WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.980 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.980 --> 00:00:05.170 align:middle line:90% The gentleman in the middle. 00:00:05.170 --> 00:00:07.240 align:middle line:90% I had just a general question. 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:12.230 align:middle line:84% How do you-- poets work with other poets to produce poetry? 00:00:12.230 --> 00:00:13.900 align:middle line:84% You mean, like collaborative poetry? 00:00:13.900 --> 00:00:14.920 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:14.920 --> 00:00:16.390 align:middle line:90% Have you ever done it? 00:00:16.390 --> 00:00:18.190 align:middle line:90% I'm too neurotic and selfish. 00:00:18.190 --> 00:00:18.690 align:middle line:90% I don't. 00:00:18.690 --> 00:00:19.480 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:22.150 align:middle line:84% I did try once to work on a collaboration with a friend 00:00:22.150 --> 00:00:24.520 align:middle line:84% of mine, and about two rounds in I 00:00:24.520 --> 00:00:27.130 align:middle line:84% felt like, oh, I want-- like that's my work, so. 00:00:27.130 --> 00:00:28.310 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:28.310 --> 00:00:31.840 align:middle line:90% Just trying to be honest. 00:00:31.840 --> 00:00:33.696 align:middle line:84% But a lot of people do it, and yeah. 00:00:33.696 --> 00:00:34.305 align:middle line:90% Oh, yeah. 00:00:34.305 --> 00:00:35.440 align:middle line:90% I think it works well. 00:00:35.440 --> 00:00:37.870 align:middle line:84% For me, it's more like I never really 00:00:37.870 --> 00:00:39.610 align:middle line:84% worked on a direct collaboration. 00:00:39.610 --> 00:00:41.860 align:middle line:90% But I'll read something. 00:00:41.860 --> 00:00:44.696 align:middle line:90% And I'll get pissed off by it. 00:00:44.696 --> 00:00:45.940 align:middle line:90% Or, I don't know. 00:00:45.940 --> 00:00:48.790 align:middle line:84% I think I react to other people's poems. 00:00:48.790 --> 00:00:50.918 align:middle line:84% I also will write in response to them. 00:00:50.918 --> 00:00:52.960 align:middle line:84% And usually, unbeknownst to them, thank goodness. 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:53.460 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:58.753 align:middle line:84% But either has a positive spin or I 00:00:58.753 --> 00:01:00.670 align:middle line:84% think I can say something better, or whatever. 00:01:00.670 --> 00:01:01.660 align:middle line:90% But yeah. 00:01:01.660 --> 00:01:05.650 align:middle line:84% So it's I'm reactive, but not necessarily collaborative. 00:01:05.650 --> 00:01:06.475 align:middle line:90% Yet. 00:01:06.475 --> 00:01:08.350 align:middle line:84% But there are some really good collaborations 00:01:08.350 --> 00:01:09.142 align:middle line:90% that are out there. 00:01:09.142 --> 00:01:12.430 align:middle line:84% Like my two favorites are two that Olga Broumas did. 00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:15.400 align:middle line:84% She did one with T Begley called Sappho's Gymnasium, which 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:16.850 align:middle line:90% is fantastic. 00:01:16.850 --> 00:01:19.990 align:middle line:84% And then she did one with Jane Miller actually called 00:01:19.990 --> 00:01:21.580 align:middle line:84% Black Holes, Black Stockings, I think. 00:01:21.580 --> 00:01:22.870 align:middle line:84% And they're both in her book Rave. 00:01:22.870 --> 00:01:24.580 align:middle line:84% So you should check those out if you're 00:01:24.580 --> 00:01:29.335 align:middle line:84% interested to see how awesome a collaboration can be like. 00:01:29.335 --> 00:01:36.470 align:middle line:90% 00:01:36.470 --> 00:01:41.660 align:middle line:84% I know you mentioned Mayakovsky and his writing 00:01:41.660 --> 00:01:48.310 align:middle line:84% poems in, as I understand it, a situation of duress. 00:01:48.310 --> 00:01:52.390 align:middle line:84% And I'd like to hear you talk about-- 00:01:52.390 --> 00:01:55.880 align:middle line:84% I think both of you could address. 00:01:55.880 --> 00:01:59.390 align:middle line:84% Today it seems that poets can say things, 00:01:59.390 --> 00:02:02.590 align:middle line:84% and maybe if there's not much consequence perhaps with what 00:02:02.590 --> 00:02:04.240 align:middle line:90% they say in our society. 