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12 March 2010

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Polish Culture in the World Polish Cultural Institutes
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CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ
languages: Polish  / English  / French  / German 
 

Born in Szetejnie, Lithuania in 1911, died 14 August 2004 in Cracow. Poet, novelist, essayist and translator. He's the winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Apart from the Nobel Prize he won several other prestigious awards, including a 1976 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 1978 Neustadt Prize, and the 1989 National Medal for the Arts. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. He holds many honorary doctorates from American and Polish universities. He is an honorary citizen of Lithuania and of the city of Cracow.

He spent his youth and studied law in Vilnius, where he also published his first poems. During the German Occupation he lived in Warsaw. After the war, he served in the Polish diplomatic service in the USA and France until 1951, when he sought political asylum in France. In 1960, he left France for California, where he spent more than twenty years as Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California Berkeley. Until 1989, most of his publications were in the Paris emigré journal "Kultura" or in the underground press in Poland. He has divided his time between Berkeley and Cracow since 1989.

Critics from many countries, as well as contemporary poets (like Joseph Brodsky, for instance), approach Milosz's literary output in superlatives. His poetry is rich in visual-symbolic metaphor. The idyllic and the apocalyptic go hand-in-hand. The verse sometimes suggests naked philosophical discourse of religious epiphany. Songs and theological treatises alternate, as in the "child-like rhymes" about the German Occupation of Warsaw in "The World: Naive Poems" (1943) or "Six Lectures in Verse" from the volume "Chronicles" (1987). Milosz transcends genre. As a poet and translator, he moves easily from contemporary American poets to the Bible (portions of which he has rendered anew into Polish).

As a novelist, he won renown with "The Seizure of Power" (1953), about the installation of communism in Poland. Both Milosz and his readers have a particular liking for the semi-autobiographical "The Issa Valley" (1955), a tale of growing up and the loss of innocence that abounds in philosophical sub-texts. There are also many personal themes in Milosz's essays, as well as in "The Captive Mind" (1953), a classic of the literature of totalitarianism. "Native Realm" (1959) remains one of the best studies of the evolution of the Central European mentality. "The Land of Ulro" (1977) is a sort of intellectual and literary autobiography. It was followed by books like "The Witness of Poetry" (1982), "The Metaphysical Pause" (1995) and "Life on Islands" (1997) that penetrate to the central issues of life and literature today.

Bibliography:

  • "Trzy zimy / Three Winters", Warszawa: Wyd. Wladyslaw Mortkowicz, 1936
  • "Ocalenie / Rescue", Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1945
  • "Zniewolony umysł / The captive mind", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1953 (translations: French, English, Italian, Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, German, Swedish, Ukrainian, Hungarian)
  • "Swiatło dzienne / The Light of Day", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1954
  • "Zdobycie władzy / The Seizure of Power", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1955 (translations: French, English, Spanish, Gujarati, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, German, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish, Hungarian)
  • "Dolina Issy / The Issa Valley", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1955. (translations: French, English, German, Bulgarian, Danish, Finnish, Flemish, Norwegian, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish, Hungarian)
  • "Traktat poetycki / A Poetical Treatise", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1957. (translations: Russian)
  • "Rodzinna Europa / Native Realm", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1959. (translations: French, English, Danish, Finnish, Flemish, Spanish, German, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish, Hungarian, Italian)
  • "Król Popiel i inne wiersze / King Popiel and Other Poems", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1962
  • "Gucio zaczarowany / Gucio Enchanted", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1965
  • "The History of Polish Literature", London-New York: MacMillan, 1969 (translations: Polish, French, German, Italian)
  • "Widzenia na Zatoką San Francisco / A View of San Francisco Bay", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1969 (translations: French, English, Serbo-Croatian)
  • "Miasto bez imienia / City Without a Name", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1969.
  • "Gdzie wschodzi słońce i kędy zapada / Where the Sun Rises and Where it Sets", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1974 (translations: Serbo-Croatian)
  • "Prywatne obowiązki / Private Obligations", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1974.
  • "Emperor of the Earth", Berkeley: University of Cal. Press, 1976. (translations: French)
  • "Ziemia Ulro / The Land of Ulro", Paris: Instytut Literacki , 1977 (translations: French, English, German, Serbo-Croatian)
  • "Ogród nauk / The Garden of Science", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1979 (translations: French)
  • "Nobel Lecture", New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1981
  • "Hymn o perle / The Poem of the Pearl", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1982 (translations: Czech, Serbo-Croatian)
  • "The Witness of Poetry", Cambridge. Mass., Harvard Univ. Press, 1983 (translations: Polish, French, German, Serbo-Croatian)
  • "Nieobjęta ziemia / The Unencompassed Earth", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1984 (translations: English, French, German)
  • "Zaczynając od moich ulic / Starting from My Streets", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1985. (translations: English, French)
  • "Kroniki / Chronicles", Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1987 (translations: French, Serbo-Croatian)
  • "Dalsze okolice / Farther Surroundings", Krakow: Znak, 1991 (translations: English)
  • "Szukanie ojczyzny / In Search of a Homeland", Krakow: Znak, 1992. (translations: Lithuanian)
  • "Na brzegu rzeki / Facing the River", Krakow: Znak, 1994 (translations: English)
  • "Metafizyczna pauza / The Metaphysical Pause", Krakow: Znak, 1995
  • "Legendy nowoczesności (Eseje wojenne) / Modern Legends (War Essays)", Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1996
  • "Piesek przydrożny / Roadside Dog", Krakow: Znak, 1997
  • "Zycie na wyspach / Life on Islands", Krakow: Znak, 1997
  • "Abecadło Miłosza / Miłosz's Alphabet", Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1997
  • "Inne abecadło / A Further Alphabet", Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1998
  • "Wyprawa w dwudziestolecie / An Excursion through the Twenties and Thirties", Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1999
  • "To / It", Kraków: Znak, 2000

