Czesław Miłosz’ American Experience in Światło dzienne (Daylight)

Miłosz’s volume Światło dzienne (Daylight, 1953) is conventionally read by critics as the political poetry deeply engaged with history. The article offers a corrective to this traditional reading by interpreting the volume as an interplay of European and American influences. As a European poet, Miłosz had experienced the violent demise of ideals that were the foundation of the Old World. Światło dzienne (Daylight) is, therefore, at one level, an elegiac volume, in which both persons and ideas are mourned. On the other hand, to the extent that for Miłosz America continues the noble ideas abandoned in Europe, he cannot accept what he regards as their misguided or perverse incarnations. This explains the emotional climate of the whole volume, with its dominant mood of disappointment, anger and a refusal of reconciliation. Światło dzienne (Daylight) is American in its outlook on taking seriously America’s status as a superpower and its influence on the future di­rection of the global history. It is anti-American, however, in identifying America’s perceived failures to live up to the post-war challenge for the human civilization in general, and the consequent dangers. The article intends to assess Miłosz’s debt to English-language poetry in this volume in light of his personal notes from his reading and translation work at the time.This article was written as a part of the scholar’s own research project 'American Themes in Czesław Miłosz’s Writings over the period 1945–1953' No. 4073/B/H03/2011/40 financed by The National Science Centre

Reading between the lines. Czesław Miłosz’s Native Realm. A Search for Self-Definition and its English/American translation

The aim of this article is to discuss the problem of translating Polish prose, based on an analysis of a selection of samples taken from Czesław Miłosz’s Native Realm. A Search for Self-Definition translated by Catherine S. Leach. The book documents specific relations between the Western and the Eastern Europe determined by historical provenance of the realms in question. The dichotomy of the collective European history has a profound influence on the reception of Polish literature among the Western audience. Native Realm showcases the issue perfectly – it is interesting in terms of its careful account of the historical and social development of the Continent. The perception of reality is conditioned by an inherent dissimilarity of experiences between the West and the East. The intention of Miłosz was to provide an analysis of them and produce an insightful book addressed specifically to the Western readership. My discussion is an attempt to prove that the endeavour is doomed to failure due to the intrinsic differences between the cultures involved, as cultural inheritance determines the interpretation of historical facts and prompts dissimilar connotations. In the case of Native Realm, on the one hand, we encounter Miłosz’s vision/imagination that is irreversibly rooted in the Slavic way of looking at things and, on the other, the distinctively dissimilar Western vantage point. Translating these differences appears to be a major challenge for any translator

Czytając między wierszami. Rodzinna Europa Czesława Miłosza i jej angielski/amerykański przekład

The aim of this article is to discuss the problem of translating Polish prose, based on an analysis of a selection of samples taken from Czesław Miłosz’s Native Realm. A Search for Self-Definition translated by Catherine S. Leach. The book documents specific relations between the Western and the Eastern Europe determined by historical provenance of the realms in question. The dichotomy of the collective European history has a profound influence on the reception of Polish literature among the Western audience. Native Realm showcases the issue perfectly – it is interesting in terms of its careful account of the historical and social development of the Continent. The perception of reality is conditioned by an inherent dissimilarity of experiences between the West and the East. The intention of Miłosz was to provide an analysis of them and produce an insightful book addressed specifically to the Western readership. My discussion is an attempt to prove that the endeavour is doomed to failure due to the intrinsic differences between the cultures involved, as cultural inheritance determines the interpretation of historical facts and prompts dissimilar connotations. In the case of Native Realm, on the one hand, we encounter Miłosz’s vision/imagination that is irreversibly rooted in the Slavic way of looking at things and, on the other, the distinctively dissimilar Western vantage point. Translating these differences appears to be a major challenge for any translator.The aim of this article is to discuss the problem of translating Polish prose, based on an analysis of a selection of samples taken from Czesław Miłosz’s Native Realm. A Search for Self-Definition translated by Catherine S. Leach. The book documents specific relations between the Western and the Eastern Europe determined by historical provenance of the realms in question. The dichotomy of the collective European history has a profound influence on the reception of Polish literature among the Western audience. Native Realm showcases the issue perfectly – it is interesting in terms of its careful account of the historical and social development of the Continent. The perception of reality is conditioned by an inherent dissimilarity of experiences between the West and the East. The intention of Miłosz was to provide an analysis of them and produce an insightful book addressed specifically to the Western readership. My discussion is an attempt to prove that the endeavour is doomed to failure due to the intrinsic differences between the cultures involved, as cultural inheritance determines the interpretation of historical facts and prompts dissimilar connotations. In the case of Native Realm, on the one hand, we encounter Miłosz’s vision/imagination that is irreversibly rooted in the Slavic way of looking at things and, on the other, the distinctively dissimilar Western vantage point. Translating these differences appears to be a major challenge for any translator

Czesław Miłosz: "Un autre Europe" - "Jiná Evropa"

