WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.800 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:06.180 align:middle line:84% "Abd-el-Hadi Fights a Superpower." 00:00:06.180 --> 00:00:07.590 align:middle line:90% This is actually one of the-- 00:00:07.590 --> 00:00:11.190 align:middle line:84% I think maybe the first poem, one of the earliest poems 00:00:11.190 --> 00:00:13.770 align:middle line:90% that Taha published. 00:00:13.770 --> 00:00:18.540 align:middle line:84% As Frances mentioned, Taha has now, what? 00:00:18.540 --> 00:00:21.780 align:middle line:84% Four books of poetry, five books of poetry, but he 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:27.040 align:middle line:84% did not publish a book until he was in his 50s. 00:00:27.040 --> 00:00:34.200 align:middle line:84% He spent his entire late youth, early adulthood, well 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:36.330 align:middle line:84% into middle age, and he still in fact 00:00:36.330 --> 00:00:40.560 align:middle line:84% runs a souvenir shop next to the Church of the Annunciation 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:42.480 align:middle line:90% in Nazareth. 00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:45.480 align:middle line:84% I consider-- we've talked about it. 00:00:45.480 --> 00:00:47.730 align:middle line:84% We could say that he had, essentially, 00:00:47.730 --> 00:00:51.480 align:middle line:84% four years of formal schooling, but we 00:00:51.480 --> 00:00:55.080 align:middle line:84% can say that he went to high school, did his BA, MA-- 00:00:55.080 --> 00:00:58.260 align:middle line:84% MFA-- and PhD at the souvenir shop, 00:00:58.260 --> 00:01:00.930 align:middle line:84% which became a kind of local gathering place 00:01:00.930 --> 00:01:06.330 align:middle line:84% for Palestinian poets, and where Taha did most of his reading 00:01:06.330 --> 00:01:08.130 align:middle line:84% through most of his life, writing 00:01:08.130 --> 00:01:14.130 align:middle line:84% all along, originally stories, but in time, also poems. 00:01:14.130 --> 00:01:18.030 align:middle line:84% But he didn't publish his first book until he was in his 50s, 00:01:18.030 --> 00:01:20.100 align:middle line:84% and this was one of the first poems in that book, 00:01:20.100 --> 00:01:22.440 align:middle line:84% "Abd-el-Hadi" Fights a Superpower." 00:01:22.440 --> 00:01:26.070 align:middle line:84% Abd-el-Hadi, I should say, is a character who shows up in quite 00:01:26.070 --> 00:01:27.450 align:middle line:90% a bit of Taha's-- 00:01:27.450 --> 00:01:32.580 align:middle line:84% in various books, and he's a kind of Palestinian everyman. 00:01:32.580 --> 00:01:33.870 align:middle line:90% He could be anybody. 00:01:33.870 --> 00:01:40.920 align:middle line:84% He's just a sort of simple, average villager, who 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:44.430 align:middle line:84% is at the mercy of not only his government, 00:01:44.430 --> 00:01:48.510 align:middle line:84% but other governments, and means well but 00:01:48.510 --> 00:01:50.850 align:middle line:84% doesn't really have a great deal of control 00:01:50.850 --> 00:01:54.240 align:middle line:90% over what happens to his life. 00:01:54.191 --> 00:02:10.575 align:middle line:84% "عبد الهادي" يصارع دولة عظمى في حياته ما قرأ ولا كتب في حياته 00:02:10.575 --> 00:02:21.005 align:middle line:84% ما قطع شجرة ولا طعن بقرة في حياته ما جاب سيرة النيويورك 00:02:21.005 --> 00:02:31.748 align:middle line:84% تايمز بغيابهم في حياته ما رفع صوته على أحد إلا بقوله "تفضل... 00:02:31.748 --> 00:02:43.194 align:middle line:84% والله العظيم غير تتفضل" ومع ذلك فهو يحيا قضية خاسرة حالته ميؤوس 00:02:43.194 --> 00:02:54.052 align:middle line:84% منها وحقه ذرات ملح سقطت في المحيط أيها السادة إن موكلي لا 00:02:54.052 --> 00:03:05.488 align:middle line:84% يعرف شيئًا عن عدوه وأؤكد لكم أنه لو رأى بحارة الإنتربرايز لقدم 00:03:05.488 --> 00:03:12.447 align:middle line:90% لهم البيض المقلي مع لبن الكيس. 00:03:12.520 --> 00:03:14.650 align:middle line:90% Let me just try this. 00:03:14.650 --> 00:03:15.623 align:middle line:90% Can you hear me? 00:03:15.623 --> 00:03:16.540 align:middle line:90% Can you hear me or no? 00:03:16.540 --> 00:03:17.040 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:03:17.040 --> 00:03:17.900 align:middle line:90% That better? 00:03:17.900 --> 00:03:18.400 align:middle line:90% OK? 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:22.837 align:middle line:90% 00:03:22.837 --> 00:03:27.020 align:middle line:84% "Abd-el-Hadi Fights a Superpower." 00:03:27.020 --> 00:03:31.820 align:middle line:84% "In his life, he neither wrote nor read. 00:03:31.820 --> 00:03:37.070 align:middle line:84% In his life, he didn't cut down a single tree, 00:03:37.070 --> 00:03:40.700 align:middle line:84% didn't slit the throat of a single calf. 00:03:40.700 --> 00:03:44.810 align:middle line:84% In his life, he did not speak of the New York Times 00:03:44.810 --> 00:03:47.240 align:middle line:90% behind its back. 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:49.910 align:middle line:84% He didn't raise his voice to a soul 00:03:49.910 --> 00:03:53.690 align:middle line:84% except in his saying, come in, please, by God, 00:03:53.690 --> 00:03:54.852 align:middle line:90% you can't refuse. 00:03:54.852 --> 00:03:57.470 align:middle line:90% 00:03:57.470 --> 00:04:02.390 align:middle line:84% Nevertheless, his case is hopeless. 00:04:02.390 --> 00:04:05.620 align:middle line:90% His situation desperate. 00:04:05.620 --> 00:04:12.070 align:middle line:84% His God-given rights are a grain of salt tossed into the sea. 00:04:12.070 --> 00:04:14.620 align:middle line:90% 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:21.790 align:middle line:84% Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, about his enemies 00:04:21.790 --> 00:04:26.610 align:middle line:90% my client knows not a thing. 00:04:26.610 --> 00:04:35.400 align:middle line:84% And I can assure you, were he to encounter the entire crew 00:04:35.400 --> 00:04:40.170 align:middle line:84% of the aircraft carrier Enterprise, 00:04:40.170 --> 00:04:48.540 align:middle line:84% he'd serve them eggs sunny side up, and labneh fresh 00:04:48.540 --> 00:04:50.390 align:middle line:90% from the bag. 00:04:50.390 --> 00:04:54.000 align:middle line:90%