"Standing on the Side of Man" Subtitle: Selected Works of Milosz over the Past Fifty Years Author: [Poland] Czeslaw Milosz Publisher: Guangxi Normal University Press

This book is a collection of representative essays by Czesław Milosz. Spanning fifty years, they aim to demonstrate the extraordinary breadth of Milosz's themes and the diversity of genres and styles he mastered. "My Guests", the characters narrated and sketched are all representatives of historical trends that played a role in shaping Milosz's life. "On the Side of Man", presents Milosz as a serious religious thinker of great depth. "Against Incomprehensible Poetry", a collection of Milosz's most important essays on the responsibility of poetry. "In Constant Surprise", a fragment of "Notebooks" included as the conclusion of this collection, revisits the themes that have always dominated Milosz's work and therefore also dominate this collection.

In our time, no writer can match Milosz in presenting the wonders of the world. We should be grateful for the wisdom of his extraordinary life.

—Jaroslav Anders, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Milosz had a versatile ability to employ and often create new forms while maintaining the thematic coherence of his work. The sheer variety of genres at his disposal is staggering… In Milosz’s hands, the essay, while retaining its formal flexibility, becomes a tool of rigorous intellectual inquiry.

——Editor of the English edition

I have written on all sorts of subjects, and most of them were not what I wanted. I will not achieve my long-term intentions this time either. But I always know that what I want is impossible to achieve. I need that ability to convey my overwhelming wonder at being here in a single, unattainable sentence that will simultaneously convey the smell and texture of my skin, everything stored in my memory, everything I agree and disagree with right now.

— Czeslaw Milosz

About the Author · · · · · ·

Table of contents · · · · · ·