Paweł Próchniak, Underpinning of the Night
The author proposes several interpretations of one of the most
prominent motifs in the works of Czesław Miłosz, treated as a
continuum of imagination spanning between the volume Three
Winters and Last Poems. The presented sketch attempts
encompassing within a single look a sequence of images and
associated poetic and existential qualities conceived as analogons
of experiencing the night – especially its spiritual dimension.
The point of departure for further reflection is intuition, regarded
by Miłosz as prominent and treating poetry as a “quest for Reality”,
confronted with tension, of key importance for twentieth-century
poetry; one of its extremities is the conviction that language is
man’s true realm, while the other is delineated by the feeling that
language, envisaged as the source of imagination, contains
information about another Kingdom.
Aleksandra Janus, Particular Instances
An image from the book The Wonderful Adventures of Nils,
which Miłosz read as a child and to which he returned in his speech
given upon the occasion of receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature,
constitutes a metaphor of the poet’s calling: to soar above the
Earth and embrace it in a single gaze, while at the same time
noticing every detail, “to see” from high up and close by, and then
to describe as faithfully as possible. An irrefutable faith in the
belief in the world and the pursuit of mimesis are the motor force
of such poetry, accompanied by the crucial question of adequacy and
reference as well as the endless battle waged by literature against
that, which is revealed to us as reality. Despite the fact that it
remains clumsy in contact with reality, language is the sole tool of
cognition and understanding at our disposal. Time and again, we
embark upon attempts at reaching reality with the aid of the word,
and at efforts, made anew, to reveal the mystery of the world, even
if inaccessibleness is part of the essence of all things.
Zofia Król, The Attentive Poet
The story of attention is one of the most important motifs in the
return of the human spirit to the world. Czesław Miłosz, in his
capacity as an attentive poet, made an inventory of fragments of
reality, recorded it in a magic register of poetry, transferred it
beyond the range of the passage of time, and salvaged it. Most
important, however, proves to be not the process of saving fleeting
moments for the sake of eternity, but opening the reader up towards
a new dimension so that the question of living among people would
become more captivating.
Wojciech Bałus, Catalogue of Data Evaded by
the Ultimate Meaning
In his poem No More (1957) Czesław Miłosz evoked Two
Venetian Courtesans, a painting by Vittorio Carpaccio. The work
in question concerns the passage of time, but also attempts to
preserve forever both fleeting impressions and experiences
(epiphany). The introduction of an ekphrasis of a painting makes it
possible to capture and halt the disintegration of bodies and the
flight of events. Simultaneously, in accordance with the anthology
of the image expounded by Hans Belting, the painting grants its
medium that, which is no longer and which has lapsed. Hence works of
art and poetry recall to a certain extent the post-apokatastasis
state that the poet found so fascinating. They retain unusual
moments, render epiphanies indelible, cleanse the world of all
haphazard elements, and although they are incapable of halting all
that, which occurred in the past and pause merely beauty, they
nonetheless comprise an element of absolute, divine memory according
to which the renascence of the entire world will take place in the
wake of the Last Judgement (a view derived from Miłosz’s poems and
essays).
Roma Sendyka, Anagogicus
Miłosz tested assorted forms and genre formulas of the “capacious
form” (spanning from the miniature to the treatise) and left an
enormous legacy of texts that can be analysed as essayistic. Well
aware of the directives concerning this particular genre, he
proposed his own version of the personal essay, undergoing
alterations in the course of his seventy-years long praxis as an
essayist (presumably under the impact of writings by Bolesław
Miciński and Stanisław Brzozowski as well as Oriental Zen-inspired
literature). A characteristic feature of Miłosz’s attempts is their
focus on important problems affecting mankind; as a consequence, the
essayistic “man without qualities” becomes relegated to the
background and importance is attached to a general perspective, time
becomes “summed up history”, and space discloses the features of a
palimpsest thanks to which the specific form of such prose can be
described as an “anagogic essay”.
