Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004)
Polish-American author, translator and critic, who was awarded the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1980. Milosz's poetry and essays are a mixture of
autobiographical confessions dealing with the effects of exile, religious or
metaphysical fragments, historical and literary analyses. Acclaimed as a
Catholic poet, Milosz has also a strong pantheist element in his work.
"Those who are alive receive a mandate from those who are silent forever. They
can fulfill their duties only by trying to reconstruct precisely things as
they were and by wrestling the past from fictions and legends." (from Nobel
Lecture, 1981)
Czeslaw Milosz was born in Szetejnie, a rural town in Lithuania, then under
the domination of the Russian czarist government. In Native Realm (1959)
Milosz described his birth region as a land largely forgotten by history: "For
many centuries, while kingdoms rose and fell along the shores of the
Mediterranean and countless generations handed down their refined pleasures
and vices, my native land was a virgin forest whose only visitors were the few
Viking ships that landed on the coast." After WW I Milosz's family settled in
Vilna, where he had a strict Roman Catholic education. "In a Roman Catholic
country," Milosz wrote at an early stage of his career, "intellectual freedom
always goes hand in hand with atheism." Later Milosz accepted his religious
background and started to study Hebrew in order to render the Old Testament
into Polish.
Milosz received his master of laws degree from the University of Vilna in
1934, and then spent a year in Paris. There he formed a close relationship
with his distant uncle, Oscar Milosz (1877-1939), who was a diplomat and has
also made his name as a French poet. Milosz's first collection of verse,
POEMAT O CZASIE ZASTYGLYM, appeared in 1933. It was followed three years later
by TRZY ZIMY.
In 1936 he worked at a radio station in Vilna, but was dismissed the following
year because of his leftist views. Milosz moved to Warsaw. He became a leading
figure of the Zagary group, whose catastrophism, belief in an upcoming cosmic
disaster, reflected Spenglerian ideas of cultural life-cycles. Later he
returned to the theme of the decline of European civilization in The Land of
Ulro (1977). And the disaster came - first in 1939 when German invaded Poland
and World War II broke out.
WHAT ONE WAS GREAT
to A. and O. Wat
What once was great, now appeared small.
Kingdoms were fading like snow-covered bronze.
What once could smite, now smites no more.
Celestial earths roll on and shine.
Streched on the grass by the bank of a rives,
As long, long ago, I launch my boats of bark.
The heated literary debates of the group were carried in Vilnius and Warsaw
periodicals. In his articles Milosz condemned purely aesthetic trends in
literature. He attacked on the formalism of the poetic avantgarde in the name
of poetry that expresses the personality of the poet and his philosophy of the
world. Milosz's early works also show traces of distaste for any form of
nationalism, anti-Semitism, and ideological indoctrination. "What is poetry
which does not save / Nations or people?" he wrote.
'When Poland achieved independence in 1918 there were endless debates about a
Polish Academy of Letters until finally it was called into existence, but not
without some wild clashes. It established a Youth Prize, and when Stanislaw
Pietak was awarded it in 1938, Boleslaw Micinski, who was in France at the
time, wrote to his mother in the mock Russian he used when he wanted to be
funny, "It vood hev bin bedder hed Milosz gut prize."' (from Milisz's A B S's,
2001)
During World War II Milosz was active as a writer in the Resistance movement
and witnessed the Holocaust first-hand. His collection of verse, OCALENIA
(1945), impressed so the new Communist government that he was appointed junior
diplomat as a non-party intellectual. In 1944 he married Janina Dluska; they
had two sons. Between 1946 and 1951 Milosz was in the Polish diplomatic
service in Washington D.C., and in Paris. In 1951 he sought political asylum
in France. In ZNIEWOLONY UMYSL (tr. The Captive Mind, 1953), which appeared
after Milosz left Poland, he revealed the problems of intellectuals living
under Stalinism. He saw that there is some dark magnetic force in totalitarian
ideology, to which intellectuals were not immune. Between the years 1951 and
1960 Milosz lived in Paris. During these years he published TRAKTAT POETYCKI
(1957), one of his major works, in which Milosz argues that poetry is
essential for every human community wanting to survive as a community. DOLINA
ISSY (1955, The Issa Valley) was a novel dealing with the author's childhood
in Lithuania. ZDOBYCIE WLADZY (1955), The Seizure of Power) was about life in
Warsaw after a change in power.
