“I pass a volcanic park, lie down at a spring,
Not knowing how to express what is always and everywhere”

— Czeslaw Milosz

"It Was Winter" (1964), trans. Czesław Miłosz, Robert Hass, Robert Pinsky and Renata Gorczynski
Bobo's Metamorphosis (1965)
Context: And here I am walking the eternal earth.
Tiny, leaning on a stick.
I pass a volcanic park, lie down at a spring,
Not knowing how to express what is always and everywhere:
The earth I cling to is so solid
Under my breast and belly that I feel grateful
For every pebble, and I don't know whether
It is my pulse or the earth's that I hear,
When the hems of invisible silk vestments pass over me,
Hands, wherever they have been, touch my arm,
Or small laughter, once, long ago over wine,
With lanterns in the magnolias, for my house is huge.

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

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Czeslaw Milosz 106

Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator 1911–2004

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