Initiation

by CZESLAW MILOSZ

Vanity and gluttony were always her sins

And I fell in love with her in the phase of life

When our scornful reason is the judge of others.

Then I went through a sudden initiation.

Not only did our skins like each other, tenderly,

And our genitals fit once and for all,

But her sleep at arm’s length exerted its power

And her childhood in a city she visited dreaming.

Whatever was naive and shy in her

Or fearful in the disguise of self-assurance

Moved me, so that--we were so alike--

In an instant, not judging anymore,

I saw two sins of mine: vanity, gluttony.

From “Czeslaw Milosz: The Collected Poems” (The Ecco Press, distributed by W. W. Norton: $14.95 , paper; 512 pp.; 0-88001-174-2). At 6 x 9 inches, on good paper and with a flexible binding, this new paper edition of Ecco Press’s 1988 collected Milosz is a bargain. It also contains a few previously unpublished poems. 1990, Czeslaw Milosz. Reprinted by permission of The Ecco Press.