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Road-side Dog
"I went on a journey in order to acquaint myself with my province, in a two-horse wagon with a lot of fodder and a tin bucket rattling in the back. The bucket was required for the horses to drink from. I traveled through a country of hills and pine groves that gave way to woodlands, where swirls of smoke hovered over the roofs of houses, as if they were on fire, for they were chimneyless cabins; I crossed districts of fields and lakes. It was so interesting to be moving, to give the horses their rein, and wait until, in the next valley, a village slowly appeared, or a park with the white spot of a manor in it. And always we were barked at by a dog, assiduous in its duty. That was the beginning of the century; this is its . I have been thinking not only of the people who lived there once but also of the generations of dogs accompanying them in their everyday bustle, and one night-I don't know where it came from-in a pre-dawn sleep, that funny and tender phrase composed a road-side dog." -- Road-Side Dog
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
29 people are currently reading
666 people want to read
About the author
Czesław Miłosz
310 books886 followersCzesław Miłosz was a Nobel Prize winning poet and author of Polish-Lithuanian heritage. He memorialised his Lithuanian childhood in a 1955 novel,
The Issa Valley
, and in the 1959 memoir
Native Realm
. After graduating from Sigismund Augustus Gymnasium in Vilnius, he studied law at Stefan Batory University and in 1931 he travelled to Paris, where he was influenced by his distant cousin Oscar Milosz, a French poet of Lithuanian descent and a Swedenborgian. His first volume of poetry was published in 1934.
After receiving his law degree that year, he again spent a year in Paris on a fellowship. Upon returning, he worked as a commentator at Radio Wilno, but was dismissed, an action described as stemming from either his leftist views or for views overly sympathetic to Lithuania. Miłosz wrote all his poetry, fiction, and essays in Polish and translated the Old Testament Psalms into Polish.
Awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature for being an author "who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts."
After receiving his law degree that year, he again spent a year in Paris on a fellowship. Upon returning, he worked as a commentator at Radio Wilno, but was dismissed, an action described as stemming from either his leftist views or for views overly sympathetic to Lithuania. Miłosz wrote all his poetry, fiction, and essays in Polish and translated the Old Testament Psalms into Polish.
Awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature for being an author "who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
March 21, 2022
It looks as if the Creator, whose ethical motives people have learned to doubt, was prompted primarily by his desire to make everything as interesting as possible, and as comic.
My first experience reading Miłosz, this late collection of short pieces was apparently a good introduction to many of the central themes that consumed him during a long writing life, e.g. Catholicism, faith, philosophy, science, history, and the role and fate of the poet in society.
When I was, as they say, in harmony with God and the world, I felt I was false, as if pretending to be somebody else. I recovered my identity when I found myself again in the skin of a sinner and nonbeliever. This repeated itself in my life several times. For, undoubtedly, I liked the image of myself as a decent man, but, immediately after I put that mask on, my conscience whispered that I was deceiving others and myself.
Some pieces in the titular first section could be considered prose poems, more by virtue of brevity and an aphoristic tone than by otherwise recognizably poetic language. The rest are more like short philosophical essays, including all of the second, final section, titled "Subjects to Let", which ostensibly share topics the writer knows he will not live to expand on, so offers to others.
If only we could believe that everything ends with death.
I had to look hard for the gems that I found, but some will stick with me, I think.
My first experience reading Miłosz, this late collection of short pieces was apparently a good introduction to many of the central themes that consumed him during a long writing life, e.g. Catholicism, faith, philosophy, science, history, and the role and fate of the poet in society.
When I was, as they say, in harmony with God and the world, I felt I was false, as if pretending to be somebody else. I recovered my identity when I found myself again in the skin of a sinner and nonbeliever. This repeated itself in my life several times. For, undoubtedly, I liked the image of myself as a decent man, but, immediately after I put that mask on, my conscience whispered that I was deceiving others and myself.
