WEBVTT

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And I second Peggy's thank you.

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Thank you to Peggy, and thank
you to the Poetry Center staff,

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for this warm welcome.

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And thank you to
you all for coming.

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So I wanted to--

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raise this, of course.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I wanted-- given
the times, I wanted

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to open with a political poem.

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But because my husband
at the last moment

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decided to come with me,
and he is my co-translator,

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I thought I would
share with you--

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we would share with you just
a couple of our translations

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of Nicole Brossard who is
a Quebecois queer poet.

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She is elliptically political.

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So, cherie, would you?

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OK, [INAUDIBLE]

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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So we'll be able to-- usually,
I say, pardon my French,

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and then read French, but--

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Pardon my French.

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OK.

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Vivre avec leurs fous de Dieu

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Cette fois-ci, je compte les mains,
les pieds, les langues,

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les tuniques et les cailloux,
les têtes, les barbes,

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les calottes, les voiles,
les chales.

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Je ne compte pas les vertiges,
les ablutions, les miracles,

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les coups de fouet
dans les haut-parleurs,

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des dizaines de crachats de mots,

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un feu si grand
qu'il faut de l'eau sur le front,

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les pieds, je compte les yeux,
les doigts,

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je compte jusqu'à la poussière,
je compte jusqu'à l'enfance.

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So this is from a series.

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Each poem is about cities.

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"Cities With Their
Fools for God."

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"This time, I count the
hands, the feet, the tongues,

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the tunics, the pebbles, the
heads, the beards, the skull

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caps, the veils, the scarves.

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I do not count the vertigos,
the ablutions, the miracles,

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the whiplashes.

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In the loudspeaker-- the
dozens of spat-out words.

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Such a big fire that water must
be splashed on brows, on feet.

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I count the eyes, the fingers,
I count until the dust.

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I count until childhood."

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