Czeslaw Milosz Research Articles

Wittgenstein and Poetry: A Reading of Czeslaw Milosz’s “Realism”

In this paper I hope to cast light on Wittgenstein enigmatic remark, “one should really only create philosophy poetically”. I discuss Wittgenstein’s ambition to overcome metaphysics by way of an appeal to ordinary language. For this purpose I contrast “realism” in philosophy (i.e., metaphysical realism, particularly its modern scientific version) with “realism” in poetry. My theme is the capacity of poetry to provide a model for Wittgenstein’s resistance to the inhumanity unleashed in metaphysics—exemplified by two distinct forms of skepticism—which obliterates the ordinary world under the guise of discovering its true nature. The poem I shall use to illustrate the difficulty in maintaining our grip on reality, hence our grip on our humanity, is Czeslaw Milosz’s poem “Realism”.

„Który skrzywdziłeś człowieka prostego”, czyli Miłosz na nowo odczytany

The present text is a contribution to the reinterpretation of the poetic biography of Czeslaw Milosz, with a particular emphasis on the threads that can contribute to an insightful reinterpretation of the famous work “Whom You Wronged”. The author touches on the future Nobel Prize winner’s ties with the Żagary poetic group, recalls the catastrophic motifs in his work and, above all, focuses on the aforementioned work in the context of an analysis of wrong – doing and wrong-doer, power and faithful servility, putting into discussion the hitherto exposed attempts at interpretation.

Głos Kasandry. Prognostyczne wizje wojny ("Przyszła wojna" Władysława Sikorskiego i "Dwa końce świata" Antoniego Słonimskiego)

The article formulates predictions as a rational variant of prophetism in the literature and journalism of the interwar period. The motif of the unheard Cassandra is a metaphor for the impossibility of warnings and predictions of impending war to intervene in the course of history to avert future catastrophe. This motif was derived from the essays of Czeslaw Milosz and Jerzy Stempowski and applied to the understanding of prognostication in the 1930s. The projected visions of the war in the historical‑political books of Bocheński, Studnicki, Cat Mackiewicz were discussed. A parallel reading of The Future War by Sikorski and The Two Ends of the World by Słonimski was made in the context of his anti‑fascist and anti‑totalitarian journalism.

Captive Minds and Civil Dialogue: A Reflection on Catholic Universities in the Post-Dobbs Era

Discourse about abortion within the Catholic community - not to mention the broader world - is broken. There are a number of reasons for this but one is surely the way that ideological forces have captured the minds of intellectuals. In his 1951 classic, The Captive Mind, the great Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz examined the phenomenon of Polish artists surrendering their creativity to the demands of Stalinist socialist realism. The book has endured because Milosz’s powerful insights transcended his own time. Indeed, those insights can be drawn on as cautionary notes and wise suggestions for how to approach discourse on abortion at Catholic universities in our own day. This essay identifies the ideological pitfalls of the present: Catholic absolutism, postmodern identity cancel culture, Trumpian lies, and more. The essay also draws on Milosz to suggest that the following could aid Catholic universities as they ponder how to talk about contemporary Catholic challenges around law and abortion. Universities should beware of the distorting effects of their affluence; reject the notion of one Catholic legal solution to abortion; and turn to the artists and poets.

