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PARTISAN REVIEW
completely different path and have been very often immersed in this
so-called stream of life - very sensuous in a way , the opposite of
asceticism. In that poem, which is sort of a question, I ask whether
by doing that I went to the side of the devil, because the present
world is a world of exploration , of great curiosity and of license; a
world in which everything seems to be permitted. I was sufficiently
on the side of the modern world to question myself.
RB:
Are you on both sides of the barricade now?
eM:
Yes. I am a man of contradictions , and I do not deny that. I
have been translating the French philosopher Simone Wei! who is a
defender of contradictions , and I wouldn't like to pretend to have a
unified vision .
RB:
In your book you manifest a wisdom to differentiate between
what is significant and what is trivial. Often it is our character that
leads us to that kind of insight. Do you think that yours stems from
character or from a gift?
eM:
I think that we have to pay for every gift we receive , and so I
am not very proud of my gifts because I know that one pays . Ifwhat
you say is true, then it seems to me quite flattering, and accepting
such flattering opinions I could be a very proud man. But my short–
comings create a necessary balance, so that in hearing your flatter–
ing remarks I don't puff myself up.
RB:
Then you must feel that a payment for possessing gifts is
all
right?
eM:
Yes, probably .
RB:
In one of your poems you say that you don't tell about your
payments to the envious. Do you want them to think that it comes
easy?
eM:
Let them. In a way I shouldn't be considered a man of talent in
America because there is a certain idea of a writer, of a poet, in this
country, which I do not fit: I have never been in a mental institu–
tion; I do not use drugs; I am not alcoholic (I drink but moderately);
so I am probably abnormal .
RB:
Do you think that one has to be emotionally sick to be a writer?
eM:
No. I think that many people are emotionally sick and have
tremendous emotional complications, but we don't know very much
about them. With writers this somehow transpires, and people know
about it.
RB:
I am thinking of the contrast between Robert Lowell and
yourself.
eM:
There were moments when I envied Lowell. I would say: "Ah,
he is clever; he has a breakdown, and they take him to a sanatorium