00:02:04.240 --> 00:02:07.650 align:middle line:84% Or, they can say what they like to say. 00:02:07.650 --> 00:02:13.950 align:middle line:84% And you seem to be skeptical of whether or not 00:02:13.950 --> 00:02:16.510 align:middle line:90% that's actually true. 00:02:16.510 --> 00:02:19.090 align:middle line:84% Well, I think that there's a perception 00:02:19.090 --> 00:02:23.230 align:middle line:84% in contemporary United States that you really 00:02:23.230 --> 00:02:24.520 align:middle line:90% can do everything. 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:28.990 align:middle line:84% And so this sort of surplus permission 00:02:28.990 --> 00:02:30.813 align:middle line:84% I think silences a lot of people, too. 00:02:30.813 --> 00:02:32.230 align:middle line:84% Because if you can say everything, 00:02:32.230 --> 00:02:34.480 align:middle line:84% then why should you say anything? 00:02:34.480 --> 00:02:37.630 align:middle line:84% But I think once you dig deeper, and especially if poets 00:02:37.630 --> 00:02:42.280 align:middle line:84% become activists, which some do grow to become, 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:44.870 align:middle line:84% activists do have to suffer consequences. 00:02:44.870 --> 00:02:50.573 align:middle line:84% So I think poets, maybe censorship is not completely 00:02:50.573 --> 00:02:51.490 align:middle line:90% on the level of words. 00:02:51.490 --> 00:02:52.180 align:middle line:90% Although it is. 00:02:52.180 --> 00:02:54.340 align:middle line:90% I mean, artists have-- 00:02:54.340 --> 00:02:57.790 align:middle line:84% I think poets don't have the visibility necessary to suffer. 00:02:57.790 --> 00:03:02.080 align:middle line:84% But things happen like the Dixie Chicks dis Bush. 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:04.210 align:middle line:84% And suddenly their record sales plummet. 00:03:04.210 --> 00:03:06.980 align:middle line:84% Or, they can't be heard on certain radio stations 00:03:06.980 --> 00:03:07.480 align:middle line:90% or whatever. 00:03:07.480 --> 00:03:10.150 align:middle line:84% So I think poets are just not present enough 00:03:10.150 --> 00:03:13.360 align:middle line:90% to really suffer by it. 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:15.640 align:middle line:84% But I think when poets become activists, 00:03:15.640 --> 00:03:17.690 align:middle line:90% then it still does happen. 00:03:17.690 --> 00:03:19.810 align:middle line:84% So I think there is this surface of permission. 00:03:19.810 --> 00:03:21.520 align:middle line:84% And we're all sitting in our homes 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:23.990 align:middle line:84% watching cable and nothing is happening. 00:03:23.990 --> 00:03:26.680 align:middle line:84% And then when things do start happening, 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:29.740 align:middle line:90% then the stakes are high again. 00:03:29.740 --> 00:03:33.440 align:middle line:84% So anyway, if that makes any sense? 00:03:33.440 --> 00:03:41.723 align:middle line:90% 00:03:41.723 --> 00:03:42.390 align:middle line:90% Oh, there's one. 00:03:42.390 --> 00:03:44.040 align:middle line:90% We should have-- 00:03:44.040 --> 00:03:47.800 align:middle line:84% Yeah, I read a question and answer session that you did. 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:50.700 align:middle line:84% And you talked about Native poets 00:03:50.700 --> 00:03:54.600 align:middle line:84% and just the different concepts like alterity. 00:03:54.600 --> 00:03:58.920 align:middle line:84% I was just wondering what's your relationship with Native poets? 00:03:58.920 --> 00:04:02.910 align:middle line:84% Well, that piece came about because I went-- 00:04:02.910 --> 00:04:06.870 align:middle line:84% at AWP last year I went to a panel of writers 00:04:06.870 --> 00:04:12.930 align:middle line:84% who graduated from the Institute of Arts-- 00:04:12.930 --> 00:04:16.397 align:middle line:84% of Indian and American Arts, or American Indian Arts. 00:04:16.397 --> 00:04:17.355 align:middle line:90% I'm an Indian-American. 