ГУМАНІТАРНА СКЛАДОВА ЖИТТЄВОГО ШЛЯХУ І ЛІТЕРАТУРНО-ПОЛІТИЧНОЇ СПАДЩИНИ ЧЕСЛАВА МІЛОША

The life path and literary and political heritage of the Polish poet, publicist and political thinker, Nobel Prize laureate Czeslaw Milosz are studied from a political point of view. Emphasis is placed on the humanitarian component of his life activity and creative output. On the basis of mainly multi-genre, politically oriented works of C. Milosh, key social problems that have not lost their relevance for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, are revealed: the importance of the language issue for national development and creative self-realization of the individual; the need to identify the causes and consequences of totalitarian rule in the specified region; increased attention to the acute political and sociohumanitarian problems of the post-imperial development of the countries of the «other Europe»; extrapolation of the thinker’s humanistic reflections on the needs of overcoming evil in the modern world, the formation of the future harmonious coexistence of man and humanity. On the example of Czeslaw Milosz, a connection is established between the events of planetary significance that took place in the brutal conditions of the 20th century, and the life and creativity of an individual. The relationship between the current needs for the establishment of humanitarian policy and the intuitive humanism of the creative work of an outstanding poet and thinker is analyzed, and important aspects for the formation of a holistic value model of social development based on the establishment of relationships between politics and culture are proposed for consideration. The political «diseases» of the 20th century identified by C. Milosz are considered — machiavellianism, messianism, violence, hostility, extreme nationalism, and the possibilities of overcoming them in modern conditions are outlined. On the basis of the creative biography of Milos, the difficulties of the life of the people of the 20th century in the Eastern European space are understood, such as: the loss of the principles of the humanistic Western European worldview, connected with the recognition of the «secondary status» of a large part of the Eastern European peoples and the artificially formed border between the two Europes; the provinciality of culture and the painful desire to overcome a distorted cultural identity; the reign of individual and collective untruth, the transformation of human consciousness and the mythologizing of reality in a totalitarian society. It was concluded that living in Central-Eastern Europe gives its inhabitants a chance to create a special type of culture in modern conditions, which, perhaps, someday the rest of Europe will take as a model. The desire of the Polish thinker for the formation of a «family» Europe — as a collection of «small homelands», each of which carefully protects its identity — is shown as too close to Ukrainians. It has been proven that the end of the utopian chimera with the bet on the creation of a «new man» and demarcation from Europe by a protective wall depends on every Ukrainian.

Depressing Goings-on in the House of Actuality: The Philosophical Legacy of Larkin’s “Aubade”

Philip Larkin’s poem “Aubade” tackles the subject of mortality with technical facility and unsparing candour. It has a reputation for profoundly affecting its readers. Yet poets Seamus Heaney and Czeslaw Milosz think “Aubade” is bad for us and for poetry: it lures us into the underworld and traps us there, and betrays poetry’s purpose by transcribing rather than transforming the depressing facts of reality. Philosophers, however, quite like it. “Aubade” crops up repeatedly in contemporary philosophy of death. I examine the various appeals that philosophers have made to Larkin’s poem with a view to drawing out subtleties in the poem and the philosophical texts, before turning my attention to broader questions of its merit. At first glance, philosophy’s affinity for “Aubade” may seem to confirm Heaney and Milosz’s contention that the poem is somehow against poetry and on the side of “reason, science, and science-inspired philosophy” (Milosz). I argue that the philosophical uses of the poem help to undercut if not entirely dissolve Heaney’s and Milosz’s polarising efforts; they are mistaken in their views about the different purposes of poetry and philosophy, but there is some philosophical support for their commitment to averting mortal despair.

Book Collection of the Vilnius Academy of Medicine and Surgery in the Funds of the NBUV: History of formation and problems of storage

In the research, on the basis of archival sources and involved normative documents of the Institute of Manuscripts and Book Editions of Library Collections and Historical Collections of the National Library of Ukraine named after. V. I. Vernadskyi, a brief essay on the establishment of the Vilnius Academy of Medicine and Surgery, as well as the work of prominent founders of this institution. First of all, the article deals with the largest sections of the library, analyses the quantitative and thematic composition of its publications. With the help of sources and special literature, Vilnius University (Principal School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) is characterized as the largest and most prestigious institution in Europe in the 18th — 19th centuries, where such personalities as Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Czeslaw Milosz studied. Information on the establishment of the first library of the educational institution is also given, its reformation and book exchange with other libraries are traced. The gradual process of formation of the library of the Vilnius Academy of Medicine and Surgery and its connection with the Imperial University of St. Vladimir. As a result of the scientific search and review of publications, parts of the book collections of representatives of the Belarusian-Lithuanian Sapieha family and the Polish scientist-encyclopedist Jan Sniadetski were found. The quantitative and thematic composition of each book collection is studied separately. After researching and analyzing the quantitative and thematic composition of books from the Vilnius Academy of Medicine and Surgery, one of the largest and most prestigious institutions in Europe in the 18th — 19th centuries, we can conclude that this collection preserves a large number of unique ancient publications of great importance for studying medical science. for modern scientists. The study also presents material on the establishment of the first library of the school, traced its reformation and book exchange with other libraries. The gradual process of formation of the library of the Vilnius Academy of Medicine and Surgery and its connection with the Imperial University of St. Vladimir.

