Introduction

This special issue of The Polish Review began as the project of Marek Bernacki of the University of Bielsko-Biala, coeditor of this issue. Even before winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980, Czesław Miłosz had established himself not only as one of the leading poets of Poland, but also as one of the leading poets in the world. Of course, Miłosz's works were not confined to original poetry. He was also an accomplished translator, novelist, and essayist. He taught Slavic literature for many years at the University of California, Berkeley, and he wrote The History of Polish Literature, which became the standard textbook for anglophone students trying to get a sense of Polish literature.1 There has been and continues to be, twenty years after his death, a great deal of academic work devoted to Miłosz. Perhaps Bernacki's primary reason for his desire to produce a Miłosz-themed special issue can be found at the end of his review essay, included later in this issue: “Miłosz's poetry and thought have not become outdated. On the contrary, they can be a source of inspiration for those struggling with the challenges of the twenty-first century.” Although there have been some delays in assembling the issue, it was also inspired by 2024 being declared the year of Czesław Miłosz.The articles in this volume approach the works and sometimes the life of Miłosz from a number of different angles. They examine the craft of the poet, the philosophical underpinnings of his worldview, his goals for poetry and art, his use of specific imagery in his works, and the musicality of his verse.The first article, “The Holy Word ‘Is’: Czesław Miłosz and the Poetry of Being,” by Michał Paweł Markowski of the University of Illinois–Chicago, examines Miłosz's concept of “objective poetry” and tries to further understand his use of the terms “being” and “existing.” The author first examines Miłosz's collection of world poetry, A Book of Luminous Things, to try to establish what Miłosz values most in poetry.2 The article makes use of references to a wide array of philosophers, including Descartes and Heidegger, and also comments on the influence of both T. S. Eliot and Japanese poetry in his attempt to examine the poet's concept of “objective poetry” as well as “being” and “existence.”The second article, “Miłosz at Work,” by Mateusz Antoniuk of the Jagiellonian University, uses three texts about the poetic process, from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries respectively and tries to apply them to the work of Miłosz in constructing his poems. The author argues that it is worth examining the rough drafts of Miłosz's poetry, and he specifically examines two poems using this process, “Pory roku” [Seasons] and “Późna starość” [Late old age].The third article, “The Model of a Non-Totalitarian Society in Czesław Miłosz's Biohistory,” by Zbigniew Kaźmierczyk of the University of Gdańsk, tries to take into account some of the events of the poet's life in shaping his “bio-historosophy.” It examines Miłosz's fascination with Manichaean and Gnostic ideas, presenting the world, especially in its totalitarian manifestations, as under the control of an evil demiurge. The author discusses the poet's views on nature, theology, and history. The effects of both Darwin and Hegel on Miłosz's thought are brought into this discussion.The fourth article, “With Miłosz among the Animals,” by Łukasz Tischner of the Jagiellonian University, examines the way that Miłosz deals with animals in both his prose and his poetry. The author examines how the poet is both fascinated by animals and appalled at both the cruelty of the animal world and the cruelty of humans to animals. His theology is also examined as Miłosz excludes the world of fauna from his poetic vision of apokatastasis.The fifth article, “‘My Homeland, Europe’: On the Forgotten Ode by Czesław Miłosz,” by Paweł Bem of the Institute of Literary Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences, first tells the story of how the title ode, written, according to the author's reasoning, in 1937, was discovered in 2014 by the author of the article in the archive of the poet's work at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The author arranged for the poem to be finally published in 2017, thirteen years after the poet's death. The article goes on to explore possible inspirations for the ode, including the poet's interest in Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz and Jacques Maritain. The author also tries to puzzle out why Miłosz did not deem the poem worthy of publication at the time, but Bem maintains in conclusion that this poem is a particularly relevant statement in the world today concerning endangered democratic values.The sixth article, “‘Struggle against Verse.’ Musical Contexts of Czesław Miłosz's Poetry—the Case of ‘Rays of Dazzling Light’ and Its Musical Adaptations,” by Anna Bergiel of the University of Bielsko-Biala, examines the musicality of Miłosz's verse, taking into account relevant scholarship. The author then goes on to examine the presence of the poet's verse in contemporary music. Finally, the author examines the work by Mikołaj Górecki, entitled, “Radiating Brightness. Little Mystery for Soprano and String Orchestra,” which is based on Miłosz's late poem, “Rays of Dazzling Light.”The first review essay, by Irena Grudzińska Gross, entitled “Unconquerable Miłosz,” discusses three books: Cynthia L. Havens's Czesław Miłosz: A California Life, Eva Hoffman's On Czesław Miłosz: Visions from the Other Europe, and Peter Dale Scott's Ecstatic Pessimist: Czesław Miłosz, Poet of Catastrophe and Hope. The second review essay, “Miłosz's Topicality,” by Marek Bernacki, the coeditor of the special issue, deals with two substantial books relating to Miłosz studies. The first, Rodzina Miłoszów i rody pogranicza polsko-litewskiego: Studia [The Miłosz family and the families of the Polish-Lithuanian borderland: Studies], edited by Andrzej Baranow, Jarosław Ławski, and Anna Romanik, presents a study of the Miłosz family and their experience in the borderlands. It also examines the relationship between Czesław Miłosz and the poet Oskar Władysław Miłosz. The second volume, Czesław Miłosz i wiek XXI. [Czesław Miłosz and the twenty-first century], edited by Joanna Zach and Karina Jarzyńska, gathers eleven articles devoted to various aspects of Miłosz's work. Most of these articles were originally presented in 2019 at an international academic symposium organized by the Center for Research on the Works of Czesław Miłosz and the Faculty of Polish Studies of the Jagiellonian University as part of the Kraków Miłosz Festival. Because Professor Bernacki does an excellent job of presenting the subjects of these articles, I will not attempt to recap them here. I refer you to his review essay.Finally, I return once again to one of the main reasons for compiling this special issue, which is encapsulated in the title of Bernacki's review essay: “Miłosz's Topicality.” The ideas and philosophy of Czesław Miłosz, as expressed in his poetry, his fiction, his essays, and his lectures, are as relevant today as they ever were during the poet's lifetime. Scholarly interest in Miłosz and his works has only increased in the years since his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980 and has not diminished after the poet's death in 2004. Miłosz is indeed a poet for our time.The publication of this special issue devoted to the work of Czesław Miłosz, comprised mostly of articles by Polish literary scholars, is an important part of the celebrations of the seventieth anniversary of the establishment of The Polish Review—our prestigious academic journal known and appreciated in the scholarly community worldwide.