Poet Seers » Czeslaw Milosz (1980)

Czesław Miłosz ( June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish poet and writer. After serving as a cultural attaché for the Republic of Poland (1945–1951), he defected to the West in 1951, and his nonfiction book The Captive Mind (1953) is a classic of anti-Stalinism.

“And when people cease to believe that there is good and evil,
Only beauty will call to them and save them
So that they will know how to say: this is true and that is false.”

– Czeslaw Milosz

CZESLAW MILOSZ was Born in Szetejnie, Lithuania in 1911. Fleeing Communist Poland in 1951 he wrote extensively as an emigre in the west. His writings and poetry deal extensively with the rise and consequences of totalitarianism. For his poetry, the Nobel Prize committee awarded him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980.

Czeslaw Milosz was brought up in Lithuania to a family with an ancient lineage, stretching back to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a medieval state that stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. It was noted for its religious and cultural tolerance and Czeslaw Milosz often wistfully referred to this idealised time, when art could flourish undisturbed by adverse political consequences.

As a young man he became interested in writing and became part of a modern movement seeking to revitalise Polish literature. However his literary career was interrupted by the Nazi occupation. As a committed Socialist Czeslaw took part in activities of the resistance, engaged in fighting the Nazi occupation of Poland. After the war he became an important representative of the Polish government.

“In a room where
people unanimously maintain
a conspiracy of silence,
one word of truth
sounds like a pistol shot.”

Czeslaw Milosz
However he became increasingly disenchanted with the totalitarian nature of the Stalinist State and in 1951 he made the bold decision to leave Poland and seek exile in the West. Some left wingers such as Pablo Neruda criticised his decision (2), and Milosz himself felt some kind of guilt for forsaking his countrymen. (He was very happy to be able to return to Poland after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989). However initially the Americans were suspicious of someone who had served for so long in a Communist government. Therefore for 9 years he lived in Paris. Initially he was quite poor but he was befriended by Albert Camus and he was soon able to work on his writings and poetry. In 1960 he was able to travel to America where he worked as a lecturer on Polish literature at Berkeley University in California

In 1973 he was able to have his writings translated into English for the first time. It was the American poet Laureate Robert Hass who translated his works, bring Czeslaw Milosz into the remit of English speaking intellectuals.

In his own words Czeslaw Milosz referred to himself as ‘an ecstatic pessimist’. This in part reflects the duality of his writings and outlook on life. By nature he was open minded, kind and generous but throughout his life was confronted with the evils of totalitarianism being forced to flee his country of birth. However it was his capacity to reveal the real nature of totalitarianism that led to some of his greatest works. His most well known novel is ‘The Captive Mind’,In this book Mr Milosz deals with totalitarian ideology and also its unexpected appeal to many, even intellectuals. It is characteristic of many of his writings – hard hiting and thought provoking.

But at the same time as his political writings, he was also capable of writings, which sensitively dealt with issues such as immortality and love. Using imagery of an idealised past he created scenes of beauty and tenderness. In writing his nobel citation the committee wrote of Czeslaw Milosz:

‘His writing is many-voiced and dramatic, insistent and provocative. This is true not only of his poetry but also of his prose – the novels, the analyses and, in every sense of the word, the many-sided essays which perhaps have been overlooked in favour of his poetry.’ (1)

Returning to Poland in 1989 Czeslaw Milosz was feted as one of Poland’s leading intellectual figures. His words were used to describe a monument at the Gdansk shipyard. Honouring Polish workers who had been shot by the Communist regime. The monument was described with these words by Milosz

‘Do not feel safe. The poet remembers.
You can kill one, but another is born.
The words are written down, the deed, the date.’

Czeslow Milosz died at his home in Krakow on Saturday 14 August, 2004.

Poems Czeslaw Milosz

From: Biography Czeslaw Milosz By: R.Pettinger 29/11/06

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