by the river Wilia, 1999
Convictions, beliefs, opinions,
certainties, principles,
rules and habits have abandoned me.
I woke up naked at the edge of a civilization
which seemed to me comic and incomprehensible.
The vaulted halls of the post-Jesuit academy
where I had taken my classes
would not have been pleased with me.
Though I preserved a few sentences in Latin.
The river flows through a forest of oak and pine.
I stand in grass up to my waist,
Breathing in the wild scent of yellow flowers.
Above, white clouds. As is usual in my district,
an abundance of white clouds.
~Czeslaw Milosz~
New and Collected Poems 1931-2001
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