by Czeslaw Milosz (pronounced CHEH-swahv MEE-wohsh)<\/p>\n
Faithful mother tongue,
\nI have been serving you.
\nEvery night, I used to set before you little bowls of colors
\nso you could have your birch, your cricket, your finch
\nas preserved in my memory.<\/p>\n
This lasted many years.
\nYou were my native land; I lacked any other.
\nI believed that you would also be a messenger
\nbetween me and some good people
\neven if they were few, twenty, ten
\nor not born, as yet.<\/p>\n
Now, I confess my doubt.
\nThere are moments when it seems to me I have squandered my life.
\nFor you are a tongue of the debased,
\nof the unreasonable, hating themselves
\neven more than they hate other nations,
\na tongue of informers,
\na tongue of the confused,
\nill with their own innocence.<\/p>\n
But without you, who am I?
\nOnly a scholar in a distant country,
\na success, without fears and humiliations.
\nYes, who am I without you?
\nJust a philosopher, like everyone else.<\/p>\n
I understand, this is meant as my education:
\nthe glory of individuality is taken away,
\nFortune spreads a red carpet
\nbefore the sinner in a morality play
\nwhile on the linen backdrop a magic lantern throws
\nimages of human and divine torture.<\/p>\n
Faithful mother tongue,
\nperhaps after all it’s I who must try to save you.
\nSo I will continue to set before you little bowls of colors
\nbright and pure if possible,
\nfor what is needed in misfortune is a little order and beauty.<\/p>\n
–Read at St. Lydia’s on Pentecost, May 27, 2012<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Czeslaw Milosz (pronounced CHEH-swahv MEE-wohsh) Faithful mother tongue, I have been serving you. Every night, I used to set before you little bowls of colors so you could have your birch, your cricket, your finch as preserved in my memory. This lasted many years. You were my native land; I lacked any other. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1508"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1510,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions\/1510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlydiasliturgy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}