Rachel Berghash
AN INTERVIEW WITH CZESLAW MILOSZ
RB:
Your recent book
Unattainable Earth
consists of a process which
includes being in paradise, being expelled from it, and as you say in
the book: "Some are born humanized, and others have to humanize
themselves slowly. " How do you account for that slow process that
some people have to go through?
eM:
It seems to me that every act of creative writing is a compensa–
tion for shortcomings, and that in order to be a good artist one
should not be quite human. All art is a little suspect in that respect.
These thoughts tortured Thomas Mann all his life.
RB:
Have you made a decision to humanize yourself after all?
eM:
No , not necessarily. I guess I tried to do that for many decades
of my life.
RB:
With any success?
eM:
It
is very hard to judge oneself. You know very well that we do
not know our own virtues and shortcomings. It is not our business
but that of the Last Judgement.
RB:
There is philosophy in your poetry, and I wonder what you
think of the philosopher A . N. Whitehead's notion that philosophy
is akin to poetry and both of them "seek to express the ultimate good
which we term civilization?"
eM:
I have studied philosophy and various systems of thought which
are in a way like constructions in poetry. We know that philosophy is
not an answer to a search for truth; it may be very honest in its
search but it is not a more certain way of attaining truth than poetry
IS .
RB:
Are they similar in their search?
eM:
In a way they are similar. Personally, I am not very much in
favor of writing articles and essays and am looking for a shorter and
more concise form of writing. Some of my essays have definite
philosophical meaning. My book
The Land oj Ulro-with
a title bor–
rowed from Blake-is, as I consider it, a philosophical book. I am
very grateful to philosophy because it exists, and I remember my
Editor's Note: T his interview was conducted at Czeslaw Milosz's home in Berkeley,
California, for the program "A World Elsewhere," and was broadcast on WBAI-FM
New York in three parts, June 25th , June 30th, and July 2d, 1986 .
