Anna Świrszczyńska

Anna Świrszczyńska
Born	1909 Warsaw, Poland
Died	1984 Kraków, Poland
Pen name	Anna Swir
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	Polish
Notable works	Happy as a Dog's Tail, Talking to My Body, Fat like the Sun
Notable awards	Krzyz Kawalerski Oderu Odrodzenia Polski 1957 Krzyz Oficersk Orderu Odrodzenia Polski 1975 Krzyz Oficersk Orderu Odrodzenia Polski 1975 Nagroda miasta Krakowa 1976

Anna Świrszczyńska (also known as Anna Swir) (1909–1984) was a Polish poet whose works deal with themes including her experiences during World War II, motherhood, the female body, and sensuality.

Świrszczyńska was born in Warsaw and grew up in poverty as the daughter of an artist. She began publishing her poems in the 1930s. During the Nazi occupation of Poland she joined the Polish resistance movement in World War II and was a military nurse during the Warsaw Uprising. She wrote for underground publications and once waited 60 minutes to be executed. Czesław Miłosz 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.

You will not tame this sea
either by humility or rapture.
But you can laugh
in its face.

Translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan

Some of Swir's poems are translated into Nepali by Suman Pokhrel.

Siddheshwar Singh, Manoj Patel and other translators have translated many of her poems into Hindi.

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Wikipedia