Some pieces in the titular first section could be considered prose poems, more by virtue of brevity and an aphoristic tone than by otherwise recognizably poetic language. The rest are more like short philosophical essays, including all of the second, final section, titled "Subjects to Let", which ostensibly share topics the writer knows he will not live to expand on, so offers to others.
If only we could believe that everything ends with death.
I had to look hard for the gems that I found, but some will stick with me, I think.
April 25, 2008
I have read this a number of times. He talks about the modern world, seemed to see through it more than just about anybody. I'm really sorry he's gone.
March 19, 2011
I love Milosz and this book, filled with his short, stirring, and thought-provoking poetry and prose was tremendously interesting. Each page holds so many interesting, sometimes quirky thoughts. Especially for a writer, this book proves a valuable companion.
August 10, 2012
Some of these aphoristic pages are a slog, but there are some wonderful bits throughout.
Read
May 29, 2019An arrangement of short essays, poems and aphorisms about language, death and Catholicism. I enjoyed it but can't say it stuck with me to any particular degree. Then again, I read a lot of books this month.
May 30, 2025
Some amusing musings.
"He was unable to forgive not only their intellectuals, always on the lookout for a perfect tyranny, provided it was far from their homes, but also all the citizens of those countries, united by their common refusal to know." (p.136).
"He was unable to forgive not only their intellectuals, always on the lookout for a perfect tyranny, provided it was far from their homes, but also all the citizens of those countries, united by their common refusal to know." (p.136).
May 9, 2023
Every time I read a book by Czeslaw Milosz I can't help but think that he has to be among the finest writers of all time. This is a short book of poetry and short essays and, really, there is very little difference between the two, they are both, simply, extraordinary. I put tabs on my favorites as I was reading but there are far too many to highlight in this review, so I'm going to quote just a few of the shorter ones.
The first is titled Old People and I think it appealed to me, mostly, because I'm one of them.
"The view of old and ugly men and women, especially of those crones shuffling along with their canes. They were betrayed by their bodies, once beautiful and ready to dance. Yet in every one a lamp of consciousness is burning, hence their wonder: "Is this me? But it can't be so!""
He wrote several poems about poetry and this is one of them titled Embarrassing.
"Poetry is an embarrassing affair, it is born too near to the functions we call intimate.
Poetry cannot be separated from awareness of our body. It soars above it, immaterial and at the same time captive, and is a reason for our uneasiness, for it pretends to belong to a separate zone, of spirit.
I was ashamed of being a poet, as if, undressed, I would display in public my physical defects. I envied people who do not write poems and whom for that reason I ranged among the normal. And in this I was wrong: few of them deserve to be called that."
The last poem I will quote is one I thought was quite clever, titled A Warning.
"Little animals from cartoons, talking rabbits, doggies, squirrels, as well as ladybugs, bees, grasshoppers. They have as much in common with real animals as our notions of the world have with the real world. Think of this, and tremble."
The first is titled Old People and I think it appealed to me, mostly, because I'm one of them.
"The view of old and ugly men and women, especially of those crones shuffling along with their canes. They were betrayed by their bodies, once beautiful and ready to dance. Yet in every one a lamp of consciousness is burning, hence their wonder: "Is this me? But it can't be so!""
He wrote several poems about poetry and this is one of them titled Embarrassing.
"Poetry is an embarrassing affair, it is born too near to the functions we call intimate.
Poetry cannot be separated from awareness of our body. It soars above it, immaterial and at the same time captive, and is a reason for our uneasiness, for it pretends to belong to a separate zone, of spirit.
I was ashamed of being a poet, as if, undressed, I would display in public my physical defects. I envied people who do not write poems and whom for that reason I ranged among the normal. And in this I was wrong: few of them deserve to be called that."
The last poem I will quote is one I thought was quite clever, titled A Warning.
"Little animals from cartoons, talking rabbits, doggies, squirrels, as well as ladybugs, bees, grasshoppers. They have as much in common with real animals as our notions of the world have with the real world. Think of this, and tremble."