00:04:17.355 --> 00:04:19.649 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:19.649 --> 00:04:20.370 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:04:20.370 --> 00:04:24.450 align:middle line:84% And it was just an amazing breath of-- 00:04:24.450 --> 00:04:26.160 align:middle line:84% breadth with a D in it-- of work. 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:28.470 align:middle line:84% And then I got this, I had to answer 00:04:28.470 --> 00:04:29.970 align:middle line:84% the survey which is, what's American 00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:31.500 align:middle line:90% about, American poetry? 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:33.240 align:middle line:84% And I was like, well, what's America? 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:34.660 align:middle line:90% About America. 00:04:34.660 --> 00:04:35.160 align:middle line:90% What is it? 00:04:35.160 --> 00:04:36.570 align:middle line:90% What is the project of America? 00:04:36.570 --> 00:04:39.780 align:middle line:84% And I'm sorry to say that it seems 00:04:39.780 --> 00:04:43.260 align:middle line:84% like from the beginning the project of America 00:04:43.260 --> 00:04:44.970 align:middle line:90% has been a project of expansion. 00:04:44.970 --> 00:04:49.680 align:middle line:84% I mean, it was an expansion westward from England 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:50.612 align:middle line:90% to the coast. 00:04:50.612 --> 00:04:52.320 align:middle line:84% And then-- I was looking for my passport, 00:04:52.320 --> 00:04:54.690 align:middle line:84% because I wanted to read the quotes on my passport to you, 00:04:54.690 --> 00:04:56.160 align:middle line:84% because all the quotes are in the passport 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:57.480 align:middle line:90% are this manifest destiny. 00:04:57.480 --> 00:04:59.820 align:middle line:90% Like, this land belongs to us. 00:04:59.820 --> 00:05:01.050 align:middle line:90% It's for us. 00:05:01.050 --> 00:05:05.340 align:middle line:84% We have this God given right to expand to the West Coast. 00:05:05.340 --> 00:05:07.020 align:middle line:90% And then let's go further-- 00:05:07.020 --> 00:05:09.300 align:middle line:84% to Hawaii, and Guam, and let Philippines. 00:05:09.300 --> 00:05:10.450 align:middle line:90% Let's keep going. 00:05:10.450 --> 00:05:12.780 align:middle line:84% And then the last line of the passport-- 00:05:12.780 --> 00:05:14.997 align:middle line:84% So then Paul Virilio writes about the American arms 00:05:14.997 --> 00:05:16.080 align:middle line:90% reaching around the globe. 00:05:16.080 --> 00:05:17.900 align:middle line:84% And then they touch each other eventually. 00:05:17.900 --> 00:05:18.600 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:22.170 align:middle line:84% And then the last page of the passport is space. 00:05:22.170 --> 00:05:23.880 align:middle line:84% And there's like satellites up there. 00:05:23.880 --> 00:05:25.620 align:middle line:84% And there's a quote from, I think, 00:05:25.620 --> 00:05:28.800 align:middle line:84% it's Lyndon Johnson, where he says something like, 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:31.695 align:middle line:84% "Whatever the future holds we will bend it to human will." 00:05:31.695 --> 00:05:34.285 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:34.285 --> 00:05:35.160 align:middle line:90% I'm not making it up. 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:37.590 align:middle line:84% Those are the things that are on the passport. 00:05:37.590 --> 00:05:40.710 align:middle line:84% It was selected by the agency to put on the passport. 00:05:40.710 --> 00:05:43.020 align:middle line:84% And then at the very last line of the passport, 00:05:43.020 --> 00:05:46.140 align:middle line:84% on the very bottom, is a new line it's not on the new-- 00:05:46.140 --> 00:05:46.948 align:middle line:90% the old passport. 00:05:46.948 --> 00:05:48.990 align:middle line:84% Does anybody know what the new line at the bottom 00:05:48.990 --> 00:05:50.310 align:middle line:90% of your passport says? 00:05:50.310 --> 00:05:53.130 align:middle line:84% It says this document contains sensitive electronics, 00:05:53.130 --> 00:05:54.885 align:middle line:84% please do not bend or submerge in water. 