Friday, January 15, 2010

magpiety

Okay, I admit it. I'm in love. I've had recent flings with Donald Hall
and Charles Simic, but this week, I am head over heals in love with
Czeslaw Milosz. I just brought home all 776 pages of his New and
Collected Poems from the library, and I am in paradise. His poems
are a marvelous combination of intelligence and soul.

Milosz, (June 30, 1911 – August 14, 2004) was a Lithuanian born
Polish poet and author. From 1961 to 1998 he was a professor of
Slavic Languages and Literature at the University of California,
Berkeley. (Bill Moore, by the way, was fortunate enough to be one
of his students in a class of Polish Romanticism. Lucky guy.) In
1980 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is widely
considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.


I like to think of myself in a magpie-ish kind of way, since I love
collecting all sorts of odd shinies for my nest, both tangible and
intangible. This delightful piece immediately caught my little
magpie eye. I never realized, until now, that what I have is a simple
case of magpiety.
.
.
Magpiety
.
.
The same and not quite the same, I walked through oak forests
Amazed that my Muse, Mnemosyne,
Has in no way diminished my amazement.
A magpie was screeching and I said: Magpiety?
What is magpiety? I shall never achieve
A magpie heart, a hairy nostril over the beak, a flight
That always renews just when coming down,
and so I shall never comprehend magpiety.
If however magpiety does not exist
My nature does not exist either.
Who would have guessed that, centuries later,
I would invent the question of universals?
.
.
.
Czeslaw Milosz, 1958
.
.
photo: me, 14 Jan 2010

59 comments:

  1. Beautiful Willow. I didn't know him but now I'll seek him out.

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  2. Holy cow. That's a PERFECT poem to go on the 10thDoM blog.

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  3. That's a great collection and a mainstay near my pillow too.

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  4. I have a cousin who was one of his students. She says he's soul was as beautiful as his poems.

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  5. Oh, it's been quite a while since I read his words.

    A wonderful shiny.

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  6. I also love this poet, I will dig out one I posted before of his and re-post for you on my blog, to see if you love it too.

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  7. Oh dear Willow, I love literature but have never been into reading a lot of poetry. This is way above my head, but maybe that means I need to stretch higher. Blessings
    qMM

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  8. Oh, Cait, I will be looking forward to it. Thank you!

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  9. Jeff, okay, what is the 10thDoM blog?

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  10. Excellent choice of poet
    and yours below was chilling too.
    I feel sorry that my current life leaves me a bit too scattered to relish poetry
    .
    I'm loving Mary Oliver a lot right now.

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  11. What a jewel! You certainly found a great addition to your collection this time.

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  12. Love him, brilliant choice!

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  13. Was I supposed to understand that? :) I am simple, remember!

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  14. He is so very good, thanks for the intro... -J

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  15. nice. i had not heard of him before but i like...

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  16. Willow is in love with Czeslaw....Willow is in love with Czeslaw!!! I've read only a few of his poems...I'll look up and read more..thank you!

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  17. Sometimes, just sometimes, the Internet seems to be an amalgamation of the inane and stupid.

    Fortunately, Willow Manor sits above that tide. Once more you have shared a treasure, and enriched my world.

    Blog on!

    Mike

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  18. I have not met him; thanks for the introduction. Did I tell you how much I love your poem on the side bar? Superb.

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  19. I too, love poetry, and have not heard of this gentleman. I'm off to research more about him. Thank you so much for sharing this passion of yours with us.

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  20. This sounds great. I bought Avery a book of Robert Frost poetry this past weekend. She writes poetry and I need to post some of it. I think it's so cool when you know someone that knew the poet personally. I really think you need a deep soul to write poetry. I enjoy yours. How long have you been writing poetry? trish

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  21. Thanks, Lakeviewer, I was thinking about taking it down, but maybe I should leave it up a bit longer~!

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  22. Nanatrish, thank you, I've only recently started writing it myself.

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  23. Michael, thank you, my friend! I shall!

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  24. Oh, I do love his work as well! It's wonderful.

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  25. Ah, Simon, so you do! That's amazing. Have you posted on him?

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  26. What a wonderful word magpiety is! And what a wonderful poem -- thanks for the introduction!

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  27. Willow, I relate here. LOL. I love how you fall in love with people like this. I've done that too on occasion.

    I'm pretty confident I won't be falling in love with Czeslaw Milosz--never heard of him. LOL...1!!

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  28. I hope my library has this book because I am now going Milosz hunting. Thank you for the poem and the introduction.

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  29. So, of course, I blogged him. And I, too, love the music of his verse. I wonder whether it was even better in his own language?
    I particularly liked 'At a Certain Age', although I'll need to re-read to understand fully.

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  30. You have a great blog here. I like checking out travel blogs much like yours at times. I have a blog myself which I hope will be a great resource for those looking to go on vacation. I want everyone to get that "vacation feeling" every time they come to my site. You know what I'm talking about.

    I'd like to exchange links with you to help spread some traffic around between each other. Please let me know if this is possible. Until then, keep up the good work.

    Jason
    ThatVACATIONfeeling.com

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  31. Oh Willow, such depth, philosophising, introspection, luminosity of insight......

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  32. Oh Willow, such depth, philosophising, introspection, luminosity of insight......

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  33. Fine poem - yet again I discover new work, new writers and new ideas from your blog.

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  34. wow, lovely,and I do so love the word "magpiety"!

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  35. Milosz is definitely one of the greats. Enjoy.

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  36. Love it. I will have to look in our library to see if he is in or out.

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  37. Oooo, look at you in spectacles, Willow! 'Magpiety' sure is a good word and you must be it!

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  38. I love that you call them spectacles, Derrick.

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  39. Three greats for today's post:

    Great post title
    Great image of you in love
    Great poem.

    Nice glasses, Willow!

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  40. I like some poet's, The Russian
    poets. Have to read some of this.
    Yvonne

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  41. Willow,
    Enjoy Paradise! His poetry fits you perfectly, daaaaling!!!! :)
    The Bach

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  42. I like that poem.


    This snap of you REALLY reminds me of your sister!

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  43. Willow, you always delight us with introductions to the most wonderful poets, books and movies! I have not heard of Mr. Milosz but I will be doing some searching for his poetry now.

    Happy Friday,
    Jen

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  44. Thanks, Willow, for again bringing a wonderful poet to our attention. You are a treasure!

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  45. You have excellent taste in poetry...and eyeglass frames!

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  46. You introduced me with 'A Song on the End of the World'. Now I must have some Czeslaw Milosz on my bookshelf.

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  48. Thank you. This is beautiful. Love your poetic magpie eyes.

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  49. Your lovely collections expose your magpiety. And what a good eye you have.

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  50. What a great word!

    What a wonderful find, too.

    And you in your glasses! Too cool.

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  51. I discovered him with great excitement when I was teaching English in my 20s. Good to know we share the passion.

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  52. I love your site. I have been reading your blog for about a month or so and I enjoy it so much, thank you. I have just started blogging myself. As a newcomer to this whole blog-world I would like to give you my deep respect!
    Czesław Miłosz is pretty close to my heart not only because he is Polish (I am Polish, too). In my opinion his poems can speak for themselves. Thanks to you his writing can be known a little wider.
    Have you heard about another Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska. On my site there is a dedication to You!!!
    Virginia

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  53. Virginia, thank you. I am always excited to discover new poets. I must find out more about Szymborska.

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  54. The original version of „Magpiety” by Czesław Miłosz in Polish one can find at:
    http://gina-virginia.blogspot.com/
    under the title “Sroczość”

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Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)