The notion of Stanislav Shevchenko’s translation in ukrainian-polish cultural relation

The notion of Stanislav Shevchenko’s translation in ukrainian-polish cultural relation The problem of Ukrainian-Polish relations in the field of culture as the most effective and mass form of communication has always aroused the interest of researchers. Cultural dialogue contributes to the cognition, national awareness, mutual enrichment and interpenetration of cultures. This applies to the greatest extent to the cultures of Ukraine and Poland, as it is proved by the centuries of common history of these countries. The proclamation of Ukraine’s independence and the victory of democratic forces in Poland, the establishment of relations between the countries at the level of strategic partnership were the impulse for historical coverage of various aspects of relations between the two countries based on their comprehensive study and analysis with a renewed Europe in the background. Stanislav Shevchenko’s translation occupies an important place among the literary achievements in Ukrainian-Polish cultural relations. Stanislav Shevchenko (poet, translator, member of the Writers’ Union of Ukraine) was born in 1947 in Chernihiv region, in the picturesque village of Hrabiv, Ichnia district. He graduated from the Faculty of Cybernetics of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (former Taras Shevchenko State University of Kyiv). Stanislav Shevchenko is an Honored Art Worker of Ukraine and Honored Worker of Polish Culture. The artist’s poetry masterpieces include ‘Seredyna Riky’ (‘Middle of the River’), ‘Vira i Sumniv’ (‘Faith and Doubt’), ‘Duma Kyparysa’ (‘Cypress Thought’), ‘Spiv Chuttia’ (‘Singing Sense’), ‘Blyz’ke i Nedosiazhne’ (‘Close and Unreachable’), ‘Zakon zberezhennia liubovi’ (‘The Law of Preservation of Love’), ‘Kvity nebesni zemnoi liubovi’ (‘Heavenly Flowers of Earthly Love’), ‘Pid suzir’iam pasiky’ (‘Under the Constellation apiaries’), ‘Dim dlia dushi’ (‘House for the soul’), ‘Nezryma hran’ (‘Invisible border’), etc. He is the author and host of several cultural programs of the National Radio Company of Ukraine, a laureate of Ukrainian and Polish literary prizes named after I. Nechuy-Levytsky, M. Rylsky, I. Koshelivets, V. Chumak, V. Gulevych, F. Karpinsky and A. Mickiewicz Institute. For more than twenty years Stanislav Shevchenko has been improving his translation skills by publishing essays on the works of Polish poets, participating in symposia and scientific sessions. He has been on internships several times at the two most important universities in Poland – Jagiellonian and Warsaw ones. In the early 1990s, he visited Roman Catholic priest Jan Twardowski, and later met Czeslaw Milosz and Ernest Brill. He received the consent of the Vatican to translate the poems of Pope John Paul II. In his ‘literary’ travels he crossed almost all Poland, getting acquainted with the most important artistic centers. Seeking to show Polish poetry not only in modern terms, he chose the nowadays creators, with a few exceptions, such as Stanislaw Grochowiak, who died in 1976.

