Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

Hello, this is Michael Silverblatt, and welcome to Bookworm.

This is the second show in our four-part series, A Month of Milosh, which honors Nobel Prize

Laureate Cheshwa Milos, who has just published his most recent book, Roadside Dog, at the age of 87.

He is one of the two or three greatest living poets.

Today's show will discuss his tragic experiences during the rise of Nazism

and the occupation of Warsaw during World War II.

This spring, Claremont McKenna College

hosted a festival celebrating Cheshwa Milosch's life and work.

There, I talked with American poet Robert Haas,

who is the poet, most recently,

of Sun Under Wood published by Echo Press.

Haas told me about Milosh's young adult life

after his magical childhood in Lithuania.

In his 20s, he went to the University of Vilno, which is the Polish name for what is now

the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.

It was, though Miwos didn't know it at the time, also one of the great centers of the

revival of Yiddish culture.

...