the suffering she witnessed and experienced during that time. She also writes frankly about the female body in various stages of life. In addition to poetry, Swir wrote plays and stories for children and directed a children’s theater. She lived in Krakow from 1945 until her death from cancer in 1984.

from the poetry foundation