February 16, 2009
well, this is a little, nearly square book by czeslaw milosz and it's full of poems, mostly. there are a few other things. musings. ponderings. milosz is one of those quietly funny folks and his funniness isn't always in stories or poems that feel good. i think that's very nice of him.
there is a story on fleas. a funny bit involving martin luther. i will never be able to get over the fact that he wrote these in one language (polish) and then sat down and changed them over to english. just changed them. i imagine him with robert haas (a poet in his own right but also a fine translator), drinking beer and laughing over the words and how to pin them down on the page, slapping each other on the back when they get a line or two just right, not hurrying at all. and in new form the words are still beautiful to read and say and hear. how is that? rilke does that, too. it's not fair. go read them and see for yourself.
there is a story on fleas. a funny bit involving martin luther. i will never be able to get over the fact that he wrote these in one language (polish) and then sat down and changed them over to english. just changed them. i imagine him with robert haas (a poet in his own right but also a fine translator), drinking beer and laughing over the words and how to pin them down on the page, slapping each other on the back when they get a line or two just right, not hurrying at all. and in new form the words are still beautiful to read and say and hear. how is that? rilke does that, too. it's not fair. go read them and see for yourself.
June 26, 2022
A quick little book, nothing overly special. Only 12 poems, two being a line long. Still a couple gems. Highlights: ~ "Pelicans" "A Ball" "Christopher Robin" and "Rivers".
April 11, 2024
Here is a writer who cautions against the limits of autofiction and personal narrative in favor of writing of other subjects, but Milosz's subjects betray him. Underneath his fables and anecdotes of other persons, he writes of himself, for himself. His subjects reflect his person: his clinging to the social order promised by religion, his grappling with the horrors of the century which made him, his devotion to language despite its limitations. There is nothing inherently wrong in that-all writers come to their writing from their own biased subject position-but there is a contradiction to his literary philosophy which he doesn't acknowledge. That said, this collection is filled with wisdom and beautiful prose. The poems and essays in it made me sit and think, even if I didn't agree with their conclusions. That's what good literature should do.
January 10, 2018
Turns out I'm a poetry reader, I just didn't find the right poet. These poems by Milosz are more epigrams or anecdotes than poems at times, but there's always an edge forcing you to sit up and pay attention. Milosz manages to walk the fine line between cynicism and openness, and explores the paradoxes of belief without ever seeming didactic or trite. Although this is work from late in his career, it has a lightness (and a darkness) that seems to float -- it seems new. Read this slowly and chew on it, and it will last you all day.
September 1, 2022
Zupełne wyjście spoza mojej czytelniczej strefy komfortu. Miłosz wydaje mi się by być..niedostępny, ze względu na swoją erudycję, spokój, nieustępliwość, patrzenie z góry..? Ale znalazłam i tu coś bardzo dla siebie (forma temu sprzyja), bardzo ciekawe doświadczenie.
July 2, 2020
Il cagnolino lungo la strada di Milosz si presenta come un romanzo ed è ordinato come un diario critico in cui è possibile rinvenire osservazioni, informazioni e considerazioni che spaziano dal romanzo alla poesia, dalla sessualità ai sentimenti e alle pulsioni ad essa associate, alla vita e al mondo nella sua interezza, nei suoi dettagli, nelle sue filosofie.
Lungi dall'essere infinito, Il cagnolino lungo la strada è un frammento letterario dove si intuisce che le possibilità di esplorazione del panorama e delle realtà che attraversiamo sono più di quanto crediamo. Questo fa sì che la seconda parte del libro dedicata ai temi da cedere apra una gamma di scelte che spetta al lettore scegliere e portare avanti, lungo il percorso di lettura.
Gradevole, leggero (sembra un paradosso se paragonato a un'opera polacca). Da portare con sé e consultare liberamente. :)
Recensione libro: https://paroleombra.com/2020/06/26/il...
