Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Wis?awa Szymborska's "Terrorist is Watching," translated by Adam Czermiawski, the horror of an impending act of terror is narrated in real-time, each second charged with the looming inevitability of disaster. The poem provides an intimate look at a public tragedy, allowing the reader to become both spectator and unwilling participant. It's an unsettling journey into the inner workings of terrorism, with the objective lens of the observer adding another layer of horror.

Szymborska's decision to record time as it ticks away toward the inevitable catastrophe serves not only to heighten tension but also to draw attention to the ordinary moments that occur right before a life-altering event. "Now it's only sixteen minutes past. / Some will still have time to enter, / some to leave." These lines encapsulate the randomness and unpredictability of fate, all the more agonizing because we are already aware of the irreversible horror that awaits.

The minutiae of human behavior are starkly highlighted-people coming and going, a woman in a yellow jacket, a man in dark glasses, boys in jeans talking-each a snapshot of normality that will soon be shattered. Szymborska draws us into the mundanity of these people's lives only to remind us of the arbitrary line between life and death: "The smaller one he's lucky, mounts his scooter, / but the taller chap he walks in."

The poem takes on an even darker tone when we are told that "The terrorist's already on the other side." He's an observer of his own horrific act, calculating and detached, a spectator in the theatre of his own making. The distance, both physical and emotional, protects him from the immediacy of what he's about to do. The concept of "the other side" might also suggest the terrorist's ideological distance, the chasm between his worldview and the society he is about to violently disrupt.

Perhaps one of the most haunting elements of the poem is the commentary on time: "It's twenty past one. / Time, how it drags. / Surely, it's now." The dragging of time highlights the dual existence of time as both measure and experience. For the people in the bar, the seconds are ordinary, but for the terrorist and the reader, they are weighted with dreadful knowledge.

Finally, the bomb explodes. The poem leaves us with this blunt reality, no further embellishment necessary. The act is done, and the lives entangled in this event are forever altered or ended. The brevity of the final lines captures the abruptness of the tragedy. In this, Szymborska makes a searing critique not just of the act of terror itself, but also of the voyeuristic inclinations that such acts awaken in society, both in those who watch and in those who enact these horrors.

Szymborska's poem is a chilling exploration of the banality of evil, the randomness of fate, and the inexorable passage of time that leads to moments of irreversible change. Through its grim focus, the poem forces us to confront the harsh reality of a world where such acts of terror are possible, all the while questioning the factors that lead to such cruel twists of fate.

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