Józef Sadzik, Between Light and Darkness
Dariusz Czaja, Biology Lesson
From a certain distance in time it is possible to see even clearer
the importance Miłosz attached (in life and writings) to A View
of San Francisco Bay (1969), in which he formulated for the
first time with such force theses that were to recur upon numerous
occasions in his later essays and poetry. An essential fragment of
the intellectual construction outlined in A View of San Francisco
Bay is the concept of Nature. The author reconstructed the basic
contexts in which it appeared in the book and subsequently proposed
a “presentistic” approach to the book by inserting the conception of
Nature, expounded therein, into the contexts of contemporary
thought. His reflections are restricted to several motifs closely
linked with the theses about Nature earlier listed in A View:
Nature and beauty, human/animal relations, and the theory of
evolution.
Sławomir Mazurek, Cautious Spokesman of Dons
Quixote
The religious reflection of Miłosz is a significant phenomenon in
the Polish intellectual realm of the twentieth century. Since
religious quests are one of the most prominent if not the most
important intellectual component of the artistic-intellectual
heritage of the poet’s thought, their assessment exerts a
considerable impact on the evaluation of the whole, which differs
diametrically depending on world outlook preferences. The author
attempted to discover the specificity of such an evaluation and in
doing so situated it against the backdrop of twentieth-century
religious philosophy. Concluding, he asserted that although Miłosz’s
religious thought remains in accord with certain tendencies of
contemporary religious reflection, it is at odds with its spirit.
The reason for this state of affairs does not lie in the fact that
it precedes or contradicts the latter, but in the fact that it still
remains within the range of the Polish idyll: “Whatever he would
have done to overcome the passivity of Polish religious thought, and
he accomplished much by paving the way for Shestov or Simone Weil,
ultimately he succumbs to it, although the eventual overcoming of
that inertia shall be to a considerable extent his achievement”.
Michał Masłowski, Cult of the Holy Void. Three
Faces of Nihilism
This sketch discusses the image of the crises of civilisation as
seen by Miłosz. The initial catastrophism, enrooted in the ideas and
currents of the epoch (Spengler, Witkacy, Oskar Miłosz) was followed
by the post-war period of the “Hegelian bite”, i.e. fascination with
Marxism. At the beginning of the 1950s Miłosz severed all ties with
the communist regime “chose freedom”, and wrote The Captive Mind
and A Poetical Treatise, which deconstructed the doctrine of
the “new faith”. In Berkeley, the poet confronted attitudes of
consumerism and the ontological crisis (A View of San Francisco
Bay); this resulted in a breakdown of religious imagination,
which he attempted to overcome from the 1980s. Ultimately, all three
civilisation crises can be reduced to nihilism and its prophet,
Nietzsche. The poet, however, was capable of challenging the
philosopher (A Theological Treatise): in the face of evil,
man still has universal compassion creating human unity and the
experience of epiphanic beauty, which revives in him the perception
of a child.
Piotr Jakub Fereński, Anthropology of
Imperialism
The author of this essay dealing with The Captive Mind
attempts to prove that Miłosz’s political treatise – as the Noble
Prize laureate described it – can be perceived as a description of
anthropological studies, within whose range their author dealt with
phenomena and socio-cultural processes transpiring in Eastern Europe
during the 1940s and 1950s. Miłosz-the anthropologist tried to
understand and illustrate assorted ways in which people living in a
reality defined by the imperial policy pursued by the USSR thought
and acted. In the scientific-literary convention of an essay P.J.
Fereński not only presented his viewpoint concerning The Captive
Mind, but also took a closer look at its origin, contents, and
author.
Piotr Kłoczowski, Where Do You Lead Me, Golden
Rose
A text of a conversation about the millieu surrounding Le Centre du
Dialogue in Paris and Miłosz’s translations of the Bible.
Sergio Quinzio, The Book of Job; The Book of
the Apocalypse
Both texts are in-depth theological-philosophical commentaries from
the fundamental work by the Italian philosopher: Un Commento alla
Bibbia.
