4 Love at First Sight

I think it is wonderful to discover a poem at the core of a beautiful film. The poem is Love at First Sight by Polish writer Wislawa Szymborska, recipient of the Nobel prize for literature in 1996.The English translation is by Walter Whipple. The movie is Turn Left, Turn Right.

Wislawa Szymborska

Love at First Sight

Both are convinced
that a sudden surge of emotion bound them together.
Beautiful is such a certainty,
but uncertainty is more beautiful.

Because they didn't know each other earlier, they suppose that
nothing was happening between them.
What of the streets, stairways and corridors
where they could have passed each other long ago?

I'd like to ask them
whether they remember-- perhaps in a revolving door
ever being face to face?
an "excuse me" in a crowd
or a voice "wrong number" in the receiver.
But I know their answer:
no, they don't remember.

They'd be greatly astonished
to learn that for a long time
chance had been playing with them.

Not yet wholly ready
to transform into fate for them
it approached them, then backed off,
stood in their way
and, suppressing a giggle,
jumped to the side.

There were signs, signals:
but what of it if they were illegible.
Perhaps three years ago,
or last Tuesday
did a certain leaflet fly
from shoulder to shoulder?
There was something lost and picked up.
Who knows but what it was a ball
in the bushes of childhood.

There were doorknobs and bells
on which earlier
touch piled on touch.
Bags beside each other in the luggage room.
Perhaps they had the same dream on a certain night,
suddenly erased after waking.

Every beginning
is but a continuation,
and the book of event
is never more than half open.

Even in translation, the message of the poem is captured beautifully and listening to it in the original Polish and in Chinese in the movie is quite a treat.

Watching the movie Turn Left, Turn Right with my students in EEP is such a fun activity. I hope they like the movie as much as I do.