Czeslaw Milosz Quotes

I knew that I would speak in the language of the vanquished No more durable than old customs, family rituals, Christmas tinsel, and once a year the hilarity of carols.

Czeslaw Milosz

1945 - 1985 - Translation by Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass.

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But where is our, dear to us, mortality? Where is time that both destroys and saves us? This is too difficult for me. Peace eternal Could have no mornings and no evenings, Such a deficiency speaks...

Czeslaw Milosz

How It Should Be in Heaven - 1986 - Translation by Czesŀaw Miŀosz and Robert Hass.

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How it should be in Heaven I know, for I was there. By its river. Listening to its birds. In its season: in summer, shortly after sunrise. I would get up and run to my thousand works And the garden...

Czeslaw Milosz

How It Should Be in Heaven - 1986 - Translation by Czesŀaw Miŀosz and Robert Hass.

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I think that I am here, on this earth, To present a report on it, but to whom I don't know. As if I were sent so that whatever takes place Has meaning because it changes into memory.

Czeslaw Milosz

Consciousness - Translation by Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass.

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I still think too much about the mothers And ask what is man born of woman. He curls himself up and protects his head While he is kicked by heavy boots; on fire and running, He burns with bright...

Czeslaw Milosz

Preparation - Translaton by Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass.

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Our memory is childish and it saves only what we need.

Czeslaw Milosz

Yellow Bicycle - Translation by Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass.

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We go down with the bells ringing in all the sunken cities. Forgotten, we are greeted by the embassies of the dead, While your endless flowing carries us on and on; And neither is nor was. The moment...

Czeslaw Milosz

Rivers - 1980Translation by Renata Gorczynski and Robert Hass.

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Under various names, I have praised only you, rivers! You are milk and honey and love and death and dance. From a spring in hidden grottoes, seeping from mossy rocks, Where a goddess pours live water...

Czeslaw Milosz

Rivers - 1980 - Translation by Renata Gorczynski and Robert Hass.

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Earth, what have I to do with thee? With your meadows where dumb beasts Grazed before the deluge without lifting their heads? What have I to do with your implacable births? So why this gracious...

Czeslaw Milosz

Portal - 1978 - Translation by Czesław Miłosz and Lillian Vallee.

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A weak human mercy walks in the corridors of hospitals and is like a half-thawed winter.

Czeslaw Milosz

Before Majesty - 1978 - Translation by Czesław Miłosz and Lillian Vallee.

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