Czesław Miłosz Quote

You are a tongue of the debased,
of the unreasonable, hating themselves
even more than they hate other nations,
a tongue of informers,
a tongue of the confused,
ill with their own innocence. But without you, who am I?
Only a scholar in a distant country,
a success, without fears and humiliations.
Yes, who am I without you?
Just a philosopher, like everyone else.

"My Faithful Mother Tongue" (1968), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz and Robert Pinsky - City Without a Name (1969)