“He doesn't know birds live
In another time than man.
He doesn't know a tree lives
In another time than birds”

— Czeslaw Milosz

"Birth" (1947), trans. Peter Dale Scott
Daylight (1953)
Context: He doesn't know birds live
In another time than man.
He doesn't know a tree lives
In another time than birds
And will grow slowly
Upward in a gray column
Thinking with its roots
Of the silver of underworld kingdoms.

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Czeslaw Milosz 106

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

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