André Neher, Faustus, Golem, Job
The presented text is a chapter from Faust et le Maharal de Prague:
le mythe et le réel, with the author contrasting and commenting on
the similarities and dissimilarities of the myth of Faustus and
Golem, which he considers to be the most important mythical
narrations in the Western world. The essential element of this
analysis is placing Job against the background of the Faustus-Golem
contradiction. “The mental association with Job and Faustus, on the
one hand, and Job and Golem, on the other hand, left behind an
inedible trace on the times in which I live. Job speaks to me via
Faustus, but also through Golem. I am not compelled to devise the
voice of Job when I am attracted by the problem of Faustus and
Golem. The supreme intellectual authorities, the most credible
analysts of Faustus and Golem connected them with the problem of
Job”. The intellectual keystone of this analysis is the concept of
the “wager” – so conspicuous in the Biblical Book of Job.
Stanisław Krajewski, The Book of Job for Us
The Biblical Book of Job, translated into Polish also by
Czesław Miłosz, can be of interest to atheists because it contains
the strongest possible attack on religion, the argument from the
suffering of innocents. The book remains the main point of reference
for meditations on the Holocaust, like the 1946 poem Yossl Rakover
talks to God, or on reflections on undeserved suffering, like the
well know book by Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to
Good People. The perception of the mass murder of Jews during
World War II has assumed biblical proportions, and the Holocaust
often functions as the present day Job. The verse Job 16:18 has been
used in several monuments to the victims of the Holocaust. The
proposal to use it at Auschwitz, advocated by the present writer
among others, was rejected by the president of the former Auschwitz
inmates. His argument, there was no God for us then so we don’t need
the Bible now, made him appear, against his will, as a participant
in the debate presented by the Book of Job. We do not know the
answers to the questions posed by the story of Job. Yet we continue
to consider the same problems.
Krystyna Czerni, Whence Suffering?
An outstanding author of a monograph on the life and works of Jerzy
Nowosielski outlines initial parallels between the thoughts of the
Cracow-based theologian and the religious reflections of Miłosz. The
joint motif proves to be the mystery of suffering. The presented
text is also an introduction to Nowosielski’s unpublished lecture:
Suffering in Art, discovered in the painter’s posthumous
papers.
Jerzy Nowosielski, Suffering in Art
An attempt at a synthetic view of the “scandalous” relation between
suffering and beauty. Nowosielski’s point of departure is
theological intuition, proving that Western religious thought is
incapable of dealing with suffering in the world. The author went on
to enhance his lecture by introducing reflections on art. In doing,
so he referred to old masters (Grünewald) and most recent art
(Bacon) to indicate upon the basis of those radical examples how
Western art endeavoured to tackle the problems of beauty, ugliness,
evil, and suffering.
Julia Hartwig, The Dreams of the Righteous
Ones; On The Acts of the Apostles
Andrei Tarkovsky, A Word on the Apocalypse
The author presented his reflections on The Book of the
Apocalypse, which he regarded as probably the most magnificent
example of poetry ever created on Earth. The Apocalypse is explained
and interpreted, but in the author’s opinion such a procedure should
not take place since the book is unsuitable for interpretation.
The Book of the Apocalypse is an image that cannot be understood
and may be only experienced and accepted.
Małgorzata Maliborska, Local Miłosz. A
Conversation with Wojciech Prażmowski
Ludwik Stomma, Moment
A recollection of the first acquaintance with Rescue (1942),
a volume of poems by Czesław Miłosz, testifying to the fact that its
author was a poet of tenderness and ultimate lyricism. Miłosz wished
to be regarded as a “philosophical poet” and certainly was a poet of
the intellect.
Wiesław Szpilka, In the Garden of the World
Miłosz and ethnography – with a personal perspective and
recollections of student years spent in Cracow as a point of
departure. The author describes a simultaneous initiation into
adulthood, the forbidden poetry of Miłosz, and... ethnography, the
latter being comprehended as an activity that preserves the detail
and the marginal, and as a sui generis art of memory enhancing the
personal choice, a narration that remains not so much contrary to
the dominating counterparts as alongside and beyond them. Is the
thus deciphered Miłosz not opened anew? Does the perception of
ethnography from a Miłoszian perspective not reach the very essence
of such activity?
