A new, humorless generation is now arising
It takes in deadly earnest all we received
with laughter.
I imagine the earth when I am no more:
Nothing happens, no loss, it's still a strange pageant,
Women's dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.
Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born,
Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.
Czeslaw
Milosz (1911-2004)
