Customer Reviews

The Noble Traveller - The Life and Writings of O. V. de L. Milosz

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An extraordinary collection of work by an extraordinary man. Milosz inhabits a world almost competely removed from that of most modern readers. A Lithuanian by choice and descent (explained in the introductions to the book) Milosz worked for the Lithuanian legation to the League of Nations during the crisis over Vilnius (Poland occupied it) concurrently generating major works of poetry. A small review cannot do justice to the poet, nor to the soul of a great man. It's amazing how fresh his speculations are even today, although he died shortly before WWII. He seems to have been a real modern day prophet. He predicted WWII, he predicted the disappearnce of Lithuania, and then her wholesale reemergence into the fresh air after a period of great tribulation and suffering. The reader should compare his comments here in this book to the actual situation in the EU today. His characterization of Bolshevism here also deserves attention.

Besides being intimately involved with the events of his and our day, Milosz was also a student of eastern languages and wisdom. He knew the Bible in Hebrew. He was as concerned it seems with his Semitic roots as with his aristocratic Baltic roots and the reader will recognize some of that influence in his poetry and writing.

The book itself is divided into several sectons. The first ( although actually the various introductions constitute a section unto themselves) is his verse in French and English translation. Later come his dialogues or plays I guess. His super-mystical writing if I remember is in the Great Arcana, or Ars Magna. His commentary in the back is as rich as his work towards the middle of the book.

Some may be surprised to learn he was the mentor and second uncle of the Nobel prize-winning Polish writer Czeslaw Milosz. The younger Milosz's perspective on Polish politics is markedly gentler to the Polish side, an accident of birth on the wrong side of the river it seems. Czeslaw Milosz's introduction to this book is quite interesting also.

The geneology of the family of Oskaras Milasius (the Lithuanian variant of his name) coud fill a book itself, with the crest bestowed by Mazovian royalty "Bozawiola" (not a stop on the Warsaw train system, it means Will of God), the ancient Wendish ancestors from Lusatia, etc. All of it is rustic and perhaps hard for Americans to conceptualize, which is just exactly why they should read this book. English and other peoples may like it as well.