WEBVTT

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OK, we'll read a couple
of very short poems to--

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from a sequence called "Twigs."

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[? To start with that ?].

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Because connected
with the airport.

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أفضل من دون ذلك.

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We have this fight
every time we read.

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I should have known not to
connect these two poems.

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My wife told me
before, I got to say,

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don't read this poem
after that poem.

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He's going to say,
[? don't ?] connect them.

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أفضل من دون ذلك؟
صحيح.

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Some poems are
better than others,

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and they sometimes
work better together.

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Anyway, that's a
different poem altogether.

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That's a different poem--

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ثلاث قصائد مختلفة.

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OK.

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You choose.

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I choose.

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"Twigs."

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This is a sequence
of short poems

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that can work together or apart.

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And one of the poems--

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I think will be
just two or three.

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They're very, very short.

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One of the poems was after
Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated

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in-- what year would that be?

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'94, was it?

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Five-- 1995.

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The year after the--

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halving a very hard time
finding the poem, unusually.

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One second.

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OK.

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After Rabin was assassinated,
it was sort of-- it

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was a bit like the
JFK assassination

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here in this strange way.

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It brought all sorts
of people together

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in Israel, people that are
not used to coming together.

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And we'll wait for
the satellite to pass.

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So after Rabin was
assassinated, it

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was this very intense
period of national mourning.

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And then, I guess it
was the first year

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anniversary of
the assassination,

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there was a rally in the main
square in Tel Aviv, which

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is now named after Rabin.

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And it was televised on national
TV, which in those days,

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still was--

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there weren't this
proliferation of cable channels.

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So basically the entire
country watched this rally.

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And the emcee of
the rally was a kind

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of Jay Leno like
figure in Israel.

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He was a very, very
popular TV personality.

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A little slick,
sort of gigolo like.

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But he's somebody
that was very--

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that would draw-- they felt
this was the person who somehow

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would bring the entire
country around his ridiculous

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personality.

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And nine-- and we were watching,
and 9 o'clock at night, he

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sort of stopped the
proceedings and said

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that he wanted to read a poem.

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You can imagine, well, there's
the bust of Robert Frost here.

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Read a poem at
JFK's inauguration.

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I guess Clinton had
an Arkansan poet read.

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But it's hard to imagine
an American equivalent

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of a national event which is--

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which is stopped to introduce
a poem in the middle of it.

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And so this guy said he
wants to read a poem,

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and he wants to read a poem by
a man named Taha Muhammad Ali.

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Which, given the fact that
the Jewish prime minister

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of the state of Israel had
just been, or had recently

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been assassinated, that
in many ways, this was--

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I don't even like
to use the words,

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but this was a kind
of Zionist event

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in that it's a state event
marking some sort of loss

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for the state.

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And this guy chose to read a
poem by a Palestinian citizen

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of Israel, whom the vast
majority of the audience,

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you can be sure-- first of
all, the vast majority audience

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didn't know who most poets were.

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But in Israel people
do know who poets are,

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but they certainly didn't know
the name Taha Muhammad Ali.

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And the power of
this name coming out.

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An Arab name in this, the
heart of this occasion

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really is a bit
hard to describe.

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And then he read one of
the poems, the last poem.

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We'll read three poems
from this poem "Twigs."

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The last one we'll
read is the one

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that he read then to
the entire country.

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So we'll read two poems from
it first, and then that one.

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I'm going to have
Taha sit for this.

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[INAUDIBLE]

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OK, he'll read the short one,
then I'll read the translation.

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You can sit.

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You can sit tight.

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Because there is music here.

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Oh, OK.

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There's music in the poem
that demands I understand.

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Whatever that means.

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أماليد

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لا الموسيقى

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ولا الشهرةُ والثروةُ

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ولا حتى الشعر نفسه

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بِمُستطيعٍ أن يعزّيني
عن قِصَرِ عُمرِ الإنسان

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وعن أن "الملك لير"
ثمانون صفحة وتنتهي

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وعن محضِ التصوّر:
أن المرْءَ قد يُرْزَأُ بابنٍ عاقْ!


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"Neither music, fame, nor
wealth, not even poetry itself,

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could provide consolation for
life's brevity, or the fact

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that King Lear is a
mere 80 pages long--

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Only.

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And comes to an end.

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And for the thought that
one might suffer greatly

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on account of a
rebellious child."

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[SIDE CONVERSATION]

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وهكذا استغرقتُ ستّينَ سنةً كاملةْ

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حتى أدركتُ:
أن الماءَ ألذُّ الأشرِبةْ

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وأن الخبزَ من الأطعِمَةِ أشهاها

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وأن لا قيمةَ حقيقية لأي فنٍ
إلا إذا أدخلَ البهجةَ إلى قلبِ الإنسان!


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"And so it has taken
me all of 60 years

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to understand that water is
the finest drink, and bread

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the most delicious food.

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And that art is worthless unless
it plants a measure of splendor

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in people's hearts."

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In this tiny poem, [? well ?]
it have been critical look

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for [? police ?] and army
and water at the [INAUDIBLE]..

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Also, maybe it's nice, but
these [? at ?] the [? bridge ?]

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to say the last one.

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That art have to give
some joy to people.

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Without joy, no value to art.

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بعد أن نموتْ

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ويُسدلٌ القلبُ المُتعبُ أجفانَه الأخيرة

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على كل ما فعلناه

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على كل ما تمنّيناه

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على كل ما أحسسنا به
تشوقنا إليه

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ستكون الكراهيةُ أوّلَ ما يتعفّنُ فينا!


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And this is the one that
was read at that rally.

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"After we die, and the
weary heart has lowered

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its final eyelid on
all that we've done,

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and all that we've longed for,
and all that we've dreamed of,

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all we've desired or felt.
Hate will be the first thing

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to putrefy within us."

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And [INAUDIBLE] about the poem.

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[INTERPOSING VOICES]

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He insists he wants to read
the poem that I just told him

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I didn't think we should read.

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But OK.

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We put a little space between
it and the other poem,

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and we'll see what happens.

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I'll find it.

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[SIDE CONVERSATION]

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This is because
you're 780 years old.

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I am sick of talking.

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And my wife, we
didn't have children.

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Where's the wife's
control for the father.

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Where's the remote control
to turn your father off?

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There we go, you
see [INAUDIBLE]..

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A different poem.

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Which one are you talking about?

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This one, yeah?

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فيما مضى كنت أرى في الحُلم أنك قادمة

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فيما مضى كنت أرى في الحُلم أنك راحلة

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فيخنقني الأسى

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ولأن ذلك كان حلمًا كنت أستيقظ فأفرح
ويملأ القمح الظهيرة

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فأنتِ كنتِ الأسى
وأنتِ كنتِ الفرح

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أما الآن فإنني أحلم أنك قادمة!

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فأفرح
وأستيقظ لأدرك أن ذلك كان حلمًا

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فيخنقني الأسى
ويملأ الشوق الغسق!


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"The Dream."

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"Once, I'd see you
departing in the dream,

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and sorrow would take
hold in my heart.

00:10:40.020 --> 00:10:44.146 align:middle line:84%
And because it was
only a dream, I'd wake,

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and joy would fill me.

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And fields of wheat
would fill the day.

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You were that sorrow,
and you were that joy.

00:10:56.690 --> 00:11:00.440 align:middle line:84%
But now I dream
you're approaching,

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and joy comes through me.

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And I wake to discover
it was only a dream,

00:11:07.580 --> 00:11:13.790 align:middle line:84%
and sorrow wells up
in my throat and dusk

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is covered with thorns."

00:11:16.060 --> 00:11:17.000 align:middle line:90%