MILOSZ AND WORLD POETRY
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era, and not without reason: there are certain immutable values, after
all.
Milosz understands the profound emotional significance assigned to
language in Eastern Europe. While it may be fraught with linguistic
nationalism and destructive tribal attitudes, it also has unique existential
value affirming one's identity and historical roots. In Eastern European
countries, and especially in Lithuania, a deeply poetic attitude towards lan–
guage is shared by many: it is indispensable for spiritual and even physical
survival. Here, Milosz is close to the Old Testament understanding of the
links between culture and transcendence. Moreover, he attempts to create
an intellectual bridge between the religious and scientific
Weltanschauungen.
My first acquaintance with Milosz's writing was
Native R ealm.
It was
sent into Vilnius page by page in letters from the West. The process of
sending the book took a year and a half. Then, it was sewn together (inci–
dentally, two pages were missing) , furnished with an innocent-looking
cover, and given to me by a friend. I read it sitting on a bench, on the bank
of the river Neris, and suddenly I noticed that the very same bench was
described by Milosz in a chapter dealing wi th the Soviet invasion of 1940.
I saw the same sandbars, the electric-power plant, and fishermen , almost
identical to those Milosz saw more than two decades before. To Milosz, the
river current and the sky at that time spoke "of an irrevocable sentence."
For me, they were permeated by a light of hope, and the hope was due to
the fact that the book finally found its way to its own ci ty. After several
more decades, the hope has been fulfilled. One may ascribe it to God, or
to the laws of hi story, or, perhaps, in the mos t jus tified way, to the will of
the peoples who had resolved to be free. I would ascribe it also to the
books written by Czeslaw Milosz .
Robert Faggen:
Tomas now would like to have someone read a poem of
Milosz's; perhaps Mr. Hirsch would read "In Szetejnie."
Edward Hirsch:
It strikes me that the world is a miraculous place and that
when my grandfather came from Latvia he didn't suspect that some day I'd
be reading this great poem of Lithuania in English! [Reads poem.]
Adam Zagajewski:
The
oeuvre
of Czeslaw Milosz is vast and mysterious. I
deeply admire his work, and I have learned a lot from it, as a reader and a
poet. We recognize major poets by their voice, their subject matter, their
particular tone, or by th eir favorite particular form. Czeslaw Milosz is
somehow different. He has his tone, but many voices, many forms. The
unifYing factor seems to be a unique perspective, a unique grasp of the
world, a changing understanding of the visible and the invisible, a vision
