{"id":463,"date":"2013-11-25T19:09:05","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T23:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/?p=463"},"modified":"2026-10-13T08:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T12:40:14","slug":"and-the-city-stood-in-its-brightness-czeslaw-milosz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/?p=463","title":{"rendered":"And the City Stood in Its Brightness &#8211; Czeslaw Milosz"},"content":{"rendered":"<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-463-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/audio\/And%20the%20City%20Stood%20Still.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/audio\/And%20the%20City%20Stood%20Still.mp3\">https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/audio\/And%20the%20City%20Stood%20Still.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><em>(translated by Czeslaw Milosz and\u00a0<a title=\"Peter Dale Scott wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Peter_Dale_Scott\">Peter Dale Scott<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And the city stood in its brightness when years later I returned,<br \/>\nAnd life was running out, Ruteboeuf\u2019s or Villon\u2019s,<br \/>\nDescendants already born were dancing their dances,<br \/>\nWomen looked in their mirrors, made from a new metal,<br \/>\nWhat was it all for, if I cannot speak?<br \/>\nShe stood above me, head like the earth on its axis,<br \/>\nMy ashes were laid in a can under the bistro counter,<\/p>\n<p>And the city stood in its brightness when years later I returned,<br \/>\nTo my home in the display case of a granite museum<br \/>\nBeside eyelash mascara, alabaster vials, and menstruation girdles of an Egyptian princess,<br \/>\nThere was only a sun forged out of gold plate,<br \/>\nOn darkening parquetry the creep of unhurried steps,<\/p>\n<p>And the city stood in its brightness when years later I returned,<br \/>\nMy face covered with a coat though now no one was left<br \/>\nOf those who could have remembered my debts never paid,<br \/>\nMy shames not forever, base deeds to be forgiven.<br \/>\nAnd the city stood in its brightness when years later I returned.<\/p>\n<p>(1963)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(translated by Czeslaw Milosz and\u00a0Peter Dale Scott) And the city stood in its brightness when years later I returned, And life was running out, Ruteboeuf\u2019s or Villon\u2019s, Descendants already born were dancing their dances, Women looked in their mirrors, made from a new metal, What was it all for, if I cannot speak? She stood [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[99,100],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","tag-czeslaw-milosz","tag-peter-dale-scott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":531,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}