WEBVTT NOTE Created by CaptionSync from Automatic Sync Technologies www.automaticsync.com 00:00:00.236 --> 00:00:00.666 align:middle >> Want to talk? 00:00:03.476 --> 00:00:05.726 align:middle No, by George I came here to read, right? 00:00:06.516 --> 00:00:12.696 align:middle [ Inaudible ] 00:00:13.196 --> 00:00:18.136 align:middle No, this was the very first and, so far, the very last. 00:00:19.666 --> 00:00:21.266 align:middle It was appropriate, I thought. 00:00:22.436 --> 00:00:23.516 align:middle I started writing this. 00:00:23.516 --> 00:00:28.096 align:middle This is the third book in Spanish because the first of it had been in Spanish 00:00:28.096 --> 00:00:29.606 align:middle and someone else had done the translation. 00:00:29.606 --> 00:00:34.216 align:middle I thought it would be a nice to continue the series in Spanish. 00:00:34.216 --> 00:00:35.706 align:middle Then I realized that I made a mistake. 00:00:37.496 --> 00:00:39.336 align:middle That Army life was lived in English. 00:00:39.906 --> 00:00:43.506 align:middle And so I said well, I'll translate it into English. 00:00:44.406 --> 00:00:48.586 align:middle So I did. And that was another effort of another four months, and that was a mistake 00:00:48.586 --> 00:00:49.976 align:middle as well, and it didn't work either way. 00:00:52.086 --> 00:00:59.106 align:middle So I just finished reading Paul Fussell's book on the Great War and modern memory. 00:00:59.886 --> 00:01:05.046 align:middle So I went back to the index and looked up English poets of WWI. 00:01:05.796 --> 00:01:10.836 align:middle [Inaudible] WWI, it was Joyce Kilmer and, you know, he didn't have much to offer. 00:01:10.836 --> 00:01:11.856 align:middle So I read Rosenberg - 00:01:12.516 --> 00:01:17.906 align:middle Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Sassoon, [inaudible] 00:01:18.406 --> 00:01:20.206 align:middle And then, I read WWII American poets. 00:01:21.456 --> 00:01:25.666 align:middle Two in particular, Karl Shapiro who's still with us and Randall Jarrell. 00:01:27.436 --> 00:01:32.296 align:middle And then I realized that the narrative prose, a poem would be the best form of genre 00:01:32.786 --> 00:01:35.366 align:middle that for me, I thought, narrative prose 00:01:35.366 --> 00:01:39.776 align:middle and just fiction would take too long to say what I wanted to say. 00:01:40.076 --> 00:01:45.596 align:middle So I used this and I think within nine months I was done. 00:01:45.686 --> 00:01:49.046 align:middle Well, the rewriting took a little longer, but what I wanted to do and -- 00:01:51.676 --> 00:01:55.556 align:middle Because you could say so much in so few words or use so few words to say so much. 00:01:56.056 --> 00:01:57.926 align:middle And it just fit in perfectly. 00:01:59.106 --> 00:02:03.046 align:middle Then I realized that because the youngsters are no longer living in the valley, 00:02:03.046 --> 00:02:07.356 align:middle that they were going up now in their 20s, that Spanish was no longer the controlling element 00:02:07.486 --> 00:02:09.196 align:middle or the controlling language in their lives. 00:02:09.196 --> 00:02:14.316 align:middle So then the next time they go to the university, it's English and Spanish when they go home. 00:02:14.316 --> 00:02:19.446 align:middle You know, so it was - Then I wrote an essay called Sense of Place 00:02:19.936 --> 00:02:24.866 align:middle to answer myself some questions and I still have that whenever I lose my way, 00:02:24.866 --> 00:02:27.606 align:middle I go back and see what I said about the place. 00:02:28.476 --> 00:02:29.076 align:middle It's a big help. 00:02:32.046 --> 00:02:34.956 align:middle But being in Japan also was of big help and being in Korea was of big help. 00:02:35.456 --> 00:02:36.466 align:middle I didn't think so at the time. 00:02:36.646 --> 00:02:38.076 align:middle I think it was worth a damn being there. 00:02:38.806 --> 00:02:42.026 align:middle I thought it was very nice when I came back 20 years later, 28 years later. 00:02:42.206 --> 00:02:48.136 align:middle It took me that long to think about it, but I don't know. 00:02:48.766 --> 00:02:51.676 align:middle It's -- When I was done with it, by the way, 00:02:51.676 --> 00:02:55.146 align:middle after 28 years of not having thought about it, I was done with it. 00:02:55.146 --> 00:02:58.856 align:middle I don't mention it again, except maybe in passing, certainly never talk it. 00:03:00.406 --> 00:03:03.786 align:middle But it's just part of the work and that's how I look at. 00:03:04.516 --> 00:03:24.936 align:middle [ Inaudible ] 00:03:25.436 --> 00:03:28.926 align:middle I think both, plus if they're-- the form, certainly. 