In the fact of Polish character.

Towards Polish character „Miłosz, in his esseys” „Private duities” , „Family Europe” , „ The year of hunter” and „Looking for homeland” (author’s own translation) manifests his prejudice against superficial and ceremonial customs and so called Polish religiousness. „ After all I couldn’t bend my knee in frout of this goodless whose name is Polish character. (....) In this ountry religion has been absorbed in it” („The Land of Urlo”) The other source of the prejudice against the Polish customs is sentimentalism and cheap patriotism. Milosz’s very importent text which describes poet’s attitude to Poland and Poles is the poem analyzed earlier „My faithful mother tongue” and especially the third stanza:

Now, I confess my doubt.
There are moments when it seems to me I have squandered my life.
For 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.

For sure, it is an expression of an unfriendly attitude to Polish character in general. But it is worth remembering that this poem was created in 1968. Poland was governed by the communistic system which did a lot of ill. The majority of Polish society lost the feeling of individual responsibility, gave up to the magic of „anonymous evil” They felt innocent while approving of the existance of terror, falsehood and hypoctisy.