"The exile of a poet, is today a simple function of a relatively recent
discovery; that whoever wields power is also able to control language, and not
only with the prohibition of censorship, but also by changing the meaning of
words." (from Nobel Lecture)
Milosz moved in 1960 to the United States, becoming professor of Slavic
languages and literature at University of California at Berkeley (1960-78). In
1970 he became a U.S. citizen. In California Milosz's poetry became more
introspective but he did not abandon his eschatological visions. His new home
country Milosz viewed ironically: "What splendor! What poverty! What humanity!
What inhumanity! What mutual good will! What individual isolation! What
loyalty to the ideal! What hypocrisy! What a triumph of conscience! What
perversity!" (from Milosz's A B C's, 2001)
Milosz's writings include essays, poetry, autobiography, literary history, and
translations from such authors as Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, John
Milton, T.S. Eliot, and Charles Baudelaire. As a writer Milosz is not easy -
his essays are dense and reflect his search for the essence of man and the
painful lessons of modern history. Repeatedly he has tried to find meaning
behind fleeting moments of life. At the age of 25 he asked: "O my love, where
are they, where are they going / The flash of a hand, streak of movement,
rustle of pebbles. / I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder." And in another
poem written over 70 years later, he confesses resignated to God: "Now You are
closing down my five senses, slowly, / And I am an old man lying in darkness.
/ Delivered to that thing which has oppressed me / So that I always ran
forward, composing poems." Milosz believes in the redemptive power of art and
treats it as a 'moral discipline.' Sartre's attack on Camus - he hesitated to
criticize Stalinism when Camus did not separate Fascism and Communism - was
something that he did not want to forget. Without any compromises, Milosz has
considered Russian Communism "a decidedly antihuman system." In Poland Milozs'
moral stand made him a voice of conscience during the Cold War period.
"I hear you saying that liberation is possible
and that Socratic wisdom
is identical with your guru's.
No, Raja, I must start from what I am.
I am those monsters which visit my dreams
and reveal to me my hidden essence.
If I am sick, there is no proof whatsoever
that man is a healthy creature."
(from 'To Raja Rao' in Selected Poems, 1973 - See also: Raja Rao)
After his defection Milosz's works were banned in Poland. He continued to
write in Polish, but published many works in English. He was given a hero's
welcome, when he returned to his native land shortly before he was honored
with the Nobel Prize. Milosz settled in Cracow, where his 90th birthday was
widely celebrated in 2001. He received European Literary Prize (1953), Kister
Award (1967), Neustadt International Prize (1978), National Medal of Arts
(1989). He was also appointed member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
and American Institute of Arts and Letters. Milosz's The History of Polish
Literature (1969) is the best introduction to Polish literature in English.
Milosz died at home in Cracow on August 14, 2004.
For further reading: Poznawanie Milosza, ed. by Jerzy Kwiatkowski (1985);
Czeslaw Milosz and the Insufficiency of Lyric by D. Davie (1986);
Conversations with Czeslaw Milosz by E. Czarnecka and A. Fiut (1987);
Zniewolony umysl po latach by Andrej Walicki (1993); Encyclopedia of the
Essay, ed. by Tracy Chevalier (1997); Encyclopedia of World Literature in the
20th Century, vol. 3, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999) - NOTE: The Soviet poet
Joseph Brodsky, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987, called
Milosz perhaps the greatest poet of our time.
