I work in futures (of the strategy and scenarios kind, not the financial speculation) which is how I first came across this poem by the Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1996. But I also love the lexicographical play on the three words.
When I say the word Future,
the first syllable is already a part of the past.
When I say the word Silence,
I spoil it.
When I say the word Nothing,
I create something that nothingness cannot contain.
The translation is by Ian Firla. The last time I looked, her work was out of print in English. But there are more poems here, and here.
