It was a very moving and emotional meeting. I came to an apartment in Warsaw and saw some 50 young people sitting on the floor to meet an author whom they had published and distributed in danger. Milosz has the look of a great teacher. There is no self-consciousness. The penetrating blue eyes, set above high Slavic cheekbones, have the sharp hard focus of someone whose interest is in the external world, not internal angst.
Bushy eyebrows contribute to a hint of fierceness.
Although the Polish regime still is going ahead with plans to publish more of his work, Milosz is not impressed. This is an attempt to create certain appearances. Some sort of innocuous concessions to the public appearance - probably. The situation remains profoundly inauthentic. By which I mean that the last decades saw a constant creation of appearances . . .