Author: Krystyna Dąbrowska, www.polska2000.pl; Copyright: Stowarzyszenie Willa Decjusza

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"BEATS OF FREEDOM" - MOVIE TRAILER
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Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski was awarded for the Best Original Score for a Drama Film. The award was presented by International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) for the original soundtrack from Tom Ford’s debut film, "A Single Man".
March 9-21, "Summer at Nohant" / "Lato w Nohant", directed by Hanna Bondarewska, the original play by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, translated by Celina Wieniewska - Mead Theater Lab at Flashpoint, Washington, D.C.
March 12 - "The Pianist and the Diplomat": an evening of music and history exploring the life of Ignacy Jan Paderewski - Lindner Family Commons, Washington D.C.
March 13 and 14 - Honoring Poland's Music Legacy: Penderecki's U.S. premiere of "Chaconne - In Memoriam John Paul II" and Szymanowski's "Symphonie Concertante" and "Stabat Mater" - Mandeville Auditorium - University of California, San Diego.
March 14 - Ewa Pobłocka will perform a recital of Chopin's music - National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
TR Warszawa will show its production "4.48 Psychosis" by Sarah Kane, directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna - London, Barbican Theatre, March 23-27.
March 26 and 27 - Paderewski Symphony Orchestra: Celebration of Chopin's 200th Anniversary - Chicago Symphony Center.
March 27 - Chopin Anniversary Marathon: faculty and graduate students performs a variety of solo and chamber music repertoire - Alfred Newman Recital Hall, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
March 28 - Lira Ensemble: Chopin Bicentennial Concert - Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Northwestern University, Chicago.
The 7th edition of "Misteria Paschalia" in Kraków will take place on March 29 - April 5, 2010.
Yale University Press published "Fellowship of Poets" by Irena Grudzińska-Gross. The book tells the story of a close friendship between two Noble Prize laureates from Eastern Europe, Czesław Miłosz and Joseph Brodski.
Stephen and Timothy Quay, renowned for their stopped-motion animations and original feature films, are planning a film based on Bruno Schulz's "Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass". Brothers Quay are only returning to Schulz; in 1986, they made a name for themselves with the adaptation of Schulz's "Street of the Crocodiles".
Jonas Mekas, a legendary American avant-garde film-maker, will receive SmokSmoków Award - an honorary distinction awarded by the Kraków Film Festival. Mekas will come to Poland in May to receive the award at the 50th anniversary edition of the festival.
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