Thank you all for coming.
First let me just check my--
[LAUGHTER]
It's very embarrassing to introduce speaker and have
your phone go off.
That's the first most--
The second most embarrassing would
be to have a speaker up here, and have
one of you all phones go off.
So please check your phones.
Geoffrey Brock is an author of Weighing Light:
poems, the editor of an anthology of 20th century
Italian poetry, and the translator of numerous volumes
from the Italian.
His poems and translations have appeared
in journals, including Poetry, Paris Review, and The New
Yorker.
And in anthologies including Best American
Poetry and the Pushcart Prize.
He's received fellowships from National Endowment
for the Arts, the New York Public Libraries Cullman
Center, and the Guggenheim Foundation.
He was a Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford from 2002 to 2004.
Brock's translations include Cesare Pavese, Disaffections:
Complete Poems 1930 to 1950, Roberto Calasso's K.,
and Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana.
His translations have received many awards, including
those from Poetry Magazine, the ATA, the Penn
Center, the Modern Language Association, and the Academy
of American Poets.
He teaches at the MFA Poem in creative writing
and translation at the University of Arkansas.
As Tyler mentioned, I'm on the front desk on Monday morning.
And the last few Mondays while at the Poetry Center front
desk-- between phone calls, and visitors, and tours--
I have read Jeffrey's translation
of Pavese's Disaffection.
And I discovered such new and interesting language,
such strange textures and feelings.
I was reminded of those caravans in ancient times traveling
from one country to another to deliver spices and fabrics
with tastes, and smells, and weavings different from those
we are accustomed to.
And I realized I knew the power of translation
to expand and enrich our understanding of language
and bring the wealth of human experience to new readers.
This is what translation does.
But we need but we need to appreciate
the long and arduous journey each translation requires.
This reading, the first of an annual series,
celebrates that work and skill, celebrates
the poetry of translation.
Please welcome poet, translator, and friend, Geoffrey Brock.
[APPLAUSE]