Poet in the New World: Poems, 1946–1953 – Previously Untranslated Work by Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz from His Years in Postwar Washington

by Czeslaw Milosz, Robert Hass (foreword)

A new collection of work from Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz that includes previously untranslated poems written during his time in Washington, D.C., and his years in Europe before and after

One of the most revered poets of the twentieth century, Czeslaw Milosz famously bore witness to its violence in his native Poland and in the war’s aftermath from exile in Europe and the United States. Immediately after the war, he lived in Washington, D.C., working as a diplomatic official, having left behind an old world stained by bloodshed and still in the throes of ideological conflict as he sought to find his bearings in a new world.

Poet in the New World gathers the poems written during these years—for the first time in English translation—and is contextualized by the poetry that came directly before and after, from poems written in Warsaw in 1945, shortly before he departed for the United States, to others written in Europe from 1951 to 1953, after his significant time away. Capturing Milosz at his existential and stylistic best, Poet in the New World is attuned to the necessity of imagination and the duty of language and is filled with wonder and skepticism. Milosz grapples with the extraordinary violence he had witnessed in Warsaw and the strange postwar United States he has inhabited, all while pondering the enduring fate of his beloved Poland. In the poem “Warsaw,” the poet asks, “How can I live in this country/Where the foot knocks against/the unburied bones of kin?”

Equal parts affecting and illuminating, Poet in the New World is an essential addition to the Milosz canon, in a beautifully rendered translation by Robert Hass and David Frick, that reverberates with the questions of histories past, present, and future.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Hardcover

Published February 4, 2025

About the author

Alternate spelling of Czesław Miłosz.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

…these poems… tell the story of a poet recovering from a war of extraordinary violence, taking his bearings in a new world, and trying to locate and understand his task as a poet. from the Introduction by Robert Hass

“My pen is lighter than a hummingbird’s feather. This burden is too much for it to bear,” Czesław Milosz writes in Warsaw, written in 1945. “Leave to poets a moment of happiness, Otherwise your world will perish. It’s madness to live without joy.” It is the opening poem in Poet in the New World. He had witnessed war’s violence in his homeland of Poland. In 1951 through 1953 lived in the United States, still processing the past and the evolving post-war world.

In pe, he warns of the impermanence of things–countries, cities, people, the past. On the Song of a Bird on the Banks of the Potomac, he “listens to your lovely ones with joy,” the bird unaware of what the poet has seen.

Treatise on Morals, written in 1947, particularly affected me. “Can anything save the earth?” he begins, but later writes, “You are not, however, so helpless, /And even if you were a stone in a field, /An avalanche changes its course /Depending on the stones it rolls over.” He encourages, “And so remember: in a difficult moment,/You must be the ambassador of dreams.” And asserts, “My poem should be a refuge against despair.”

Treatise warns “Beware madmen,” the “greatest disaster in nature,” and “This is your world. It is on the line./The politicians have already lost the game”, ending “before us lies “The Heart of Darkness.”

The poet endures. And the whisper of his voice is great and gives comfort to people. from To Tadeusz Rozewicz, Poet by Czeslaw Milosz

In To Laura, he writes “The precious virtue of freedom remains/And it needs to be won every day./Thousands will put on their own shackles/And poison their hearts.”

What Milosz writes about it not just the past, about history, what has happened. The message remains sharp and immediate today.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

[Tree · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good collection of poetry with informative notes. The poem Treatise on Morals is a powerhouse and one to be read slowly.
I read the book while during the same time listened to an audio version which deepened my appreciation.
I borrowed this from the library but would definitely purchase my own copy.

[Illiterate · Rating 5 out of 5]

European culture and personal exile post-WW2. A sense of loss that time will heal/erase. Top tips (all are reprinted): In Warsaw, Child Europe, Antigone, Mittelbergheim.

[Keith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful addition to the Milosz canon in English! And a very different book. It seems to have an uncertainty that later poems don't have; even that earlier poems don't have. The war is over here, Poland is devastated, the poet is trying to determine his relationship with the new regime (one he is even working for), then rejects it and defects without buying in to the self-congratulatory myths of the West. This makes for a hesitant poetry, but that hesitation is very interesting, sometimes even beautiful. In these poems we see one of the major world writers of the last half of the last century trying to figure things out, trying to find a moral compass when such things seem to have been destroyed forever. Perhaps some of the poems are not among his greatest, but the effort of them is extraordinary, and was clearly necessary for all of the work that came after.

