"In Search of a Homeland" - Signed Manuscript Draft

Signed autograph fragment from the Polish writer, who has penned a bold signature, dating Berkeley, March 13, 1987, on a single sheet bearing 14 struck-through lines of text in his hand. 8vo. Folding creases; overall fine. 5.75 x 7.75 inches (14.7 x 19.6 cm).

The very first word is unreadable, but the bulk of the work constitutes a draft of a portion of the poet's published work Szukanie ojczyzny [In Search of a Homeland].  Full text and translation (in italics) below.

Czesław Miłosz was a Polish poet, prose writer, translator and diplomat. His World War II-era sequence The World is a collection of twenty "naïve" poems. Following the war, he served as Polish cultural attaché in Paris and Washington, D.C., and in 1951 defected to the West. His nonfiction book The Captive Mind (1953) became a classic of anti-Stalinism. From 1961 to 1998 he was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1978 he was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and in 1980 the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetry, essays and other writing.

xxxxx przenosił się do oficyny xxxxx [unreadable] moved to the annex/publishing house 
i wtedo [sic – spelling mistake] and then 
 która stała koło which was next to 
wtedy m then m 
Muzykę Music 
Wtedy muzykę lepiej słyszano, bo Then the music could be heard better, because 
Do Póki żyła jego siostra Jadwiga As Long as his sister Jadwiga was alive 
widywano ich oboje they were seen together 
 za życia siostry jego, Jadwigi, co During the lifetime of his sister, Jadwiga, who 
Jad długo żyła jego siostra, Jadwiga, As long as his sister lived, Jadwiga, 
Dopóki żyła Jadwiga, jego siostra As long as Jadwiga, his sister, was alive 
widywano ich oboje konno w okolicy, they were seen together on horseback in the countryside 
Jego i siostrę, Jadwigę He and his sister, Jadwiga 
Kochał tylko swoją siostrę, Jadwigę He only loved his sister, Jadwiga 
widywano ich oboje konno w okolicy, they were seen together on horseback in the countryside, 
ale po jej śmierci but when she died (16808)

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