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Czesław Miłosz

Polish-American poet and Nobel laureate (1911-2004) · United States · On the map · Writers · Died at 93

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He lived through the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, then worked for the communist government before defecting when they turned on him - and from exile wrote the poetry and prose that made him a Nobel laureate and the century's most unsparing witness to ideology's cost.

Czesław Miłosz is read about 674 times a day, in 101 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 1 November 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 400 days, one point a day.

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A life in dates

2004Died14 August 20042001“Evil grows and bears fruit, which is understandable, because it has logic and probability on its side and also, of course, strength.”In their words"If Only This Could Be Said" To Begin Where I Am: Selected Essays by Czesŀaw Miŀosz (2001) edited and translated by Bogdana Carpenter and

Honorary Citizen of VilniusAward2000Śląski Wawrzyn LiterackiAward1998Nike AwardAward1994Order of the White Eagle (Third Polish Republic)Award1992Doctor Honoris Causa at the Vytautas Magnus UniversityAwardHonorary doctor of the University of BolognaAward1991“When I die, I will see the lining of the world. The other side, beyond bird, mountain, sunset.”In their words"Meaning" (1991)

1989Honorary Doctor of Harvard UniversityAwardHonorary Doctor of the Jagiellonian University of KrakowAwardNational Medal of ArtsAwardRighteous Among the NationsAward1984“Masculinity and femininity, elapsed, met in him And every shame, every grief, every love.”In their words"City of My Youth" (1984)

1980“What is this enigmatic impulse that does not allow one to settle down in the achieved, the finished? I think it is a quest for reality.”In their words8 December 1980Nobel lecture

“Only if we assume that a poet constantly strives to liberate himself from borrowed styles in search for reality, is he dangerous.”In their words8 December 1980Nobel lecture

Nobel Prize in LiteratureAward1978Neustadt International Prize for LiteratureAward1976Guggenheim FellowshipAward1967“I liked your velvet yoni, Annalena, long voyages in the delta of your legs.”In their words"Annalena" (1967) in Selected Poems (1996); also in New and Collected Poems (2001)

1911Born30 June 1911

People around Czesław

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In their own words 4

,
Czesław Miłosz
,
4 statements, newest first

  1. And if there is no lining to the world? If a thrush on a branch is not a sign, But just a thrush on the branch? If night and day Make no sense following each other?

    1991 · "Meaning" (1991), Own words

  2. 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.

    1984 · "City of My Youth" (1984), Own words

  3. Every poet depends upon generations who wrote in his native tongue; he inherits styles and forms elaborated by those who lived before him.

    8 December 1980 · Nobel lecture, Own words

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Awards

Honorary Citizen of Vilnius2001
Śląski Wawrzyn Literacki2000
Nike Award1998
Order of the White Eagle (Third Polish Republic)1994
Honorary doctor of the University of Bologna1992
Doctor Honoris Causa at the Vytautas Magnus University1992
Righteous Among the Nations1989
National Medal of Arts1989
Honorary Doctor of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow1989
Honorary Doctor of Harvard University1989
Nobel Prize in Literature1980
Neustadt International Prize for Literature1978
Guggenheim Fellowship1976
Honorary doctor of the University of Oxford
Commander's Grand Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas

About this person

Czesław Miłosz was born in Poland on 30 June 1911 and spent the war years surviving the German occupation of Warsaw. After 1945 he became a cultural attaché for Poland's new communist government, but when the authorities began threatening his safety, he defected to France and then settled in the United States, teaching at Berkeley. His wartime poetry and The Captive Mind, a prose dissection of Stalinism, established him as a major émigré voice. The Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980, citing a writer who "voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts". He spent decades translating Western literature into Polish and pressing the West to pay attention to Slavic writers, while his own work circled questions of faith, morality, and history. He died in Kraków on 14 August 2004 and was buried at Skałka, a church reserved for Poland's most honored dead.

Country
United States
Category
Writers
Topics
Writers
Type
Writer / Author
Status
Deceased
Dates
Lived 1911 to 2004 · aged 93

Where to find them

IMDbWebsitemilosz.pl

In common with Czesław

Ewa WiśniewskaAlso in The Issa Valley (1982)Octavio PazBoth received Neustadt International Prize for LiteratureTomas TranströmerBoth received Neustadt International Prize for LiteratureGabriel García MárquezBoth received Neustadt International Prize for LiteratureDanuta SzaflarskaAlso in The Issa Valley (1982)