Born in 1909 in Warsaw, Poland, Anna Świrszczyńska (aka Anna Swir) is widely considered to be one of Poland’s most distinguished poets. Profoundly marked by World War II, especially the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, during which she volunteered as a nurse, Swir explores in her poems the joys and horrors of human nature and the female body. She died in Kraków in 1984.
