MILOSZ AND WORLD POETRY
27
their everyday life, peopl e around Szetejnie used Li thuanian-an archaic, con–
voluted, and strange language totally incomprehensibl e to Slavic speakers .
Micki ewicz's region was palt of the old Lithuanian Grand Duchy, yet not of
ethnic Li thuania , and Milosz's region belonged to the Li thuanian heartland.
When one speaks about a Po li sh- Li thuanian linkage, England and
Scotland come to mind almost automati cally. Many have made the com–
par ison. But it would be more acc urate to imagine an independent-and
Gaelic-speaking-republic north of England, with its capital in Edinburgh.
England and Ireland would make a better analogy, since Ireland is a sepa–
rate sta te.
These analogies are far from perfect. Unlike Gaelic, Lithuanian,
arguably the most archaic living Indo-European language, is very much
alive. But there is no reli gious contrast (Lithuanians, like Pol es, are
Catholics), and there was considerabl y less bloodshed between Poland and
Lithuania than between England and Ireland. Though the animosity was
sometimes severe, it was all ev iated by th e feeling that both countri es faced
common dangers (which, in ou r own century, had crys talli zed into th e
totalitari an threa t). The o nly exact analogy pertains to the literary realm.. It
is commonplace to say that the best w riters in the English language came
from Ireland . Many of them, like William Butler Yeats, felt strong links to
their Gaeli c heritage. Similarly, Mickiewicz used to ca ll himself "a wild
Lithuanian ." Cyprian Kamil N orwid , a sophi sti ca ted and idiosyncrati c poet
who neve r enjoyed Mi cki ewicz's fame but was perhaps his equal, did not
emphasize hi s Lithuanian bac kground (he considered himself to be a
descendant of Vikings). H oweve r, hi s family name was Lithu anian
(Norvyda s means " he who wants to see"). Thus, Mil osz is a twenti e th–
century heir to a well-established tradition . Like Micki ewicz, he is
considered a poet of both nati ons by most Lithuan ians, and he is well on
hi s way to becoming as powerful a symbol of Poli sh-Li thuanian cuI tural
linkage as Mi cki ewicz was and remains.
In the Middl e Ages, as well as in the twentieth century, Lithuania di s–
tingui shed herself by her fi ercely independent spirit. Du e to her unusual
pas t, odd lan guage, and folklore, which preserved obvious traces of paga n
beli efs, she was always one of th e most exo ti c and most mythologized parts
of Europe, the very epitome of "otherness." To quote Milosz's
Native
R ea lm:
Europe, too, had her redskins....Their bows, spea rs, and leather–
covered shi elds had
to
stand up agai nst su its of armor and th e lance,
but their swiftness of maneuver made up for this shortcoming... .To
what extent they cou ld be call ed barbarians or savages it is hard to
