Hope, Irony, and a Blade of Grass

How Wisława Szymborska disrupted my search for hope—and left something more lasting

The End and the Beginning

By Wisława Szymborska; translated By Joanna Trzeciak.

After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won’t
straighten themselves up, after all.

Someone has to push the rubble
to the side of the road,
so the corpse-filled wagons
can pass.

Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rag…