00:05:54.885 --> 00:05:55.960 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:55.960 --> 00:05:57.240 align:middle line:90% So how do you feel about that? 00:05:57.240 --> 00:05:59.144 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:59.144 --> 00:06:00.270 align:middle line:90% No, I'm asking you. 00:06:00.270 --> 00:06:03.540 align:middle line:90% How do you feel about that? 00:06:03.540 --> 00:06:05.100 align:middle line:84% So this was a certain moment for me 00:06:05.100 --> 00:06:06.600 align:middle line:84% where I was trying to answer what is 00:06:06.600 --> 00:06:08.040 align:middle line:90% American about American poetry? 00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:13.290 align:middle line:84% And it led me back to those Native American Indigenous 00:06:13.290 --> 00:06:16.440 align:middle line:84% communities that are creating art, and creating literature, 00:06:16.440 --> 00:06:19.320 align:middle line:84% and have been existent all along-- 00:06:19.320 --> 00:06:22.890 align:middle line:84% throughout what we consider to be American history. 00:06:22.890 --> 00:06:25.740 align:middle line:84% And I started to think about Judith Johnson's essay, 00:06:25.740 --> 00:06:27.510 align:middle line:84% "The Poetics of Generosity," where 00:06:27.510 --> 00:06:31.890 align:middle line:84% she says, "Well, maybe Muriel Rukeyser is the mainstream. 00:06:31.890 --> 00:06:35.190 align:middle line:84% And you have to think of Charles Olson in relationship to her. 00:06:35.190 --> 00:06:39.390 align:middle line:84% And maybe Charlotte Bronte is the mainstream, 00:06:39.390 --> 00:06:41.310 align:middle line:84% and you have to think about those male-- 00:06:41.310 --> 00:06:44.130 align:middle line:84% other canonical authors in relationship to her." 00:06:44.130 --> 00:06:46.170 align:middle line:84% So then I thought if we're going to talk, 00:06:46.170 --> 00:06:48.240 align:middle line:84% have a dialogue about American poetry, 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:53.760 align:middle line:84% why don't we put those poets who I talked about-- 00:06:53.760 --> 00:06:57.570 align:middle line:84% I talked about Bryan Bearhart, Layli Long Soldier, Sherwin 00:06:57.570 --> 00:07:05.010 align:middle line:84% Bitsui, Orlando White, and a poet 00:07:05.010 --> 00:07:07.650 align:middle line:84% named Natalie Diaz who does not yet have a book, 00:07:07.650 --> 00:07:10.260 align:middle line:84% but-- and a poet named ML Smoker, 00:07:10.260 --> 00:07:12.510 align:middle line:84% who has a couple of books from Hanging Loose, I think. 00:07:12.510 --> 00:07:16.650 align:middle line:84% I said, what if we think about these contemporary poets? 00:07:16.650 --> 00:07:21.150 align:middle line:84% Why are all the festivals and everything, Dodge Festival 00:07:21.150 --> 00:07:23.490 align:middle line:84% and everything-- we need to pay attention 00:07:23.490 --> 00:07:26.760 align:middle line:84% to what the actual American culture is, 00:07:26.760 --> 00:07:30.750 align:middle line:84% and think about ourselves as new arrivals to that, frankly. 00:07:30.750 --> 00:07:32.430 align:middle line:90% And it's just it's an issue of-- 00:07:32.430 --> 00:07:34.980 align:middle line:84% I was teaching Lucille Clifton to my students. 00:07:34.980 --> 00:07:37.873 align:middle line:84% And they're upset about her Afro-centrism, 00:07:37.873 --> 00:07:38.790 align:middle line:90% I guess you would say. 00:07:38.790 --> 00:07:41.400 align:middle line:84% And I said well you have as a mainstream it's automatically 00:07:41.400 --> 00:07:42.630 align:middle line:90% European-centered. 00:07:42.630 --> 00:07:46.110 align:middle line:84% And so what Lucille Clifton is saying, instead of making it 00:07:46.110 --> 00:07:48.240 align:middle line:84% evening the playing field, let's make 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:50.565 align:middle line:84% it African-centered so as a counterbalance 00:07:50.565 --> 00:07:52.000 align:middle line:90% to you as a reader for that. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.800 align:middle line:84% So I'm saying all of us as American citizens, 00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:59.640 align:middle line:84% let us see ourselves as the marginalized thing. 00:07:59.640 --> 00:08:02.670 align:middle line:84% Let's practice that and make this poetry actually 00:08:02.670 --> 00:08:04.180 align:middle line:84% the mainstream of American poetry. 