Lungi dall'essere infinito, Il cagnolino lungo la strada è un frammento letterario dove si intuisce che le possibilità di esplorazione del panorama e delle realtà che attraversiamo sono più di quanto crediamo. Questo fa sì che la seconda parte del libro dedicata ai temi da cedere apra una gamma di scelte che spetta al lettore scegliere e portare avanti, lungo il percorso di lettura.
Gradevole, leggero (sembra un paradosso se paragonato a un'opera polacca). Da portare con sé e consultare liberamente. :)
Recensione libro: https://paroleombra.com/2020/06/26/il...
December 30, 2025
Una delle peggiori edizioni curatele di Adelphi , per quanto mi riguarda!
Il grosso problema del libro è la pessima gestione dell'editore/traduttore rispetto al contenuto del libro stesso.
Le pochissime note che ci sono , sono inserite a fine volume e nemmeno segnalate nella pagina dove compaiono , mancando proprio le notazioni grafiche tipiche , per cui alla fine viene davvero difficile orientarsi e leggerle in tempo , e non a scoppio ritardato.
Per altro l'autore usa vari riferimenti culturali che purtroppo si perdono , leggendo man mano. Ecco che un lavoro editoriale , avrebbe di sicuro giovato a valorizzare un testo simile.
Libro brutto non è , forse solo vittima dell'editoria italiana.
Trovo infelice anche il titolo , promettendo racconti banali per una sorta di Zibaldone con poesie , racconti e brevi saggi filosofici , decisamente più interressanti del banale racconto citato nel titolo.
Insomma , autore notevole ma bistrattato , aimè , da quest'edizione!
Il grosso problema del libro è la pessima gestione dell'editore/traduttore rispetto al contenuto del libro stesso.
Le pochissime note che ci sono , sono inserite a fine volume e nemmeno segnalate nella pagina dove compaiono , mancando proprio le notazioni grafiche tipiche , per cui alla fine viene davvero difficile orientarsi e leggerle in tempo , e non a scoppio ritardato.
Per altro l'autore usa vari riferimenti culturali che purtroppo si perdono , leggendo man mano. Ecco che un lavoro editoriale , avrebbe di sicuro giovato a valorizzare un testo simile.
Libro brutto non è , forse solo vittima dell'editoria italiana.
Trovo infelice anche il titolo , promettendo racconti banali per una sorta di Zibaldone con poesie , racconti e brevi saggi filosofici , decisamente più interressanti del banale racconto citato nel titolo.
Insomma , autore notevole ma bistrattato , aimè , da quest'edizione!
March 5, 2025
Road-Side Dog is a collection of poems, prose fragments, observations (like in journal entries). What makes it amazing is the vivid observations, random thoughts and points about the greater reality. Nothing in this book by the late Czeslaw Milosz is much longer than 4 pages long, and the more in-depth chapters are in the second half of the book. There are some amazing sentences and sentence clauses, such as: "He was everywhere, on a train carrying prisoners to the gulag...." Also" The longer one's life, the more torments of memory." Some of the language is that good. There are themes, but there is not a narrative, so the lovers of narrative will be disappointed. (Rating: 4.0-4.3/5.0 stars).
September 25, 2023
Este es un libro que valdría la pena traducir al español: son textos cortos de todo tipo escritos por Milosz alrededor de sus 86 años, cuando los reunió y publicó. Hay poemas (pocos), aforismos, reflexiones hondas y sencillas, ideas para relatos, viñetas de una belleza serena, especialmente imágenes que su memoria trae de la infancia. También hay parábolas y uno que otro sermón. Hay que decir que las preocupaciones religiosas tienen un lugar central y Milosz no puede evitar un desencantado esfuerzo evangelizador. Lo que sí logra evitar, y no debe resultar fácil a los 86 años, es que el tono moralista se torne amargo.
August 22, 2025
There are two distinct sections to this book: "Road-side Dog," and "Subjects to Let."