An Insult to Biology, and: Political Animals

An Insult to Biology, and: Political Animals Rebecca Wolff (bio) An Insult To Biology This mutualityhow you hiss at me on the phone your expletiveshow I relishthe brutality of prefiguring: partially severingyour head from your body — particular arteries, slicingmotion of my blade. How ruthlessly I would move. For we have made our childrenthey live on the earth and are its last hope and your DNA and my phenotype and the workof our blood constricting — they live together. It’s likelice, persistentmetaphor. Our daughter’shead, hospitableto them. They cross from one home to another,riding the carrier. You don’t know how [End Page 539] to see the seedlikesilver eggs or their flat,hair-colored bodies. They turn themselvessideways. It takes hoursto sit and patiently, lovingly, decipher each nitfrom each long strand of teenage hair. She’safraid to ask you to do this, and afraid to ask youto let me do this. Because of your monstrous implication. Don’t you see the heads will rollcontinuously. Don’t you seethe chopping block. You can’t chopoff someone’s head to rid them of lice. You have to pickthe eggs off with your fingers and put them in a bowl of soapywater. They drown. And then you drink it. That is how to rid a darling head of lice. [End Page 540] Political Animals I am of the 2%We do not speak casually to our petsMine endure my silenceThey warble all day for food even though I feed themjust fine — clearly they are lookingfor something elsefrom me — humans call it lovePsychologists call it attachmentRelational psychologists call it relation.Today — . . . I am so sick of the structure given to me for tellingmy stories. It goes: I am here,sitting in a chair on a special day. It is finally getting cold out,winter 2017, when will people stoptelling me it’s a beautiful day, it’s not beautiful if it’s poisoned.71 degrees in November. One black catsettles in my lap — this is not unusual, nota story worth the centering of my self. Sheis the little sister lap cat. Do youpost pictures of your cats or dogs all day every day? Wellthen I un-follow you. TodayI am sitting in a chair, having forced myselfto stay here long enough for these creaturesI live withto find me trust me experience time passing and me staying still. Theyonly see me standing still when I am standingglued to my phone [End Page 541] scrolling in a stateof doped paralysis, you heard me,there’s nothing good going on thereyou are being drugged, ropedand branded this is no joke. I amhere in my chair to tell you. In my lap the first cat, littlesister, who every day steps aside from her meal with bits to spareon her plate for her big fatbrother, steps aside in a way I haveinterpreted as sisterly,her concern her care her lovefor her brother, who she also licks clean whenhe stands still for it,today it’s cold enoughand he climbs up on the chairto suss out a spotnext to her in my lap. A first. He uses his whiskersand other devicesto calibrate and calculate depth, exactlyhow much space-time he needsdetermines the angle of reclineand now I have two black cats in my lapsleepingwhile I read a review of a bookon the poet Czeslaw Milosz’s long-buried critiqueof Americans, the regular kind, and also Americanintellect and intellectuals,and how they are bought/ [End Page 542] sold, the bubble of consumptionthat makes them sleep/ keeps them from waking. Brothercat shifts and heaves his bulkencroaches a bit on sister’sspot, I feel dangerous in my lap, sisterfeels it too, rises up,hisses like a boss.Her blood runscolder than I thought. Thesekingdomstake the cake. There is no more...

Apis mellifera (Rilke, Leśmian, Valéry, Miłosz)

This essay concerns Paul Valéry’s sonnet The Bee, a fragment of Rainer Maria Rilke’s letter to Witold Hulewicz, Boleslaw Lesmian’s poem The Bees, and a fragment of Czeslaw Milosz’s poem Orpheus and Eurydice. Investigating the semantics and symbolism of the bee, a trope common to each text, allows for a reading of a broader ontological project: the relationship between being and non-being. This essay centres on denying the division between being and non-being, proposing the concept of a greater whole instead.

Abusing Supremacy in Five Poems by Czeslaw Milosz

This study is aimed to expose the issue about abusing supremacy which is done by the communist government toward the citizens and to know the contribution of poetic elements; irony,imagery,and symbol in revealing the issue of abusing supremacy. This analysis is related to the concept of power by Michel Foucault. The result of this analysis shows that abusing supremacy is done in two strategies; enforcing laws and using state’s apparatus

The Uniting Cultural Topoi In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Czeslaw Milosz’s The Issa Valley

This paper explores religion beliefs as the cultural topoi connecting the People of Gine in Lithuania to the People of Umuofia community in Nigerian via the books Things Fall Apart and The Issa Valley by Chinua Achebe and Czeslaw Milosz respectively. Both writers have earned global reputation in passionately disseminating their cultural values and experiences. Comparative Literature Studies have been employed as the theoretical base for identifying the points of similarities in religious beliefs and pagan practices in these cultures. They particularly discovered that among the deities that these people serve, both communities have female goddesses responsible for fertility, these are the goddess Liethua for Gine, and Ani for Umuafia, among other superstitious beliefs and accompanying practices.

Иной взгляд на Россию. Письма из «русского архи­ва»

The article presents previously unpublished letters written by Andrzej Walicki (15.05.1930–21.08.2020), a worldly renowned Polish historian of Russian thought, to Professor Michael Maslin, the head of the Department of the History of Russian Philoso­phy at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Walicki’s letters (1997–2019) together with books, articles and other materials formed his gift to the abovementioned Department. Walicki himself referred to these materials as “my small Russian archive”. The letters are written in excellent Russian and require no additional revision or stylistic improvement. This publication retains the letters in their full originality including some phrases of Pol­ish origin. These unique epistles reveal Walicki’s individual creative worldview. The let­ters contain new information about the details of Walicki’s biography and his work in Poland, Russia, USA, Great Britain, Japan, Australia. The letters provide a unique per­spective on the “flow of ideas”, which was Walicki’s personal conception of understand­ing and interpretation of the Russian intellectual history from the Enligh­tenment through the Russian religious and philosophical Renaissance of the twentieth century. The letters discuss his interactions with Sergei Gessen, Isaiah Berlin, Leszhek Kolakowski, Czeslaw Milosz, George Kline, James Scanlan, Leonard Shapiro, Martin Malia, Richard Pipes, Nicholas Riasanovsky, James Billington etc. A special attention is paid to the critique of the Western and especially Polish Russophobia based on various superstitions and stereo­types about Russia as well on a lack of knowledge, various kinds of bias and blunders. Of considerable interest are Walitsky’s expert assessments of the ge­neral state of the scien­tific historiography of Russian philosophy, its fundamental diffe­rences from Soviet dog­matic Marxism, of which the Polish scientist was a consistent critic.

