BETWEEN ANXIETY AND HOPE Bust of Czeslaw Milosz by Edmonton artist Danek Mozdzenski. A gift of the Polish Cultural Society to the University of Alberta, it was unveiled on March 22, 1984 and is on permanent display at the Rutherford Library South, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta. BETWEEN ANXIETY HOPE AND The Poetry and Writing of CZESLAW MILOSZ EDITED BY Edward Mozejko THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA PRESS First published by The University of Alberta Press Athabasca Hall Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 1988 Copyright © The University of Alberta Press 1988 "Bells in Winter," "A Short Recess," "Over Cities," "Ars Poetica" copyright © 1974, 1977, 1978 by Czeslaw Milosz, from Bells in Winter by Czeslaw Milosz. Published by the Ecco Press in 1978. Reprinted with permission. "Faith," "Veni Creator," "Osobny zesyt," "Esse," "The World (A naive poem)," "Reading the Japanese Poet Issa," "Song" copyright © 1984 by Czeslaw Milosz, from The Separate Notebooks by Czeslaw Milosz. Published by The Ecco Press in 1984. Reprinted with permission. "Dawns," "Hymn," "The Gates of Arsenal," "Slow River," "In Warsaw" copyright © 1988 by Czeslaw Milosz from The Collected Poems, 1931-1987, by Czeslaw Milosz. Published by The Ecco Press in 1988. Reprinted with per- ISBN 0-88864-127-3 Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Main entry under title: Between anxiety and hope ISBN 0-88864-127-3 1. Milosz, Czeslaw - Criticism and interpretation. I. Mozejko, Edward. PG7158.M5532B48 1988 891.8'517 C87-O91272-O All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy- ing, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owner. Typesetting by Typeworks, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Printed by John Deyell Company, Lindsay, Ontario, Canada CONTENTS Abbreviations vii Preface ix Acknowledgments xv About the Contributors xvii Between the Universals of Moral Sensibility and Historical Consciousness: Notes on the Writings of Czeslaw Milosz i EDWARD MOZEJKO Czeslaw Milosz's Apocalypse 30 STANISLAW BERES The Idea of Reality in the Poetry of Czeslaw Milosz 88 BOGDAN CZAYKOWSKI Warnings to the West: Czeslaw Milosz's Political Prose of the 1950s 112 MADELINE G. LEVINE Irony and Choice: Milosz in the Late Forties and Early Fifties 134 PAUL COATES Milosz as Witness 141 E.D. BLODGETT Milosz and Post-War Polish Poetry 153 EDWARD MOZEJKO Appendix: Czeslaw Mitosz's Appearances in Canada Milosz in Ottawa, 1984 163 ANNA BIOLIK Milosz in Toronto, 1977, 1980, & 1982 166 MARK KLUS Vi I CONTENTS Milosz in Edmonton, 1972 & 1981 171 EDWARD MOZEJKO A List of Czesiaw Milosz's Books 175 Selected Bibliography of Literary Criticism on Czesiaw Milosz 179 Indices Subject Index 181 Name Index 183 Title Index 186 ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations have been used to cite quotations of Czeslaw Milosz's poetry and prose in the text: MILOSZ'S BOOKS BW Bells in Winter CP The Collected Poems, 1931-1987 GWS Gdzie wschodzi stonce i kedy zapada GZ Gucio zaczarowany IV The Issa Valley MBI Miasto bez imienia NR Native Realm O Ocalenie PHI Poezje, Vol. Ill RE Rodzinna Europa SD Swiatio dzienne SN The Separate Notebooks SP Selected Poems TP Traktat Poetycki TZ Trzy zimy. Poezje UP Utwory poetyckie. Poems VSF Visions from San Francisco Bay W(1967) Wiersze (1967) WP The Witness of Poetry WSF Widzenia nad zatokq San Francisco ZU Ziemia Ulro vii Viii I ABBREVIATIONS OTHER SOURCES WLT World Literature Today 52, no. 3 (Summer 1978) Complete bibliographic information can be found in the "List of Czeslaw Mitosz's Books" and the "Selected Bibliography" at the end of this book. Translations by the individual contributors are initialed. tr. B.C. translated by Bogdan Czaykowski tr. P.C. translated by Paul Coates tr. M.L. translated by Madeline G. Levine tr. E.M. translated by Edward Mozejko tr. A.R. translated by Allan Reid PREFACE In the recent history of twentieth century Polish literature, Czeslaw Milosz occupies a unique position: he is the first Polish poet to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. His two other countrymen who attained the same distinction were novelists: Henryk Sienkiewicz was honoured with the Nobel Prize in 1905 (incidentally, he was the first Slavic author ever to receive such a mark of preference) and Wtadyslaw S. Reymont in 1924 for his "roman fleuve" Chiopi (The Peasants). Considering the belated emer- gence of Polish prose on the national, and even more so, on the interna- tional literary scene, this succinct juxtaposition of facts runs contrary to the logic of literary evolution in Poland and suggests a paradox. For if, indeed, we are to ask the question of what constitutes the main generic canon of Polish literature, the answer must be unequivocal: it is poetry. Its national tradition can be traced from as far back as the Renaissance poetry of J. Kochanowski and the sonnets of M. Sep-Szarzynski, through the Latin odes of M.K. Sarbiewski and the Baroque lyrics of the Morsztyn brothers to nineteenth century Romanticism with its most prominent representa- tives —A Mickiewicz, J. Slowacki, Z. Krasinski and C.K. Norwid. It is ex- actly this tradition that brought the literature of Poland into the broader realm of European culture. In view of such an evolution, the legitimacy of which can be hardly ques- tioned, the distinction bestowed on Czeslaw Mitosz seems to carry a partic- ular weight and as such deserves a closer examination. Realizing the signif- icance of Milosz's poetry, it should be also noted that this collection of es- says is not an empty glorification—on the contrary, it is composed of a series of analytical, in some instances even polemical statements which in ix