Selected works:
* POEMAT O CZASIE ZASTYGLYM, 1933
* TRZY ZIMY, 1936
* WIERSZE, 1940
* OCALENIE, 1945
* SWIATLO DZIENNE, 1953
* ZNIEWOLONY UMYSL, 1953 - The Captive Mind - see also: Jerzy Andrzejewski
* ZDOBYCIE WLADZY, 1955 - The Seizure of Power
* DOLINA ISSY, 1955 - The Issa Valley
* TRAKTAT POETYCKI, 1957
* KONTYNENTY, 1958
* RODZINNA EUROPA, 1959 - Native Realm
* CZLOWIEK WSRÓD SKORPIONÓW, 1962
* KRÓL POPIEL I INNE WIERZE, 1962
* OGRÓD WSRÓD SKORPIONÓW, 1962
* CUCIO ZACZAROWANY, 1965
* LIED VOM WELTENDE, 1967
* WIERSZE, 1967
* translator: Selected Poems by Zbigniew Herbert, 1968
* WIERZE, 1969
* The History of Polish Literature, 1969
* WIDZENIA NAD ZATOKQ SAN FRANCISCO, 1969 - Visions from San Francisco Bay
* MIASTO BEZ IMIENIA, 1969
* PRYWATNE OBOWIAZKI, 1972
* CZLOWIEK WSRÓD SKORPIOMÓW, 1972
* Selected Poems, 1973
* GDZIE WSCHODZI SLONCE I KEDY ZAPADA, 1974
* UTWORY POETYCKIE, 1976
* MÓJ WIEK, 1977 (2 vols., ed. by Lidia Ciolkoszowa)
* Emperor of the Earth, 1977
* translator: Mediterranean Poems by Alexander Wat, 1977
* ZIEMIA ULRO, 1977 - The Land of Ulro
* Bells in Winter, 1978
* translator: Ewangelia wedlug sw. Marka, 1978
* KSIEGA PSALMOW, 1979
* OGRÓD NAUK, 1979
* DZIELA ZBIOROWE, 1980-
* translator: Ksiega Hioba, 1980
* translator: Ksiega psalmów, 1980
* POEZJE, 1981
* MOJA WIERNA MOWO, 1981
* WIERSZE WYBRANE, 1981
* Hymn of the Pearl, 1981
* TRAKTAT MORALNY, 1981
* Nobel Lecture, 1981
* POEZJE, 1982
* HYMN O PERLE, 1982
* WIERSZE, 1983
* SWIADECTWO POEZJI, 1983 - The Witness of Poetry
* The Separate Notebooks, 1984
* NIEOBJETA ZIEMIA, 1984 - The Unattainable Earth
* translator: Ksiegi pieciu Megilot, 1984
* POSZUKIWANIA, 1985
* WIERSZE, 1985
* DZIELA ZBIOROWE, 1980-85 (6 vols., in progress)
* translator: Happy as a Dogs Tail by Anna Swir, 1985
* POSZUKIWANIA, 1985 (samizdat)
* The View, 1985 (trans. with Lilian Vallee)
* ZACZYNAJQC OD MOICH ULIC, 1985 - Beginning with My Streets
* Hymn of the Earth, 1986
* translator: Mowa wiazana, 1986
* DZIEWIEC WIERSZY, 1987 (with Karel Decedius)
* Conversations with Czeslaw Milosz, 1987 (with Ewa Czarnecka and Aleksander
Fiut)
* The Collected Poems 1931-1987, 1987
* KRONIKI, 1987
* CZESLAWA MILOSZA AUTOPORTRET PRZEKORNY, 1988 (with Aleksander Fiut)
* Exiles, 1988 (photographs by Josef Koudelka)
* METAFIZYCZNA PAUZA, 1989
* Swiat / The World, 1989
* ROK MYSLIWEGO, 1990 - A Year of the Hunter
* translator: With the Skin: The Poems of Aleksander Wat, 1991 (with Leonard
Nathan)
* SZUKANIE OJCZYZNY, 1992
* Provinces, 1992
* Milosz's A B S's, 2001 (trans. by Madeline G. Levine)
* New and Collected Poems 1931-2001, 2001
* DRUGA PRZESTRZEN, 2002
* New Poems, 2004 (trans. by the author and Robert Hass)