“The Three Oddest Words” by Wisława Szymborska

“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.

Wisława Szymborska (translated by Stanislaw Baranczak & Clare Cavanagh)
—from Poems: New and Collected


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