00:08:04.180 --> 00:08:06.690 align:middle line:84% So what's American about American poetry should consider 00:08:06.690 --> 00:08:09.570 align:middle line:84% these poets first and foremost as American poets, 00:08:09.570 --> 00:08:11.280 align:middle line:90% Indigenous American poets. 00:08:11.280 --> 00:08:15.390 align:middle line:84% That site of marginality, of marginalizing 00:08:15.390 --> 00:08:19.170 align:middle line:84% ourselves will be good for us in the long run, I think. 00:08:19.170 --> 00:08:22.290 align:middle line:84% And it will start us thinking about a lot of things 00:08:22.290 --> 00:08:24.390 align:middle line:84% that we haven't really thought about very much. 00:08:24.390 --> 00:08:26.880 align:middle line:84% Because that manifest destiny led then 00:08:26.880 --> 00:08:29.310 align:middle line:84% to this idea of American exceptionalism, where we-- 00:08:29.310 --> 00:08:32.909 align:middle line:84% our thing is the best, which led to this intervention in Iraq. 00:08:32.909 --> 00:08:35.400 align:middle line:84% And we are now seeing these democratic movements happening 00:08:35.400 --> 00:08:37.440 align:middle line:84% in the Middle East, where it's like we were talking 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:38.648 align:middle line:90% about this at dinner earlier. 00:08:38.648 --> 00:08:40.710 align:middle line:84% It's like, we will sort our own shit out. 00:08:40.710 --> 00:08:42.610 align:middle line:84% We might take a little bit longer. 00:08:42.610 --> 00:08:44.610 align:middle line:84% It might not work with the deadlines 00:08:44.610 --> 00:08:46.830 align:middle line:84% that you need for your financial interests. 00:08:46.830 --> 00:08:48.900 align:middle line:84% But we are people who live in a place, 00:08:48.900 --> 00:08:51.178 align:middle line:90% and we'll figure our stuff out. 00:08:51.178 --> 00:08:53.220 align:middle line:84% It might be different than how you would like it. 00:08:53.220 --> 00:08:55.620 align:middle line:84% And had that intervention not happened, 00:08:55.620 --> 00:08:57.900 align:middle line:84% who can say what would be happening now? 00:08:57.900 --> 00:08:59.970 align:middle line:84% That though people in Iraq would have 00:08:59.970 --> 00:09:03.900 align:middle line:84% been at some forefront of some democratic, powerful new 00:09:03.900 --> 00:09:06.960 align:middle line:84% democratic movement that could be happening right now. 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:08.760 align:middle line:84% And we never had a chance to find out, 00:09:08.760 --> 00:09:10.890 align:middle line:84% because we automatically think that our culture is 00:09:10.890 --> 00:09:11.700 align:middle line:90% the superior one. 00:09:11.700 --> 00:09:13.710 align:middle line:84% And that we know how to do everything properly. 00:09:13.710 --> 00:09:15.840 align:middle line:84% And we'll educate you and give you democracy. 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:19.030 align:middle line:84% It's ridiculous I'm sorry I went a long way from that question. 00:09:19.030 --> 00:09:22.180 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE APPLAUSE] 00:09:22.180 --> 00:09:24.760 align:middle line:84% I went along with your question about Native American poets. 00:09:24.760 --> 00:09:27.295 align:middle line:84% But these two things are not unrelated, obviously. 00:09:27.295 --> 00:09:28.600 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:30.580 align:middle line:90% 00:09:30.580 --> 00:09:32.002 align:middle line:90% Now everyone is scared of me. 00:09:32.002 --> 00:09:34.954 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:09:34.954 --> 00:09:37.018 align:middle line:90% It's all up here-- 00:09:37.018 --> 00:09:38.060 align:middle line:90% I have one more question. 00:09:38.060 --> 00:09:40.885 align:middle line:90% One more question. 00:09:40.885 --> 00:09:42.340 align:middle line:90% I have a question. 00:09:42.340 --> 00:09:44.360 align:middle line:84% Do you, have either have you done translations? 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:47.293 align:middle line:84% Since you talked about it, I'm curious. 00:09:47.293 --> 00:09:48.590 align:middle line:90% Do you want to or-- 00:09:48.590 --> 00:09:49.870 align:middle line:90% Sure. 00:09:49.870 --> 00:09:53.450 align:middle line:84% Yeah, I've actually, I've been for the past years. 