Dariusz
Kosiński, Pantheon. Patron. Bye, Bye
An attempt at an anthropological reflection on the “borderland”
character of Miłosz and his incongruity vis à vis concrete groups
and communities. The point of departure of the text is the “national
theatre” staged in Poland during the Miłosz Year, with the author
depicting the ambiguous presence of the poet in Polish
consciousness. The polarisation of assorted attitudes reached its
zenith within the context of Miłosz’s burial in the sanctuary at
Skałka (Cracow).
Marek Zaleski,
Miłosz’s Warsaw. An Introduction
Marta Zielińska,
Miłosz in Warsaw. Perception of Untamed Space
The first part of the article discusses Miłosz’s stays in Warsaw
(1931-1949), divided into student, professional work, wartime and
post-war periods, with due attention paid to all the establishable
addresses of residence and most frequented places. Each period is
accompanied by a brief characteristic of the town in those years,
performed from the viewpoint of themes broached in Miłosz’s works.
The second part considers conditions decisive for the manner in
which the poet perceived the space of Warsaw, including the
biographical experiences of the young Miłosz (journeys and traumas
of early childhood, the geographical specificity of Lithuania,
familiarity with West European towns) and the specific character of
the Polish capital, whose shape depended on political configurations
and underwent variable phases of tumultuous development and
degradation, followed by total destruction.
Jacek Leociak, Miłosz Looks at the Ghetto.
Paradoxes of Proximity and Distance in Experiencing the
Space of Occupation-era Warsaw
Following Miłosz’s residential addresses on an imaginary map of
Warsaw, on which we additionally place the as yet non-existent and
soon no longer extant ghetto, we notice that the author circled
around this spot by either coming closer to it or withdrawing from
it. An analysis of Miłoszian topography at the time of the German
occupation shows that this experience is based on a sui generis
tension between closeness and remoteness.
Grażyna Borkowska, The Breakthrough. Miłosz
and Others
A discussion of the affiliation of Modern Legends, War Essays
and other texts written in the 1930s and 1940s in the face of the
threat facing European culture, and predominantly The Origins of
Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt and writings by Walter
Benjamin. Arendt and Miłosz share a critical attitude, comprehended
here synchronously with premises of the Frankfurt school, a theme
recently broached by Mateusz Werner in a sketch on the relations
between Modern Legends and The Dialectic of Enlightenment by
Adorno and Horkheimer. An attempt at saving European culture by
seeking in the language residues of meanings that could serve for
building a new truth and a joint sense is quite possibly even more
important than the critique of culture; this attempt is parallel to
Benjamin’s theory of “drilling” in deconstructed texts so as to
reach the essence of meaning.
The intellectual perspective of Modern Legends is excellently
summed up in title of this collection. ‘Legend’ originates front the
Latin lego (‘gather’ and ‘pick’) and reflects the two-track
activity pursued by Miłosz: the critique of European myths and the
effort of extracting from them certain truths offering hope for the
future.
Agata Bielik-Robson, Warsaw Faustus, or Hatred
towards the Town
With the text of Miłosz’s poem Warsaw Faustus as her point of
departure and analysing fragments of Native Realm the author
examines the dialectical relations of Faustian figures: the poet,
focused on life and the ambivalent power of Nature, and Tiger (Tadeusz
Kroński), portrayed as a personification of Faustus from the second
part of Goethe’s drama – desiring might and waging a symbolic duel
with death. The conflict between both protagonists is inscribed into
the landscape of the ravaged towns of post-war Europe, while taking
a close look at the poet’s biography and his decision to emigrate.
Krzysztof Konieczny, Woodland Vale
Bogdana Pilichowska, Mystery of Cats
Marcin Gmys, Music and Scrambled Eggs
A series of brief texts-glosses responding to the invitation issued
by Miłosz and commenting on his “topics to be ceded” dealing with
concrete themes – notes from the book Road-side Dog.
Paweł Próchniak, Dusty Tracks, Writing Scripts
(an e-mail)
Aleksandra Janus, Fictitious Journeys |