"Road-side Dog" is the more poetic of the two, with one topic per page about thoughts in a paragraph or two, or just a sentence of 11 words. But, I wouldn't call it poetry. I give this section 3/5 stars
"Subjects to Let" are more like essays on given topics, sometimes spanning a few pages. Many of them are religious and / or topics of which I have no interest. I give this section 1.5/5 stars
This was published 20 years after he won the Pulitzer, and when he was 87 years old; well past his prime.
Overall 2/5 stars.
"Road-side Dog" is the more poetic of the two, with one topic per page about thoughts in a paragraph or two, or just a sentence of 11 words. But, I wouldn't call it poetry. I give this section 3/5 stars
"Subjects to Let" are more like essays on given topics, sometimes spanning a few pages. Many of them are religious and / or topics of which I have no interest. I give this section 1.5/5 stars
This was published 20 years after he won the Pulitzer, and when he was 87 years old; well past his prime.
Overall 2/5 stars.
February 22, 2025
The most interesting part of this for me is that Hubby picked it up and is also reading it. But this is also an interesting delve into the mind and perhaps heart of a Name artist. I wanted to say valuable as well, and I’m sure this pleasing little book has value, but my problem is that I don’t pay attention well, and I don’t THINK I will remember any of these ideas for long. Maybe Hubby will.
I do appreciate seeing the thoughts of a real, nonstereotypical Berkley professor of the late twentieth century.
I do appreciate seeing the thoughts of a real, nonstereotypical Berkley professor of the late twentieth century.
October 3, 2017
"Dare un senso, quale che sia, pur di sfuggire a questa realtà bovina, inerte, perfettamente apatica, senza fini, aspirazioni, affermazioni o negazioni, che è come il nulla incarnato. Religioni! Ideologie! Desideri! Odi! Venite a ricoprire con la vostra trama ornata questa cosa cieca, che neppure ha un nome." (Tropici, p. 80)
May 28, 2022
Kad vrhunski pjesnik kakav je Miloš napiše nešto prozno, onda je to, za mene, veliko otkriće. Mislim da takva proza nadograđuje sve one skraćene misli koje su bile iskazane u stihovima. U ovoj zbirci nalaze se eseji, kratke priče i poezija, tako da je ova knjiga, što se mene tiče, mikrokosmos Milošovijade.
January 25, 2018
Too often too abstract for my tastes, but incredibly smart use of the short form.
January 10, 2021
I really fought with myself to finish this book. Not my cup of tea. In my opinion, most of its content is too bitter for poetry and it is not cathartic at all.
January 20, 2022
I will return to this another time and re-read it all. Not for me right now.
September 8, 2022
A slog and too abstract. Random library pick.
July 15, 2023
Fragments, reflections and sketches by the Nobel prize winner of 1980. Enjoyable pieces of prose they remind me a bit of Kafka's short prose pieces. Highly recommend this!
August 26, 2023
I feel called out by one of the poems
January 20, 2024
Vana ja väsinud mehe testament. Au talle. Kindlasti lugemist väärt. Kasvõi selleks, et autori toel enda seisukohti kujundada, nendega nõustuda või mitte.
Suurim tarkus on südameheadus.
Suurim tarkus on südameheadus.
did-not-finish
August 15, 2025I like some aspects of the book, but I don't think I'm the target audience. Maybe if I find one-off poetry from him in the future, I'd be into it.
January 27, 2026
太会写了 一般不看序 这次发现 每一页都好看！
March 18, 2015
I took this up after "The Issa Valley", thinking I would like to see what C.M.'s poetry was like, and so was confused to find short paragraphs - prose poems - I wondered? But there were a few in conventional poem form as well, so I gave up trying to categorize and just read on.
Not my usual thing or style, but with merit nonetheless. Some of the paragraphs were outstanding. This one I will include, even though it's long, just so I don't forget it myself.
