“To whom am I to present my pretty new book, freshly smoothed off with dry pumice stone?”

"Hard is the Road of Life"
1950's

"Consciousness," trans. Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass
Unattainable Earth (1986)
Context: I think that I am here, on this earth,
To present a report on it, but to whom I don't know.
As if I were sent so that whatever takes place
Has meaning because it changes into memory.

Source: Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas

2015, Remarks to the People of Africa (July 2015)
Context: I have to also say that Africa’s democratic progress is also at risk when leaders refuse to step aside when their terms end. […] When a leader tries to change the rules in the middle of the game just to stay in office, it risks instability and strife -- as we’ve seen in Burundi. And this is often just a first step down a perilous path. And sometimes you’ll hear leaders say, well, I'm the only person who can hold this nation together. If that's true, then that leader has failed to truly build their nation. […] Nobody should be president for life. And your country is better off if you have new blood and new ideas. I'm still a pretty young man, but I know that somebody with new energy and new insights will be good for my country. It will be good for yours, too, in some cases.

Is it far to go? (1963)

Source: City of Glass

"Juanita".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Context: p>Rugged! Rugged as Parnassus!
Rude, as all roads I have trod —
Yet are steeps and stone-strown passes
Smooth o'er head, and nearest God.Here black thunders of my canyon
Shake its walls in Titan wars!
Here white sea-born clouds companion
With such peaks as know the stars!</p

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close