‘Magpiety’ by Czeslaw Milosz

‘Magpiety’ by Czeslaw Milosz

The same and not quite the same, 

I walked through oak forests 

Amazed that my Muse, Mnemosyne, 

Has in no way diminished my amazement. 

A magpie was screeching and I said: Magpiety? 

What is magpiety? I shall never achieve 

A magpie heart, a hairy nostril over the beak, a flight 

That always renews just when coming down, 

And so I shall never comprehend magpiety. 

If however magpiety does not exist 

My nature does not exist either. 

Who would have guessed that, centuries later, 

I would invent the question of universals? 

Montgeron, 1958

Source: Miłosz, Czesław. New and Collected Poems, 1931-2001. New York, N.Y: Ecco, 2003.

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