Bachelor's work Czesław Milosz: "Un autre Europe" - "Jiná Evropa" explores the reasons why the title of the Czeslaw Milosz's book "Native Europe" was changed in different translations to such an extent that in France the book came out as "The Other Europe". The work consists of three main parts. In the first part, the author views contradictions as one of the main aspects of Miłosz's work, paying attention to two bipolar oppositions: West-East and City-Province. In the second, the author examines the civilizational theories of Spengler, Danilevsky and Huntington in order to understand the location of the "Other Europe" on the world map. The third is the consideration of the late university lectures and essays by Czeslaw Milosz "O tożsamości" and "O naszej Europe", their juxtaposition with the essays of Milan Kundura "The tragedy of central Europe", also it affirms the thesis that in modern times Central Europe becomes the custodian of historical memory and traditional European values and considered conception of «Małych ojczyzn»Bakalářská práce Czesław Miłosz: "Un autre Europe"- "Jiná Evropa" zkoumá důvody, proč název knihy Czeslawa Miłosza "Rodná Evropa" v různých překladech změnil do té míry, že ve Francii kniha byla vydána s názvem "Jiná Evropa". Práce se skládá ze tří hlavních částí. Ve první autor zvažuje vnitřní rozporuplnost jako jeden z hlavních aspektů tvorby Miłosza, dáva se též pozor na dvě bipolární opozice Východ - Západ a Město - Provincie. Ve druhé části autor probírá civilizační teorie Spenglera, Danilevského a Huntingtona s cílem pochopit umístění "Jiné Europy" na mapě světa. Ve třetí jsou zkoumány pozdní univerzitní přednášky a eseje Czesława Miłosza "O tożsamości" a "O naszej Europie", jejich srovnávání s esejem Milana Kundery "Tragédie Střední Evropy", utvrzuje se teze, že v současné době, Střední Evropa je strážcem historické paměti a tradičních evropských hodnot, projednává také koncepce "Małych Ojczyzn".Katedra středoevropských studiíDepartment of Central European StudiesFaculty of ArtsFilozofická fakult

Poetic Lithuania of Miłosz

The article deals with the images of Lithuania found in Czesław Miłosz’s poetry. The novels and essays have only been used to confirm the conclusions drawn from the interpretation of selected poems. Despite the frequently-declared unwillingness of the author of Dolina Issy (The Valley of the Issa) to accept and use any autobiographical elements in literature, the land of his childhood has always been present in all the poet’s works. The explanation of this fascination with nostalgia seems to be unsatisfactory. The author of the article perceives the poetic images of Lithuania created by the uprooted immigrant as a symbol of his inner, not purely geographical, settlement. The subject of the discussion is the ever-changing perception of the Eastern-Borderland, which corresponds to particular stages of the protagonist’s journey through life. The starting point is the experience of eviction. It modifies the originally idealized vision of the “little homeland” and makes the hero’s attempt to reject or “amputate” it. The poems from the Światło dzienne (Daylight) collection surprise the reader by a hostile attitude towards the poet’s youth spent in Lithuania and the perception of those early memories as some destructive forces threatening the artist. It is only after a many years’ quest that the borderland heritage is appreciated and conquered again. Now, however, it acquires a different, more symbolic form. The cycle Miasto bez imienia (A Town without a Name) and the poem Gdzie wschodzi słońce i kędy zapada (Where the Sun Rises and Sets) are evidence of a gradual transformation. The faithful recreation in the poet’s memory of particular places and people changes into the construction of some outside religious space, built from the traces of the real world. Lithuania changes into a perfect reality, a Super-Land, capable of retaining the past and combining it with the present. It is a prop freeing the poet from the waste land of Urizen

Czesław Miłosz on Conrad’s Polish stereotypes

In an essay entitled Conrad’s Stereotypes - published in 1957 - Miłosz sees Conrad as "the typical old Polish nobleman who remained faithful to the way in which he had lived and thought as a young man." Miłosz speaks of his own affi nity with Conrad (and Mickiewicz), explaining that it derives from a set of shared emotional and historical experiences that were deeply ingrained in the minds of the inhabitants of the ‘Eastern Borderlands’of the old Polish-Lithuanian- Ruthenian Commonwealth. This ‘Eastern Borderlands’ cultural identity may well have enabled Conrad to give an authentic portrayal of the Russian characters in Under Western Eyes. The counterpart to Mickiewicz’s and Conrad’s condemnation of autocracy and the fairness of their attitude towards Russians was Miłosz’s willingness to maintain friendly relations with contemporary Russian ‘dissidents’ who had stood up against the oppressive political system of the Soviet Union. Surprisingly, however, he does not draw any parallels between the Polish stereotype of Russia and the portrayal of Russia which is to be found in Russian political literature. Miłosz concludes by observing that in Under Western Eyes it was only through the purely artistic merits of his writing that Conrad could have hoped to win over his English-speaking readers, while at the same time remaining "faithful to a tradition that would have seemed exotic to anyone living in another country" - and for this achievement he deserves praise

The multi-faceted nature of freedom in the life and works of Czesław Miłosz

The article discusses the issue of freedom in the work of Czesław Milosz. This problem is analyzed in relation to prose, poetry, essay writing, journalism, as well as numerous interviews that Milosz gave throughout his whole life. The author of the article is particularly interested in Milosz’s attitude to the sexual revolution of 1968, which he observed as a professor at Berkley. The poet was not an indifferent witness to this event. He often referred to it, often returned to it, as the author shows, not without ambivalence

„Europäisches Haus?“ Anthropologische Aspekte des Europadiskurses bei Czesław Miłosz und Józef Wittlin

Anthropologische Fragestellungen initiieren interdisziplinäre Diskurse. Hat der Homo Europaeus aus der Perspektive der Medien-, Literatur-, Religions- und Sozialwissenschaften ein anderes Gesicht als im Zugriff von geopolitischen Strategien? Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht zwei polnische Essays ("Rodzinna Europa" von Czesław Miłosz und "Mój Lwów" von Józef Wittlin). Anhand der anthropologischen Kriterien „Welt- und Menschenbild“ sowie „Lebensformen und Lebenswissen“ werden die heute gewohnten, zwischen Distanz und Nostalgie pendelnden Aussagen über Mittel- und Osteuropa überprüft. Die Untersuchung kann natürlich nur einen kleinen Ausschnitt des umfangreichen Themas erfassen, die Ergebnisse lassen insbesondere über die Kraft der menschlichen Imagination staunen