Of course, I am intrigued by the places in Michigan that he mentions, even if he is appalled by them, by the apotheosis of capitalism. Here's the end of a poem he wrote in a hotel in Detroit in 1949, :He Has No Sight:"

He is left behind with the cries of deer,
With the throat of a dying turtledove,
With the daring head of a rattlesnake,
With a black background of rising suns.
He is left behind with the sticky torment of tropical plants,
With the white dawn of the acacia trees,
With the warmth of a beaver's hut on a winter night,
With the ironic spectacle of the electrons.

And out of fear the he doesn't feel horror,
He tosses a coin into the frosted box of the radio
For a song, for paper palm fronds,
For life without death,
For the baseness of it.

And here's the end of a later poem, "Paris, 1951," where he is trying to find some uncertain hope:

O my friends,
Speakers of different languages,
If we are given disaster,
A dream will outlast it,
A scream that will, at least once,
Penetrate millions of those
Who live on earth.

To sing me a new song
In the hour when those who keep silent
In the lands east and west
And on the shores of a bloody sea,
Try to hide from others with their hands
The source that beats in their chests,
The hot and nameless
Source of a guarded hope.

There we get to see that prophetic voice that became so central to his greatest work!

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating collection that provides English-speakers with a glimpse at the genius of Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, “Poet in the New World: Poems, 1946–1953” is a new translation of the works Mr. Milosz composed during the immediate aftermath of World War II.

This was an interesting period in the poet’s life, he had just been through and survived the horrors of the war in his native Poland, he saw the aftermath of the death and destruction, and he now had to cope with a communist regime being imposed by the USSR using force against his countrymen. Already a published and somewhat known poet, he cooperated with the government and eventually was appointed a cultural attaché in the West, at times in the US and France. When the communists became too aggressive and his freedom was threatened, Milosz defected and remained in the West until later in his life when it was safe for him to return. This volume captures those poems from his time in exile.

These are definitely the musings of a survivor, an exile. Mr. Milosz continues to be haunted by his experiences in the war, in what he has seen his country reduced to afterwards. We also see his remembrances and longing for his homeland, the gravesite of his mother, the guilt he feels of enjoying Paris and freedom while his countrymen suffer behind the Iron Curtain.

Of course, much is lost when one translates poetry into a foreign language, but one can tell the strength of his images, the rhythm of his language, the emotion behind every line. A deep exploration of a time and place.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Ecco via NetGalley. Thank you!

[Shilo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love poetry and earned my Bachelor’s degree in Literature, but I had never heard of Czeslaw Milosz before this book. I loved this book and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to read more about post-war Europe mindset and thoughts. There were many profound poems in this book. I definitely plan to share some of these poems with my classes because I do not want my students to go through their studies without reading this thought provoking poet. A couple of the poems were a little dated, but it gives amazing insight into how people thought back then.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for a free advanced copy of the audiobook. Receiving this in no way impacted my review. I was captivated by the poetry and know that I will get a copy of the book to be able to focus on it and really study the words.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A welcome addition to the English translations of poems by Nobel Prize winner, Czeslaw Milosz. This is a book of early works. Sensitive translation by Robert Haas and David Frick. Though many of the poems were written by Milosz while he was in the US representing Poland, the feel foreshadows his eventual defection, and seems to me to reflect the kind of existential thought that was most popular in Europe in the post-war years. I particularly enjoyed the subtle differences in tone of the poems that examined American society and those written in Paris. Wonderful work by a major 20th century poet.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Barbara Waloven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being unfamiliar with the Polish Resistance movement during WWII and Washington DC in 1946-1951 I thought I’d find many of these poems hard to relate to or understand. However, I found myself emotionally invested in many of these pieces. If I didn’t totally understand every stance it was ok because the words flowed together in such a way that I could still feel his anger, pain, love, thoughts, and turmoil. I especially liked YOU WHO WRONGED and A CONCERT.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd never heard of Czeslaw Milosz before this, but was intrigued since my family comes from this area, but never talked about this, and immediately I felt this awe at the style and the way it flowed. I was intrigued by the way he grappled with memory and war, as well as violence and what a legacy can be or will be, as well as how fears seem to grow or change or reappear. I can't wait to read more of his works in translation.

Thanks for the ARC

[Susan Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would think the inspiration for this poetry would have been difficult to write about.

[Jacek · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of Czeslaw Milosz's poetry that aptly reflects the complicated aftermath of WWII.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's madness to live without joy
And to repeat to the dead
Whose part was to be gladness
Of action in thought and in the flesh, singing, feasts,
Only the two salvaged words:
Truth and Justice."