Panu Profeorowi Henrykowi Markiewiczowi – w odpowiedzi
o Professor Henryk Markiewicz, Esq.: A Response

Summary/Abstract: My text takes on the game proposed by Prof. Henryk Markiewicz by asking Traktat moralny [‘The Moral Treatise’], the poem by Czesław Milosz, some apparently simple and naïve questions. Hence, I refer to the speaking ‘I’ created by the poet as to a ‘Commentator’ and point out that he is a dual figure as he combines a fine uprightness with hidden erudition and excessive pedantry. I don’t think that several moments being unclear, contradictory or incoherent, so aptly indicated by Professor Markiewicz, can possibly be fully explained, as they reflect the poet’s moral and world-view quandaries the poet had at that time as much as they indirectly testify to the author’s playing a game with the censorship. My intent was to remind that it is completely impossible to read Milosz’s piece literally, whilst taking the historical context for its interpretation becomes increasingly indispensable – especially that this context is becoming less and less comprehensible to younger generations of readers.

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