Gift, Poem by Czeslaw Milosz, with Painting by Claude Monet

GIFT

by Czeslaw Milosz

A day so happy.


Fog lifted early. I worked in the garden.


Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.


There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.


I knew no one worth my envying him.


Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.


To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me.


In my body I felt no pain.


When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) was born in Lithuania and lived for many years in Poland. He moved to the U.S. in 1960 and subsequently became and American citizen. From 1961-1998, he was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1980, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Painting: “Cliffs and Sailboats at Pourville” by Claude Monet (1882)