For the witnesses, and not just for those of the worst moments, but for the whole communities of witnesses: we who all raise every child together. The author translated his own poems from the Polish in collaboration with expert friends: students and poets and peers. #amazonlink to The Collected Poems https://amzn.to/3yFWS3Z from "Vandeans" / by Czeslaw Milosz She was running, basket in hand, along a path near the castle. Armed men ordered her to leave. Because when prisoners are shot, witnesses are unwelcome. {important information for you for the #amazonlink: as an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases; all books I link are ones I own, unless otherwise noted}
20th-Century Polish Poetry
DPF / Maj
For fleeting moments, which are all of them, from A Book of Luminous Things, edited by Czeslaw Milosz.
from A Leaf / by Bronislaw Maj, b. 1953, translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Hass
no one will distinguish it now
as it lies among other leaves, no one saw
what I did.
DPF / Szymborska
For sisters and for mine who makes the world luminous, from a woman who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996, and from A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry, edited by Czeslaw Milosz. A funny one in admiration and in awe of those not fully obsessed with the making of poems while equally in admiration of those who are.
from In Praise of My Sister / by Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012), translated from the Polish by Magnus J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire
Under my sister’s roof I feel safe
DPF / Swir
For the sea, from A Book of Luminous Things: 20than international anthology of poetry, edited by Czeslaw Milosz.
from The Sea and The Man / by Anna Swir (1909-1984), translated from the Polish by Leonard Nathan and Czeslaw Milosz
You will not tame this sea
either by humility or rapture.
DPF / Wat
For bells, from A Book of Luminous Things, edited by Czeslaw Milosz.
from Songs of a Wanderer / by Aleksander Wat (1900-1967)
So beautiful the lungs
are breathless.
DPF / Machej
For patience, from A Book of Luminous Things, edited by Czeslaw Milosz.
from Orchards in July / by Zbigniew Machej, b. 1958, translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Hass
the green touched with gray, of leaves,
fallen petals of white
DPF / Milosz
from Ars Poetica? / by Czeslaw Milosz trans. by Czeslaw Milosz and Lillian Vallee
What I’m saying here is not, I agree, poetry,
as poems should be written rarely and reluctantly,
under unbearable duress and only with the hope
that good spirits, not evil ones, choose us for their instrument.
Daily Poetry Fragments {Semi-Daily} 