WEBVTT

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This next poem is
about my father.

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And when we translated
it, was always

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his problem of whether to have
certain words with footnotes

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which are understood
in one culture

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and have a lot of footnotes
in the translated culture

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or just leave it and
find some other word.

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It's always a big
problem because I

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think footnotes are very
good for books of science

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and critical approaches.

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On the contrary, it makes
a very favorable impression

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if there are a lot of footnotes.

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But in a book of poems, I
think it's a very bad thing

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unless you do a thing like
TS Eliot did in Wasteland,

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where the footnotes altogether
became almost a poem itself.

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Well, in this poem, we
had the Hebrew word,

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which is a very famous
prayer, סליחות,

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which is actually a prayer
of atonement or prayers

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of atonement, which very
orthodox Jews, about

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a week before the high Holy
days, get up very early

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and go to synagogue
and say his prayers

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and return with
the first sunlight.

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So it's some kind of--

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so, actually, we had to decide
either to put סליחות with

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a footnote, or else--

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and, so, we decided
finally on "early prayers,"

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which is, I think,
fine because I

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think all religions
and all creeds

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know and like to get their
believers early out of bed

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because then you can't do any
harm while you are out of bed.

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So we decided just to
call it early prayers.

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"Letter of Recommendation."

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"On summer nights, I
sleep naked in Jerusalem

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on my bed, which stands on
the brink of a deep valley

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without rolling down into it.

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During the day, I walk
about, the Ten Commandments

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on my lips like an old song
someone is humming to himself.

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Oh, touch me.

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Touch me you good woman.

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This is not a scar you
feel under my shirt.

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It's a letter of recommendation
folded from my father.

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He is still a good
boy and full of love.

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I remember my father waking
me up for early prayers.

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He did it caressing my forehead,
not tearing the blanket away.

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Since then, I love
him even more.

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And because of this, let him be
woken up gently and with love

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on the day of resurrection."

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