00:09:53.450 --> 00:09:55.390 align:middle line:84% Well, actually for the past couple of years 00:09:55.390 --> 00:09:57.820 align:middle line:84% I've really started translating, because I just 00:09:57.820 --> 00:09:59.500 align:middle line:90% found more time to do it. 00:09:59.500 --> 00:10:04.540 align:middle line:84% And I translated a number of contribution by Croatian women 00:10:04.540 --> 00:10:07.210 align:middle line:84% poets for this new anthology that Juliana Spahr 00:10:07.210 --> 00:10:10.630 align:middle line:84% and Stephanie Young put out that it's called-- 00:10:10.630 --> 00:10:13.450 align:middle line:90% the short title is A Megaphone . 00:10:13.450 --> 00:10:16.360 align:middle line:84% But there's a longer and more obscene title 00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:17.770 align:middle line:90% that you should look up. 00:10:17.770 --> 00:10:22.150 align:middle line:84% But it collects, basically, experiences of women writers 00:10:22.150 --> 00:10:23.710 align:middle line:90% worldwide. 00:10:23.710 --> 00:10:26.020 align:middle line:84% And it's a kind of amazing amazing project. 00:10:26.020 --> 00:10:29.380 align:middle line:84% They gathered all these individual regional editors. 00:10:29.380 --> 00:10:30.760 align:middle line:90% And I was editor for Croatia. 00:10:30.760 --> 00:10:34.310 align:middle line:84% And so I collected, and solicited, and translated 00:10:34.310 --> 00:10:36.160 align:middle line:90% women poets' essays. 00:10:36.160 --> 00:10:38.710 align:middle line:84% So it's an amazing little capsule 00:10:38.710 --> 00:10:42.220 align:middle line:84% of what's happening for women poets worldwide. 00:10:42.220 --> 00:10:47.057 align:middle line:84% And also I've been translating a Serbian poet Zvonko Karanovic. 00:10:47.057 --> 00:10:47.890 align:middle line:90% He's really amazing. 00:10:47.890 --> 00:10:49.075 align:middle line:90% He's a kind of like a-- 00:10:49.075 --> 00:10:52.420 align:middle line:84% I guess his heritage is beat poetry. 00:10:52.420 --> 00:10:56.440 align:middle line:84% But there's a lot of European surrealism. 00:10:56.440 --> 00:10:59.920 align:middle line:84% And it's really a thing of its own. 00:10:59.920 --> 00:11:04.060 align:middle line:84% And he was a he was one of the only people writing 00:11:04.060 --> 00:11:07.450 align:middle line:84% anti-government poetry in '90s Serbia. 00:11:07.450 --> 00:11:10.970 align:middle line:84% And you know he had a tough time of it. 00:11:10.970 --> 00:11:15.040 align:middle line:84% So I've been having some success recently getting support. 00:11:15.040 --> 00:11:16.330 align:middle line:90% But a translation to come out. 00:11:16.330 --> 00:11:19.180 align:middle line:84% I really enjoyed, I think, I said in class today-- like, 00:11:19.180 --> 00:11:20.740 align:middle line:84% to me, poetry is like a cheap high, 00:11:20.740 --> 00:11:23.710 align:middle line:84% because translating poetry is like a cheap high, 00:11:23.710 --> 00:11:25.750 align:middle line:84% because you feel like you wrote the poem. 00:11:25.750 --> 00:11:26.890 align:middle line:90% But you really haven't, so. 00:11:26.890 --> 00:11:27.760 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:11:27.760 --> 00:11:29.290 align:middle line:84% You're like I did this all myself. 00:11:29.290 --> 00:11:30.670 align:middle line:90% No, you didn't. 00:11:30.670 --> 00:11:33.310 align:middle line:84% So it's a good way, I think, for me, also, 00:11:33.310 --> 00:11:34.870 align:middle line:84% when I'm having a hard time writing, 00:11:34.870 --> 00:11:36.790 align:middle line:84% it's a good way to sort of prime the tap, 00:11:36.790 --> 00:11:38.750 align:middle line:90% and get things flowing again. 00:11:38.750 --> 00:11:42.190 align:middle line:84% And just inhabiting somebody else for a minute. 00:11:42.190 --> 00:11:44.920 align:middle line:84% I think that must be what actors feel. 00:11:44.920 --> 00:11:47.210 align:middle line:84% It's a very pleasurable experience. 00:11:47.210 --> 00:11:48.550 align:middle line:90% Actually, I think, who was it? 00:11:48.550 --> 00:11:51.760 align:middle line:84% It was I watched like some interview on PBS. 00:11:51.760 --> 00:11:54.430 align:middle line:84% I Think it was Rachel Weisz and she said, 00:11:54.430 --> 00:12:01.270 align:middle line:84% how strange it is for actors when they look at other people 00:12:01.270 --> 00:12:03.085 align:middle line:84% and think they're only that person. 