Oscar Milosz

Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz Milosz
Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz Milosz
Born	May 28, 1877(1877-05-28) Čareja (near Mogilev in present day Belarus)
Died	March 2, 1939(1939-03-02) (aged 61) Fontainebleau
Cause of death	Heart Attack
Resting place	Fontainebleau
Nationality	Lithuanian / French
Other names	Lithuanian: Oskaras Milašius
Education	École des langues orientales
Known for	Poet and Diplomat
Religion	Catholic
Spouse	None
Children	None
Parents	Vladislas de Lubicz Milosz, Marie Rosalie Rosenthal
Relatives	Distant cousin, Czeslaw Milosz

Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz Milosz (Lithuanian: Oskaras Milašius) (May 28, 1877—March 2, 1939) was a French-Lithuanian^[1][2] writer and representative of Lithuania at the League of Nations.^[2] His literary work was concerned with symbols and associations. A recluse, his poems were vibrant and tormented, concerned with love, loneliness and anger.^[3] Milosz was primarily a poet, though he also wrote novels, plays and essays. He was a distant cousin of Polish writer Czesław Miłosz, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1980.

Life

I am a Lithuanian poet, writing in French^[4]

—Oscar Milosz

Oscar Milosz was born in Čareja (near Mogilev in present day Belarus). Earlier these lands had belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but at the time was part of the Russian Empire. It was here that he spent his childhood. He was christianized July 2, 1886, at Saint Alexander Church in Warsaw. His father, Vladislas de Lubicz Milosz, was a former officer in the Russian army and his mother, Marie Rosalie Rosenthal, was a Polish Jew from Warsaw. His parents did not marry until Oscar Milosz was 17. In 1889, Milosz's parents placed him at the Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris. He began writing poems in 1894 and started to frequent artistic circles, meeting Oscar Wilde and Jean Moréas. After finishing at the Lycée, he enrolled at the École des langues orientales, where he studied Syriac and Hebrew.

His first book of verse, Le Poème des Décadences, appeared in 1899. Milosz travelled widely in Europe and North Africa and explored many foreign literatures. He was an excellent linguist and was fluent in English, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Polish, as well as being able to read Latin and Hebrew. Later in life, he would learn Lithuanian and Basque too. He chose to write his works in French.

In 1916, during World War I, Milosz was conscripted to the Russian division of the French army and was assigned to the press corps. Here he learned about the growing movement for Lithuanian independence. By the end of the war when both Lithuania and Poland were effectively independent again, Milosz chose to identify with Lithuania - even though he did not yet speak Lithuanian — because he believed that it had been the original homeland of his ancestors in the 13th century. After the Russian revolution of 1917, Milosz's estate at Čareja came under Soviet control and was seized by the Bolsheviks. In 1920 when France recognized the independence of Lithuania, he was appointed officially as Chargé d'Affaires for the new state. In 1931 he became a French citizen and was awarded the Légion d'honneur the same year. Ill with cancer, he died of a heart attack at his house in Fontainebleau in 1939^[5].

Works

Milosz collected Lithuanian folk tales, wrote fiction, drama, and essays. Largely neglected during his lifetime, Milosz has increasingly come to be considered as an important figure in French poetry.

French literature

By category

French literary history

Medieval 16th century · 17th century 18th century · 19th century 20th century · Contemporary

French writers

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Portals

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Some of his works in French:

• 1899 : Le Poème des Décadences (poetry)
• 1906 : Les Sept Solitudes (poetry)
• 1910 : L'Amoureuse Initiation (novel)
• 1911 : Les Éléments (poetry)
• 1913 : Miguel Mañara. Mystère en six tableaux. (play)
• 1915 : Poèmes
• 1917 : Épitre à Storge (first part of Ars Magna)
• 1918 : Adramandoni (six poems)
• 1919 : Méphisobeth (play)
• 1922 : La Confession de Lemuel
• 1924 : Ars Magna (philosophy)
• 1926-27 : Les Arcanes (poetry)
• 1930 : Contes et Fabliaux de la vieille Lithuanie (translation of folk tales)
• 1932 : Origines ibériques du peuple juif (essay)
• 1933 : Contes lithuaniens de ma Mère l'Oye (translation of folk tales)
• 1936 : Les Origines de la nation lithuanienne (essay)
• 1938 : La Clef de l'Apocalypse

Works translated into English:

• 1928, a collection of 26 Lithuanian songs;
• 1930, Lithuanian Tales and Stories;
• 1933, Lithuanian Tales;
• 1937, The origin of the Lithuanian Nation, in which he tried to persuade the reader that Lithuanians have the same origin as Jews from the Iberian Peninsula.
• 1985, The Noble Traveller: The Life and Writings of Oskar Milosz, ed. Christopher Bamford (Lindisfarne Press).

Opera based on his poems:

• 2004, Books of Silence, Composer - Latvian Andris Dzenitis^[3]

References

1. ^ A century's witness. Retrieved 2009-12-23
2. ^ ^{a b} Czesław Miłosz, Cynthia L. Haven. Czesław Miłosz. 2006p.203
3. ^ ^{a b} "Scottish Arts Council - Books of Silence". http://www.scottisharts.org.uk/1/artsinscotland/music/features/archive/booksofsilence.aspx. Retrieved 2008-02-13. 
4. ^ Oskaras Milašius, 1877-1939. retrieved on 2009-03-10
5. ^ "Biography of Oscar Milosz". http://milosz.ifrance.com/milosz/Biographie%20Milosz.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-13. 

• La Berline arrêtée dans la nuit: Anthologie poétique, ed. Jean-Baptiste Para with a preface by Jean-Bellemin Noël and an afterword by Czesław Miłosz (Poésie/Gallimard, Paris, 1999)
• Native Relam by Czeslaw Milosz(1959)
• Ziemia Ulro by Czeslaw Milosz (1977)

External links

• (French) Website on Milosz
• Jūrate Baranova, et al., ed. "Chapter XI Oskar Milosz, Teoretitian of Love, by Andrius Konickis". Lithuanian philosophy: persons and ideas Lithuanian philosophical studies, ii. Cultural heritage and contemporary change series IVa, Eastern and Central Europe, volume 17. The Council For Research In Values And Philosophy. ISBN 1-56518-137-9. http://www.crvp.org/book/Series04/IVA-17/chapter_xi.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-07. 

Persondata
Name	Milosz, Oscar
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 28, 1877
Place of birth	Čareja (near Mogilev in present day Belarus)
Date of death	March 2, 1939
Place of death	Fontainebleau