Miłosz and Conrad revisited. Where the Sun Rises and Where It Sets (1974) and A Personal Record (1912)

This essay is the continuation of a study published in 2014 under the title Miłosz wobec Conrada 1948-1959 [Miłosz and Conrad 1948-1959] in which I examine the aesthetic, moral, literary, metaphysical, historical and political subjects which were close to Conrad’s heart and which Czesław Miłosz discusses in his postwar poetry ‒ beginning with Traktat moralny /A Treatise on Morality (1948) ‒ and to which he also makes references in his postwar essays. One new line of research I pursue is on traces of the hidden presence of Conrad’s legacy, which are also to be found in the poet’s later works, above all in his mythologized spiritual autobiography entitled Gdzie wschodzi słońce i kędy zapada / Where the Sun Rises and Where It Sets (1974) ‒ a long poem which has clearly been inspired by William Blake, the Bible, St. Augustine and Adam Mickiewicz (who is not mentioned by name, however) and which I have analysed in a study entitled Europejskie korzenie poezji Czesława Miłosza (1995) [The European Roots of the poetry of Czesław Miłosz]. In this paper I show that the ‘message’ which Conrad wished to convey in A Personal Record (1912) and in the prefaces to his autobiographical volumes was by no means lost on Miłosz, as can be seen in his later poetry.