“It would be more decorous not to live. To live is not decorous,
Says he who after many years
Returned to the city of his youth.”

—  Czeslaw Milosz

"City of My Youth" (1984)
Context: It would be more decorous not to live. To live is not decorous,
Says he who after many years
Returned to the city of his youth. There was no one left
Of those who once walked these streets
And now they had nothing, except his eyes.
Stumbling, he walked and looked, instead of them,
On the light they had loved, on the lilacs again in bloom.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Czeslaw Milosz photo
Czeslaw Milosz 106
Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator 1911–2004

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