The Land of Ulro by Czesław Miłosz

First published:Ziemia Ulro, 1977 (English translation, 1984)

Type of work: Autobiography

Form and Content

Perhaps the most well known contemporary Polish poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980, Czesław Miłosz never restricted himself solely to the composition of verse, although this prolific man of letters considers poetry as his true vocation. Although many critics consider his early work, published in the 1930’s and 1940’s, such as the volumes Trzy zimy (1936; three winters) and Ocalenie (1945; rescue), to be his best, Miłosz continues to exert a powerful influence on poets both in Poland and abroad. A capable translator of contemporary verse, Miłosz’s position as professor of Slavic literatures at the University of California, Berkeley, has had beneficial results for the propagation of modern Polish poetry in the Anglo-Saxon nations.

After five years in the diplomatic service of the Polish People’s Republic, Miłosz decided on political exile away from his homeland. Residing first in France, and finally in the United States, he composed the best-known and most influential volumes of his belles lettres during this period.

The Land of Ulro, as a journal-like volume of reflective essays, springs from the same belletristic tradition as Zniewolony umsyl (1953; The Captive Mind, 1953) and Rodzinna Europa (1958; Native Realm: A Search for Self-Definition, 1968). Nevertheless, there is one important difference between these volumes and The Land of Ulro. While the two former works were written expressly with the Western reader in mind, Miłosz considers The Land of Ulro his one “maverick” work which, as he confides to Ewa Czarnecka in Podrozny swiata: Rozmowy z Czesławem Miłoszem (1983; Conversations with Czesław Miłosz, 1987), he wrote for himself, “without thinking about whether it would ever have readers.”

The Land of Ulro is a difficult book to categorize. Because of the personal nature of the book, written for the writer alone, one might classify it as a diary. Yet since it deals with the author’s faith in human nature and his struggle against the dehumanizing elements of rationalist, Newtonian physics, which threatens to turn man into a dispossessed creature akin to the characters which people the plays of Samuel Beckett, The Land of Ulro might be termed an essay in cultural anthropology or philosophy, a favorite subject of this author, who has a decidedly metaphysical bent. Also, one of the important leitmotifs of this volume is literary criticism: Here one sees Miłosz as an apt literary critic, addressing the works of authors such as William Blake, Adam Mickiewicz, Fyodor Dostoevski, and Oscar Miłosz with the same assurance and penetrating insights which characterize his impressive The History of Polish Literature (1969). Perhaps it would be best to classify The Land of Ulro as a kind of personal encyclopedia. In reading the book, one can almost hear shuffling index cards in the poet’s mind as he explores and reexamines the multifaceted cultural makeup of his being, and as he organizes his thoughts concerning the spiritual crisis facing the modern intellectual: Surrender to the cold, genetic-biological truth of a world without any verifiable metaphysical purpose or suspend disbelief, which faith in miracles, fraught with significance, demands. The former threatens to turn humanity into a “planet of two-legged insects,” while the rational mind-set, a legacy of the eighteenth century which modern man carries within himself, prickles at the latter proposition.

This dilemma is at the heart of The Land of Ulro; it is the concern which binds the seemingly rambling chapters of the work together. The book’s style is indicative of the self-investigative process which the poet undergoes in the writing of his volume. Although it was originally intended to be a short essay, the force of association caused the discussion to grow into a work of greater dimensions as Miłosz was spurred from topic to associated topic in the working out of his intellectual puzzle. The poet describes his process of writing The Land of Ulro thus: “My strategy . . . is to keep adding new pebbles to the mosaic until a definite pattern begins to form.” Yet although the selection of the pebbles was a long, careful process laden with surprises for the author himself, he was never in doubt as to the image which the mosaic was to show at its completion: Miłosz is ever on the side of “all who have sought exit from the ‘wasteland’” of the teeming, senseless anthill and who “have been . . . justified in their endeavor even if their efforts ended in failure and were bought at the prices of various ‘abnormalities.’”

Critical Context

The Land of Ulro, with its vital, optimistic affirmation of human nature, defines this “catastrophic” poet in a way in which no other of his earlier works does. Curiously enough, for a work which was written in Polish, without any thought of its being translated into English, The Land of Ulro may have the greatest treasure in store for the American reader, who, unfamiliar with the work of Miłosz and with Polish literature in general, comes across a wealth of introductory material which can be used to bring both Miłosz and the Polish literary tradition onto his private map by way of their affinities with (and departures from) the more familiar authors and traditions discussed in the work.

Nor should the aspect of pure literary criticism, which abounds in The Land of Ulro be overlooked. In this work, Miłosz presents the reader with insightful essays concerning both Polish literary giants—such as Witold Gombrowicz and Mickiewicz—as well as penetrating studies of world literature.

Miłosz sums up his researches into the metaphysical poetry of Miłosz as “the story of a man who discovered a treasure in a field and who kept it buried there after failing to turn its riches to profit.” One may almost say the same thing about the entire volume which is The Land of Ulro. The information to be found in this book, which is so helpful in the understanding of Miłosz as a poet, waited perhaps a good half century to be “discovered” by the public. Yet whatever reasons Miłosz may have had for keeping the treasure buried, unknown to him, perhaps, the talents did indeed multiply.

Bibliography

America. CLI, December 15, 1984, p. 409.

Book World. XIV, September 2, 1984, p. 14.

Booklist. LXXXI, September 1, 1984, p. 18.

Czarnecka, Ewa, and Aleksander Fiut. Conversations with Czesław Miłosz, 1987.

Davies, Norman. Review in The New York Times Book Review. LXXXIX (September 2, 1984), p. 1.

Kirkus Reviews. LII, June 15, 1984, p. 571.

Levine, Madeline G. Contemporary Polish Poetry, 1925-1975, 1981.

Library Journal. CIX, September 1, 1984, p. 1675.

Los Angeles Times. August 24, 1984, V, p. 22.

Miłosz, Czesław. The History of Polish Literature, 1983 (revised edition).

New Leader. LXVII, October 15, 1984, p. 13.

The New Yorker. LX, September 17, 1984, p. 142.

Publishers Weekly. CCXXVI, July 6, 1984, p. 56.

Scherer, Olga. “The Ulro Through San Francisco Bay,” in World Literature Today. III (1978), pp. 408-412.