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Quotes from Hymn of the Pearl — Czesław Miłosz

1911–2004 Poland

← All quotes by Czesław Miłosz

8 quotes

If I am all mankind, are they themselves without me?

Hymn of the Pearl (1981)

Under various names, I have praised only you, rivers!

Hymn of the Pearl (1981)

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

Hymn of the Pearl (1981)

When I curse Fate, it's not me, but the earth in me.

Hymn of the Pearl (1981)

The death of a man is like the fall of a mighty nation
That had valiant armies, captains, and prophets,
And wealthy ports and ships all over the seas.

Hymn of the Pearl (1981)

Now I am not ashamed of my defeat.
One murky island with its barking seals
Or a parched desert is enough
To make us say: yes, oui, si.

Hymn of the Pearl (1981)

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 only, eternal.

Hymn of the Pearl (1981)

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 melancholia?
Is it because anger is no use?

Hymn of the Pearl (1981)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Czesław Miłosz (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.