"…in the dark room, in the city of Wrocław" : Czesław Miłosz and his Wrocław episode

The essay is focused on the Wroclaw episode in the life and work of Czeslaw Milosz. In 1949 Milosz spent a few days in Wroclaw, which was still in ruins after the war. Six years later, in 1955, Milosz wrote an interesting poem entitled Pokój (The Room) and gate a symbolical vision of post-war, heavily destroyed Wroclaw. The article concerns the probable connection between the biographical experience form 1949 and the textual creation from 1955. It also compares the pessimistic images of Wroclaw in Milosz’s poem anil in the private diary of Anna Kowalska. This comparison reveals the unexpected convergences between the two separated wavs of the perception of the city.