00:12:03.085 --> 00:12:04.900 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:12:04.900 --> 00:12:07.940 align:middle line:84% But like, oh, how could you just be that person all the time? 00:12:07.940 --> 00:12:09.310 align:middle line:90% Don't you just go ballistic? 00:12:09.310 --> 00:12:13.840 align:middle line:84% So I think with translating how writers or anyone who 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:16.990 align:middle line:84% speaks in their language can get freed up, 00:12:16.990 --> 00:12:20.080 align:middle line:90% even if they can't act. 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:21.940 align:middle line:84% I'm translating the work right now 00:12:21.940 --> 00:12:25.510 align:middle line:84% of an Iranian poet named Sohrab Sepehri. 00:12:25.510 --> 00:12:29.350 align:middle line:84% And he's a pre-revolutionary poet. 00:12:29.350 --> 00:12:31.390 align:middle line:90% He died in 1980, in fact. 00:12:31.390 --> 00:12:35.800 align:middle line:84% He's a beautiful kind of mystical, strange spirit, 00:12:35.800 --> 00:12:36.820 align:middle line:90% a Sufi. 00:12:36.820 --> 00:12:38.920 align:middle line:84% And I guess, as a Muslim with Hindu leanings 00:12:38.920 --> 00:12:40.600 align:middle line:90% I'm very attracted to him. 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:42.460 align:middle line:90% He traveled in India. 00:12:42.460 --> 00:12:45.080 align:middle line:84% And he went to Varanasi and other places. 00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:47.020 align:middle line:84% And then came back to Iran and wrote this poem 00:12:47.020 --> 00:12:48.930 align:middle line:90% called "The Water's Footfall." 00:12:48.930 --> 00:12:49.930 align:middle line:90% and I'm working on that. 00:12:49.930 --> 00:12:50.950 align:middle line:90% It's a long poem. 00:12:50.950 --> 00:12:54.850 align:middle line:84% And it'll be published as a small book in April soon. 00:12:54.850 --> 00:12:56.320 align:middle line:90% So you'll be able to hear it. 00:12:56.320 --> 00:12:59.500 align:middle line:84% And I read it in an English translation a long time ago, 00:12:59.500 --> 00:13:03.280 align:middle line:84% and that phrase just stuck with me. 00:13:03.280 --> 00:13:06.160 align:middle line:84% This passage goes, "I am a Muslim. 00:13:06.160 --> 00:13:08.140 align:middle line:90% The rose is my qibla. 00:13:08.140 --> 00:13:11.380 align:middle line:84% The surface of the stream is my prayer rug. 00:13:11.380 --> 00:13:15.910 align:middle line:84% The sunlight on the flowers is my clay tablet. 00:13:15.910 --> 00:13:19.090 align:middle line:84% My Kaaba is over there by the riverbank, 00:13:19.090 --> 00:13:20.800 align:middle line:90% under the acacia trees. 00:13:20.800 --> 00:13:25.210 align:middle line:84% My black stone is the wind, it drifts from orchard 00:13:25.210 --> 00:13:29.500 align:middle line:90% to orchard and town to town." 00:13:29.500 --> 00:13:31.070 align:middle line:90% So that's my current rapture. 00:13:31.070 --> 00:13:31.570 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:13:31.570 --> 00:13:32.537 align:middle line:90% How pretty. 00:13:32.537 --> 00:13:33.037 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:13:33.037 --> 00:13:37.810 align:middle line:90% 00:13:37.810 --> 00:13:38.310 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:13:38.310 --> 00:13:39.120 align:middle line:90% Thank you so much. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:41.220 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE APPLAUSE] 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:45.120 align:middle line:90% 00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:45.720 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:46.920 align:middle line:90% That was really fun. 00:13:46.920 --> 00:13:49.020 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE APPLAUSE] 00:13:49.020 --> 00:13:50.820 align:middle line:90% Thanks for coming, everyone. 00:13:50.820 --> 00:13:51.420 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHS] 00:13:51.420 --> 00:13:52.970 align:middle line:90% I'll see you later.