A View to Distant Hills: Essaying a Grievous Self

This is a personal essay that attempts (essays) to understand my repeated contemplation of two landscape paintings in the wake of a bereavement. I have gathered together into a fragmented narrative thoughts and impressions provoked by the paintings and by readings of poetry (Czeslaw Milosz), fiction (Samuel Beckett) and psychoanalysis (Marion Milner and D.W. Winnicott). There is no closure or conclusion to the essay since grief is open and perennial.

Polskie doświadczenie historyczne a słowiańska perspektywa literacka Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej (Czesław Miłosz, Milan Kundera, Danilo Kiš)

<p>W artykule omówiono refleksje literackie Cz. Milosza, M. Kundery i D. Kiša o Europie Środkowej i Środkowo-Wschodniej w świetle porównawczej analizy slawistycznej. Ich poglądy przedstawiono jako fazy i aspekty w rozwoju koncepcji o omawianym regionie. W opracowaniu położono nacisk na dialog między kluczowymi tekstami i konceptami wymienionych pisarzy na postawiony temat, z uwzględnieniem ich biografii, sytuacji emigranckich i dysydenckich oraz historycznej i kulturowej świadomości twórców. Poglądy Czesława Miłosza umieszczono w centrum interpretacji komparatystycznej w odniesieniu do polskiego doświadczenia historycznego oraz dziedzictwa Dawnej Rzeczypospolitej.</p>

Dialogue of Cultures in the Creative Work by Czeslaw Milosz

The aticle deals with the peculiarity of the literary representation of multiculturalism and the borderland in creative work by Czesław Miłosz. The factors which influenced the development of Milosz’s poetry are revealed, the life of the author in Wilno in the inter-war period is considered, and the romantic tradition of Adam Mizkiewicz is outlined. The cultural and political events which were reflected in the legacy of Miłosz are examined; the period of emigration and the homecoming are studied. The cultural and national specificity of the borderland, which affected the creative writing of Miłosz, is depicted, and distinct ethnic and cultural models, images and symbols in the author’s ideological and artistic inquiries are analyzed.

Kronika miasta Pornic Czesława Miłosza. Polemika ze światopoglądem i historiozofią Juliusza Słowackiego

Kronika miasta Pornic by Czesław Miłosz: Polemic with the worldview and historiosophy of Juliusz Słowacki In the article an infterpretation of A Chronicle of the Town Pornic is presented, focusing on the polemic between Milosz and ideas of mystical Juliusz Słowacki. The author points out the differences between Milosz’s and Slowacki’s concept of history. A Chronicle of the Town Pornic in its understending of history bears a striking resemblance to Paul Ricoer’s idea highlighting the importance of finding a middle path between extreme individuality and viewing history only in the global perspective. An important part of the article consists of reflections on why Milosz chose Genezis from the Spirit as a matter of polemic instead of any other work by mystical Slowacki. Keywords: Czeslaw Milosz, Juliusz Slowacki, A Chronicle of the Town Pornic, history, Ricoeur, poetry

