In the Gateway ‘Moment’. Resentment Towards and Reaffirmation of Time in the Poems of Czesław Miłosz

Authors:

Pages: 355-363

Abstract:

The interpretation of a few poems and statements of Czesław Miłosz, featured in this article, deals with the issue of the time element in his works. The themes are a fleeting moment, in which the subjectivity is best visible and the person has a chance to arise in their individuation (principium individuationis), and the visions of macro-time (metaphysical and cosmic). In these visions the individual is subject to unification, standardization and reduction of human individual distinctiveness. The dialectics of Milosz’s reflection on time is presented in this article in the microanalysis of his statements and auto-commentaries. The first part of the text introduces the specifics of poetic construction and depiction of time proposed by Milosz. The second part focuses on the group of poems that show an analogue to the views of Friedrich Nietzsche. The representative excerpts of the Noble prize winner’s works are in this interpretation collated with the famous philosopher’s allegory from ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ (presenting ‘the gateway ‘Moment’’) and his views on the resentment and reaffirmation of time. Milosz, a lot like Nietzsche, shows, how to break free from the destructive resentment towards the past, to cure oneself of „the sickness of memory” and to affirmatively start to live in the Now; he postulates mindfulness.

Keywords:

Czesław Miłosz, Friedrich Nietzsche, resentment towards and reaffirmation of tim

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