WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.960 align:middle line:84% I'm about in the middle here and I wanted to interrupt myself 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:11.700 align:middle line:84% to read two translations, about which the first important thing 00:00:11.700 --> 00:00:16.140 align:middle line:90% to know is that I am only-- 00:00:16.140 --> 00:00:19.768 align:middle line:84% whatever credit accrues to the translators, 00:00:19.768 --> 00:00:21.810 align:middle line:84% there are two of us, and only half of it is mine. 00:00:21.810 --> 00:00:23.100 align:middle line:84% An excellent young translator named 00:00:23.100 --> 00:00:25.142 align:middle line:84% Mary Feeney worked on these translations with me. 00:00:25.142 --> 00:00:28.470 align:middle line:84% They're from the prose poems of Jean Follain. 00:00:28.470 --> 00:00:30.960 align:middle line:90% I have two to read to you. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:32.830 align:middle line:84% There are any number of favorites, 00:00:32.830 --> 00:00:35.317 align:middle line:84% but I want to read them here because, in some way, 00:00:35.317 --> 00:00:36.525 align:middle line:90% I associate them with Tucson. 00:00:36.525 --> 00:00:40.320 align:middle line:84% And Michael Cuddihy's Ironwood was the first magazine, 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:42.690 align:middle line:84% and he was the first editor, to pay attention 00:00:42.690 --> 00:00:45.030 align:middle line:90% to our translations. 00:00:45.030 --> 00:00:47.550 align:middle line:84% And the book of them, long-delayed 00:00:47.550 --> 00:00:52.950 align:middle line:84% because this project has taken a total of about ten years work, 00:00:52.950 --> 00:00:56.940 align:middle line:84% will appear in the spring from Grilled Flowers Press, also 00:00:56.940 --> 00:00:57.570 align:middle line:90% of Tucson. 00:00:57.570 --> 00:01:00.810 align:middle line:84% So I somehow feel that there's been a home for them 00:01:00.810 --> 00:01:03.420 align:middle line:84% here, though they've also been on the road 00:01:03.420 --> 00:01:06.480 align:middle line:84% for ten years looking for a home, too. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:09.450 align:middle line:84% Two of them, these first poems are all untitled. 00:01:09.450 --> 00:01:14.790 align:middle line:84% And I'm reading two from a series called Objet, where 00:01:14.790 --> 00:01:17.340 align:middle line:84% he usually begins by looking at something very closely 00:01:17.340 --> 00:01:22.830 align:middle line:84% and then imagining, as he looks more and more closely at it, 00:01:22.830 --> 00:01:24.300 align:middle line:84% what kind of emotional life might 00:01:24.300 --> 00:01:28.860 align:middle line:84% have been lived around that thing, around that object. 00:01:28.860 --> 00:01:32.490 align:middle line:84% "Let the schoolboy pull a marble out of his pocket, 00:01:32.490 --> 00:01:34.410 align:middle line:84% the soldier an old familiar knife, 00:01:34.410 --> 00:01:38.160 align:middle line:84% the schoolmaster a huge colored handkerchief. 00:01:38.160 --> 00:01:41.910 align:middle line:84% And it might happen, that for a brief instant, such objects, 00:01:41.910 --> 00:01:45.510 align:middle line:84% humble as they are, seem priceless. 00:01:45.510 --> 00:01:47.820 align:middle line:84% A whole world rich in anniversaries 00:01:47.820 --> 00:01:51.570 align:middle line:84% is revealed when an older woman takes out, from beneath stacks 00:01:51.570 --> 00:01:55.530 align:middle line:84% of linen in a large closet, a baptismal box containing 00:01:55.530 --> 00:01:58.110 align:middle line:84% first communion pictures with their golden chalices 00:01:58.110 --> 00:02:00.480 align:middle line:90% and red and blue savior. 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:04.560 align:middle line:84% In a spare moment, she opens this precious box only 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:07.860 align:middle line:84% to close it after a short, silent contemplation, 00:02:07.860 --> 00:02:10.680 align:middle line:84% since of course the clock is always striking. 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:12.240 align:middle line:90% Time to sweep. 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:13.680 align:middle line:90% Time to sew. 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:16.230 align:middle line:84% Time, too, for feeding the animals, 00:02:16.230 --> 00:02:18.660 align:middle line:84% who complain when they get no fodder, 00:02:18.660 --> 00:02:20.550 align:middle line:90% mash, or bloody scraps." 00:02:20.550 --> 00:02:25.890 align:middle line:90% 00:02:25.890 --> 00:02:26.850 align:middle line:90% The second of these. 00:02:26.850 --> 00:02:29.790 align:middle line:90% 00:02:29.790 --> 00:02:32.580 align:middle line:84% "Women dishwashers would be babbling on. 00:02:32.580 --> 00:02:35.160 align:middle line:84% You could hear glasses and bowls colliding. 00:02:35.160 --> 00:02:36.900 align:middle line:84% Through unflinching window panes, 00:02:36.900 --> 00:02:40.830 align:middle line:84% you could see a large storehouse containing several wheels. 00:02:40.830 --> 00:02:44.700 align:middle line:84% One from a tricycle, another from a child's stroller, 00:02:44.700 --> 00:02:50.190 align:middle line:84% for so long, with such ceremony, pushed beneath the sycamores. 00:02:50.190 --> 00:02:52.470 align:middle line:90% Sometimes the women would stop. 00:02:52.470 --> 00:02:54.870 align:middle line:84% Still holding porcelain plates in their hands, 00:02:54.870 --> 00:02:57.420 align:middle line:84% they'd tilt their heads, squinting a little, 00:02:57.420 --> 00:03:00.930 align:middle line:84% trying to remember a forgotten name or date. 00:03:00.930 --> 00:03:04.740 align:middle line:84% At their feet, the cat licked milk from a saucer. 00:03:04.740 --> 00:03:08.130 align:middle line:84% The future was nonetheless full of hideous landscapes. 00:03:08.130 --> 00:03:12.780 align:middle line:84% Bloody barracks, bitten by the wind, stupor in freight cars 00:03:12.780 --> 00:03:14.760 align:middle line:90% with barred doors. 00:03:14.760 --> 00:03:18.130 align:middle line:84% For the time being it was unheard of. 00:03:18.130 --> 00:03:20.430 align:middle line:84% There was the neatness of table settings 00:03:20.430 --> 00:03:23.640 align:middle line:84% and shining kitchen utensils touching the softened 00:03:23.640 --> 00:03:26.820 align:middle line:84% skin of the dishwashers, those women who, 00:03:26.820 --> 00:03:31.380 align:middle line:84% in a couple of hours, would say, it's getting dark. 00:03:31.380 --> 00:03:32.910 align:middle line:90% Let's turn the lights on. 00:03:32.910 --> 00:03:35.570 align:middle line:90% You can't see a thing in here."