Преодоление границ по Станиславу Винценцу как источник творчества

Польский писатель, философ, авторитет в области античной культуры, духовный наставник нобелевского лауреата Чеслава Милоша и переводчик произведений Достоевского на польский язык, Станислав Винценц (1888–1971) – один из тех, чье имя нечасто вспоминается в Польше. В наши дни специалисты по Восточным Карпатам, а также группа исследователей творчества писателя, прилагают большие усилия к популяризации наследия Винценца имеющего вневременную и универсальную ценность, к изучению его выдающегося вклада в изучение культуры гуцулов, ставшей одной из основ для формирования собственной философии диалога культур. Детские и юношеские годы, проведенные в мультикультурной среде Рунгурской Слободы, где гуцульское, польское и румынское влияния сливались в уникальном единстве, в месте, куда он мысленно возвращался всю жизнь как в некую Аркадию, стали для писателя источником собственной поэтической и мистической картины мира. За долгую жизнь Винценца его уделом многократно становился опыт преодоления как физических, так и ментальных границ, определяющих собственное понимание жизни, своего места в ней, всего того, что по мере постижения становилось дорогим сердцу и вдохновляло к творчеству. Проходя путь от неосознанного детского погружения в иное культурное и метафизическое измерение, через дальнейшие, уже взрослые и осознанные, акты преодоления границ, Винценц становился жителем многих культурных миров, стараясь почерпнуть в них что-то ценное, стремясь при этом вносить их смыслы в свой собственный культурный круг, очерчиваемый гуцульским менталитетом и польским языком и определяющий его творчество. Сегодня фигура писателя, его творчество, воспевающее дух Гуцульщины, рассматриваются некоторыми украинскими исследователя в качестве важного источника для конструирования собственной культурной идентичности.

Metrum i pistolet. Zasady przekładu poetyckiego według Antona Marii Raffa

The article presents the strategies adopted in translating Polish poetry by Anton Maria Raffo (1937–2018), one of the most outstanding Italian translators of Polish literature. In his constant striving to reproduce the metre and, whenever possible, the rhymes, he distinguished himself from the dominating trends of poetry translation in Italy, prescribing the use – and abuse – of vers libre even for metrical and rhymed poetry. Raffo translated poets who still used traditional versification like Jan Kochanowski (a true masterpiece is his translation of Kochanowski’s Pieśni – Odes), Adam Mickiewicz or Boleslaw Leśmian, but also XXth-century poets like Czeslaw Milosz, Zbigniew Herbert or Wislawa Szymborska, among whose works he selected and translated the poems which present a certain metrical regularity. A.M. Raffo’s lesson was followed by several other translators of Polish poetry in Italy.

Rain, and: Armenian Folk Dance, 1915, and: Ararat

Rain, and: Armenian Folk Dance, 1915, and: Ararat Arthur Kayzakian (bio) Rain After he hugs his family goodbye he passes umbrellas and park benches. He sees the edge of a vexed flower petal and thinks, the flower is a man off to war. Without looking back, he can hear his children kicking laughter in and out of him. His wife's throat, a gleam of sandlight. Fifteen years later, rain beats out a puddle in the shape of his body. Armenian Folk Dance, 1915 A man and woman hide in their hometo dance amid lit candles. He kneels as she twirlsaround him. She raises both arms in the half-light, and the shadow of her hands— [End Page 157] a bird in flight—brushes the wall. If this were any other day, she wouldclap to the beat of the drum. She tiptoes to keep quietfrom the crows outside the window roosting upon crucifixesthat go on, row after row. Ararat After Layli Long Soldier and Czeslaw Milosz my brothers and sisters call me ara which means friend. which is also a name. which can be short forararat. the mountain behind an imaginary line in another country. it used to be in the backyard of our home. in a way it represents betrayal. in a way it looks like fog in the sky. a god with untouchable snow peaks. a long-time friend. like arak or the vodka aragh. meaning we drink and drink until the empty bottle rolls off the table. and when it rolls the soundof its rumble resembles the growl of a dog. the police say we are bad. when punched in the mouth blood runs down the lip like ice turned water. we wipe the chin. our boys learn to place their painin a grave. my heart feels like charcoal is what my cousin said. his bloody lip trembled. chest out [End Page 158] like an elevated rock. let it out i said. he wept until the watermoistened the caves around his eyes. the police say we are bad. but we are just on bad land. I threw my arm around his shoulder. it's okay. we're here now. i say itbecause his lip was on fire. because he is my ara. because the police say we are bad. the stolen lunch tickets. the bully beatdowns. the way we crossed the endless borderlands of death.because we have tried to be boys for an entire generation after the loss of our mountain. [End Page 159] Arthur Kayzakian Arthur Kayzakian is a poet, teacher, and mfa graduate from SDSU. He is a contributing editor at Poetry International. His chapbook, My Burning City, was a finalist for the Locked Horn Press Chapbook Prize and Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize. His poems and translations have appeared in several publications including Rufous City Review, Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art, Poetry International, and Chicago Review. Copyright © 2020 University of Nebraska Press