Wislawa Szymborska was born in 1923 in a small town in Western Poland. She studied Polish literature and sociology at Jagellonian University from 1945 until 1948. She began to work at the literary review magazine Literary Life in 1953, a job she held for nearly thirty years. Szymborska is the author of more than fifteen books of poetry: Monologue of a Dog (2005); Poems, New and Collected, 1957-1997 (1998); View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems (1995); People on a Bridge (1990) and Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts: Seventy Poems (1981).

维斯瓦娃-辛波丝卡于1923年出生于波兰西部的一个小镇，1945-48年就读于雅格隆大学，学习波兰文学和社会学，1953年开始在《文学生活》杂志工作，出版过十几本诗集：《一只狗的独白》（2005）；《新诗选：1957-1997》（1998）；《诗选：一粒沙看世界》（1995）；《桥上的人》（1990）以及《声音，情感，思想：七十首诗》（1981）。

冯冬，1979年生于重庆，南京大学英文系博士毕业，现任教于暨南大学，译过游记《中华帝国纪行》、《亲密接触中国》、小说《蛛网与磐石》等，在海内外诗刊发表作品，与人合著诗集《残酷的乌鸦》（2011），主要研究诗歌、精神分析和当代哲学。

Peter Feng was born in Chongqing, China, in 1979. He has received a Ph.D degree in literature from Nanjing University and currently teaches English at Jinan University. He has co-translated A Journey through the Chinese Empire, Intimate China, and The Web and the Rock, and co-written a book of poems Cruel Raven (2011). His study includes poetry, psychoanalysis, and contemporary philosophy.

Under One Small Star

在一颗小星下

My apologies to chance for calling it necessity.
My apologies to necessity if I'm mistaken, after all.
Please, don't be angry, happiness, that I take you as my due.
May my dead be patient with the way my memories fade.
My apologies to time for all the world I overlook each second.
My apologies to past loves for thinking that the latest is the first.
Forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home.
Forgive me, open wounds, for pricking my finger.
I apologize for my record of minuets to those who cry from the depths.
I apologize to those who wait in railway stations for being asleep today at five a.m.
Pardon me, hounded hope, for laughing from time to time.
Pardon me, deserts, that I don't rush to you bearing a spoonful of water. 
And you, falcon, unchanging year after year, always in the same cage,
your gaze always fixed on the same point in space,
forgive me, even if it turns out you were stuffed.
My apologies to the felled tree for the table's four legs.
My apologies to great questions for small answers.
Truth, please don't pay me much attention.
Dignity, please be magnanimous.
Bear with me, O mystery of existence, as I pluck the occasional thread from your train.
Soul, don't take offense that I've only got you now and then.
My apologies to everything that I can't be everywhere at once.
My apologies to everyone that I can't be each woman and each man.
I know I won't be justified as long as I live,
since I myself stand in my own way.
Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,
then labor heavily so that they may seem light.
			

我向偶然道歉，我竟称它为必然。
我向必然道歉，如果我还是弄错。
幸福，我把你当成我应得的，你不要生气。
愿死者忍耐我消退的记忆。
我向时间道歉，时时刻刻都有被我忽视的世界。
我向旧日恋情道歉，我以为最后的才最重要。
原谅我，远处的战争，我带了鲜花回家。
原谅我，敞开的伤口，我刺伤自己手指。
为了我的小步舞曲唱片，我向深渊中呼喊的人们道歉。
我向等在火车站的人道歉，早上五点我在睡觉。
宽恕我，被迫害的希望，我不时发出笑声。
宽恕我，沙漠，我没有奔向你，带来一勺水。
还有你，猎鹰，经年不变，在同一个笼里，
你的目光盯着空中同一个1)点，
原谅我，你不过是只填塞的鹰。
我向倒下的树道歉，做了桌子的四条腿。
我向伟大的问题道歉，只有小小的答案。
真理，不必在乎我。
尊严，宽宏大量些。
存在的秘密啊，请容忍我偶尔拉扯你的丝线。
灵魂，别生气，我并非时刻拥有你。
我向每件事道歉，我无法同时去到所有地方。
我向每个人道歉，我无法成为每个女人男人。
我知道，我活着就无法为自己辩护，
我自己挡住自己的路。
言语，请别敌视我，我借用沉重的词，
辛苦劳作，使它们看上去很轻。