Czeslaw Milosz

I looked out the window at dawn and saw a young apple treetranslucent in brightness
And when I looked out at dawn once again, an apple tree laden withfruit stood there
Many years had probably gone by but I remember nothing of whathappene...

A guardian of long-distance conduits in the desert
A one-man crew of a fortress in the sand
Whoever he was
At dawn he saw furrowed mountains The color of ashes, above the melting darkness,

You who wronged a simple man Bursting into laughter at the crime,
And kept a pack of fools around you To mix good and evil, to blur the line,
Though everyone bowed down before you,
Saying virtue and wisdom lit your way,

It does not know it
It does not know it
It does not know it is this not that
And, more and more often, agape,

No, it won’t do, my sweet theologians
Desire will not save the morality of God
If he created beings able to choose between good and evil,
And they chose, and the world lies in iniquity,

Winter came as it does in this valley
After eight dry months rain fell And the mountains, straw-colored, turned green for a while
In the canyons where gray laurels Graft their stony roots to granite,
Streams must have filled the dri...

Maidenly lake, fathomless lake,
Stay as you were once, overgrown with rushes,
Idling with a reflected cloud, for my
Whom your shore no longer touches