00:03:29.376 --> 00:03:38.536 align:middle And then, a wider audience and then the content, but the two main characters 00:03:38.536 --> 00:03:42.066 align:middle one of them works at the bank and English is the language of currency there. 00:03:43.126 --> 00:03:47.876 align:middle And the other one is County Civil Servant and of course English works 00:03:47.876 --> 00:03:50.606 align:middle because he's a Lieutenant in the homicide squad. 00:03:51.746 --> 00:03:56.206 align:middle And the place always controls language and, of course, [inaudible]. 00:03:57.736 --> 00:04:02.076 align:middle So it came easier, English did. 00:04:03.946 --> 00:04:09.516 align:middle Although whenever I speak about the old or about the old times as well and I let the people talk, 00:04:09.546 --> 00:04:11.656 align:middle then Spanish will take over as it has. 00:04:11.656 --> 00:04:14.046 align:middle And -- Because I would write in one and then the other, 00:04:14.046 --> 00:04:18.776 align:middle depending on where the book is situated, ok? 00:04:19.516 --> 00:04:23.806 align:middle [ Inaudible ] 00:04:24.306 --> 00:04:28.846 align:middle I think not more than two or three months right before he died. 00:04:28.846 --> 00:04:32.656 align:middle He died in March and I'd just seen him in the fall semester. 00:04:33.926 --> 00:04:38.676 align:middle And I'd just gotten a letter from him and he died two weeks after I received the letter, 00:04:39.306 --> 00:04:43.366 align:middle making plans for the Summer to go to Germany with his wife and the kids and all of that. 00:04:44.166 --> 00:04:46.476 align:middle And I think we had talked about that time too. 00:04:47.416 --> 00:04:50.706 align:middle He died. Did I start -- 00:04:51.096 --> 00:04:53.096 align:middle [ Inaudible ] 00:04:53.176 --> 00:04:56.616 align:middle Well, I canceled the whole European trip because I didn't want to go anywhere. 00:04:56.616 --> 00:04:57.306 align:middle I just stayed home. 00:04:57.546 --> 00:05:00.966 align:middle I think I stayed home the whole summer [inaudible] before. 00:05:01.396 --> 00:05:04.266 align:middle He died in May and I had about a six week -- 00:05:07.176 --> 00:05:11.466 align:middle -- contract which was real nice to break with me because I didn't want to go anywhere. 00:05:11.686 --> 00:05:12.496 align:middle I didn't write that Summer. 00:05:12.496 --> 00:05:15.856 align:middle I think I read, probably went to the valley a lot, walked around a lot 00:05:16.986 --> 00:05:20.796 align:middle because we'd been very close now, for about 14 years, and then all of a sudden he dies. 00:05:22.486 --> 00:05:24.596 align:middle I never thought that I would take anybody's death that hard. 00:05:24.596 --> 00:05:28.136 align:middle I mean, my mother had just died in 74, 10 years before. 00:05:28.136 --> 00:05:30.846 align:middle My dad died when I was, you know, in College. 00:05:31.556 --> 00:05:33.526 align:middle But his death really affected me a lot. 00:05:33.526 --> 00:05:37.406 align:middle And then I came back, you know, what I did I think -- 00:05:37.406 --> 00:05:41.736 align:middle That's why I spent over a year working his own work Y no se lo tragó la tierra 00:05:42.196 --> 00:05:43.466 align:middle and rendering it into English. 00:05:43.506 --> 00:05:46.106 align:middle And that sort of made it ok for me. 00:05:46.106 --> 00:05:47.736 align:middle I said fine, it's out of my system now. 00:05:48.896 --> 00:05:53.246 align:middle And I called it This Migrant Earth because the original translation by Rios was -- 00:05:53.246 --> 00:05:55.726 align:middle I used to thought a little too biblical sounding. 00:05:55.816 --> 00:05:59.786 align:middle I don't know if you're all familiar with it, it's called And the Earth did not part. 00:06:01.146 --> 00:06:05.366 align:middle And I said this is very unlike Tomás and Tomás didn't particularly care for the title either. 00:06:05.366 --> 00:06:07.976 align:middle It was about the migrants, it was about the Earth, 00:06:08.086 --> 00:06:10.546 align:middle so I said I think this migrant Earth will work. 00:06:13.456 --> 00:06:13.946 align:middle And, yeah. 00:06:14.956 --> 00:06:15.976 align:middle It was a great relationship. 00:06:19.046 --> 00:06:21.136 align:middle You reach a certain age, you don't have many friends, you know? 00:06:21.716 --> 00:06:22.566 align:middle Not that close, anyway.