Ancestors
To tell the truth we should not exist. We, not any collective plural, just you and me. Let us use our imaginations to visualize for a moment the circumstances and conditions of our parent's life, then our grandparents, then great-grandparents, thus further and further back. Even if among them all there happened to be wealthy individuals, or men of privilege, the stench and filth in which they lived, as that then was the rule, would have astonished us who use showers and toilets. What was even more certain was among them the presence of starvelings, for whom a piece of dry bread in pre-harvest time was happiness. Our ancestors died like flies from epidemics, from starvation, from wars, though children swarmed, for every twelve of them only one or two survived. And what strange tribes, what ugly snouts behinds you and me, what bloody rites in honor of gods carved in the linden tree! Back to those who are stalking through the undergrowth of a murky primeval forest with chipped stones for their only weapons, in order to split the skulls of their enemies. It would seem as if we had only parents and that's all, but those other pre-predecessors exist, and with them their afflictions, manias, mental illnesses, syphilis, tuberculosis, and what-not, and how do you know they do not continue in you? And what was the probability that among the children of your great-great- grandparents the one susrvived who would beget your ancestor? And what the probability that this would repeat itself in the next generation?
Altogether, a very slim chance that we would be born in these skins, as these, not other, individuals, in whom the genes met those of the devil knows what whores and oafs. The very fact that our species survived and even multiplied beyond measure is astonishing, for it had much against it, and the primeval forest full of animals stronger than humans may serve till now as a metaphor for man's precarious situation - let us add viruses, bacteria, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, but also his own works atomic weapons and the pollution of nature. Our species should have disappeared a long time ago, and it is still alive, incredibly resistant. That you and I happen to be part of it should be enough to give us pause for meditation."
I liked that.
62) A Goal
51) That
47) A Warning
46) Leaning Into
82) But
94) Autumn
102) In Her Diary
109) Yokimura
141) Oeuvre
206) Ancestors
Not my usual thing or style, but with merit nonetheless. Some of the paragraphs were outstanding. This one I will include, even though it's long, just so I don't forget it myself.
Ancestors
To tell the truth we should not exist. We, not any collective plural, just you and me. Let us use our imaginations to visualize for a moment the circumstances and conditions of our parent's life, then our grandparents, then great-grandparents, thus further and further back. Even if among them all there happened to be wealthy individuals, or men of privilege, the stench and filth in which they lived, as that then was the rule, would have astonished us who use showers and toilets. What was even more certain was among them the presence of starvelings, for whom a piece of dry bread in pre-harvest time was happiness. Our ancestors died like flies from epidemics, from starvation, from wars, though children swarmed, for every twelve of them only one or two survived. And what strange tribes, what ugly snouts behinds you and me, what bloody rites in honor of gods carved in the linden tree! Back to those who are stalking through the undergrowth of a murky primeval forest with chipped stones for their only weapons, in order to split the skulls of their enemies. It would seem as if we had only parents and that's all, but those other pre-predecessors exist, and with them their afflictions, manias, mental illnesses, syphilis, tuberculosis, and what-not, and how do you know they do not continue in you? And what was the probability that among the children of your great-great- grandparents the one susrvived who would beget your ancestor? And what the probability that this would repeat itself in the next generation?
Altogether, a very slim chance that we would be born in these skins, as these, not other, individuals, in whom the genes met those of the devil knows what whores and oafs. The very fact that our species survived and even multiplied beyond measure is astonishing, for it had much against it, and the primeval forest full of animals stronger than humans may serve till now as a metaphor for man's precarious situation - let us add viruses, bacteria, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, but also his own works atomic weapons and the pollution of nature. Our species should have disappeared a long time ago, and it is still alive, incredibly resistant. That you and I happen to be part of it should be enough to give us pause for meditation."
I liked that.
62) A Goal
51) That
47) A Warning
46) Leaning Into
82) But
94) Autumn
102) In Her Diary
109) Yokimura
141) Oeuvre
206) Ancestors
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews