CZESLAW MILOSZ
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classes in philosophy with gratitude. But philosophy for me is good
in order to forget it.
RB:
Like Kierkegaard who studied philosophy in order to abandon
it.
eM:
In a way, yes .
RB:
Do you think that philosophy and poetry are on the path of ex–
amining the obvious?
eM:
Yes. There are a certain number of questions which have been
asked by philosophers for centuries and are undoubtedly related to
some everyday observations of human beings. Sometimes you take
obviousness and turn it into a philosophical question. There is a
short poem of mine in this new volume entitled "Myness." One
morning I was sitting in a university cafeteria, and I listened to
voices around me. As a result I wrote the following poem: "'My
parents, my husband, my brother, my sister.'/ I am listening in a
cafeteria at breakfast.! The women's voices rustle , fulfill themselves/
in a ritual no doubt necessary./ I glance sidelong at their moving
lips/And I delight in being here on earth/For one more moment,
with them, here on earth,lTo celebrate our tiny, tiny my-ness ."/
This is a philosophical poem drawn out of obviousness . What could
be more obvious than a conversation in a cafeteria?
RB:
In the United States poets tend to center their writing on
themselves . I don't have a sense that your poems are that way .
eM:
Somewhere in Dostoevsky you read that what a man mostly
wants is to talk about himself. I guess that this tendency is due to a
large extent to extreme subjectivization of literature in the twentieth
century, especially in the West. This subjectivization is not so strong
in Central Europe , the part of Europe that I come from - Poland,
Czechoslovakia, and Hungary- because there it is counterbalanced
to some extent by historical experiences; the individual appears
upon the background of history of the twentieth century, and upon
the background of history in general, and his tendency towards sub–
jectivism is mitigated .
RB:
I would like to subtitle your new book "The New Book of
Wisdom." You have included in it , in addition to your own poems,
various "inscripts" and poems from other authors that deal with
significant questions and answers. What prompted you to gather
these and bring them together along with your own writing?
eM:
Your question is very interesting and pertinent. I have always
looked for a more spacious form to express myself. Poetry seems to
me a little narrow today in the sense that many techniques have been
