WEBVTT

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Now, please welcome Poetry
Center program coordinator

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and curator of this month's
multilingual programs,

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Renee Angle.

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[APPLAUSE]

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If you just bear
with me one minute,

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I have an image that
should come up here.

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It's coming.

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OK.

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Months ago, the Poetry
Center contacted four poets--

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[INAUDIBLE]

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--with a complicated
schematic for--

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Renee.

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[INAUDIBLE]

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It'll go away.

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[LAUGHTER]

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[INAUDIBLE]

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I'm just going
to-- you know, you

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don't want to be up
here with me forever.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Months ago, the Poetry
Center contacted four poets

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with a complicated schematic
for a series of translated poems

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that would attempt to sew
several languages, some

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of which are endangered,
into the same space.

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Each poet would
provide a single poem--

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15 lines or less--

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and then translate to other
poems not of their own.

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The end result is a chain
link of translation,

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each poet's poem appearing
in three separate languages.

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The project features poems in
a total of five languages--

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English, Spanish, Diné,
Tohono O'odham, and Zapotec.

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And this is a little sketch of
one of our brainstorm meetings.

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[LAUGHTER]

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To their credit,
none of the poets

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said the proposal was too hard,
even though it kind of was.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Our request presented serious
difficulties, some of which

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can be explained away
in the inherent problems

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of translation--

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a process that is,
at its best, inexact,

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full of gap,
dissonance, discord.

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During the months leading
up to the reading,

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I received many emergency
room phone calls, if you will,

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from more than one of the poets.

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The sense of urgency that
accompanied their queries

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about the words on the page,
for me, created a tone or a mood

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for the project
which was underscored

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when the poems started
showing up in my inbox.

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Each one evoked images of
water and that wasn't planned.

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[LAUGHTER]

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The results of this attempt
and the poets' experience

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of the experience I'll
let speak for itself,

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but the original
intention of this project

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is best described by
translator and poet

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Jen Hofer when she
suggests translation

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is a window into
another culture--

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A two-way mirror providing
simultaneously a view out

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and a view in, doubling our
attention back onto our own

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language and literature and
ways of thinking poetry,

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even as it illuminates--
however partially and shadowed

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or stuttered or
scattered light--

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poetic practice elsewhere.

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As Gail mentioned in her
welcome, the poets with us

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tonight are not only good
friends of the Poetry Center

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but their linguistic roots
are lexically tied to Tucson.

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At the same time, they work
beyond the city limits.

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Natalia Toledo's
inclusion in this project

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certainly represents that.

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And while she could
not be with us tonight,

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her words and shadow
thoughts abound.

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The finished project
is a handmade folio

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made by Karla Elling of
Mummy Mountain Press.

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She's a book artist and a paper
maker from Paradise Valley,

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and she's here with us tonight.

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There's a table right over here.

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You have to go visit because
this book is amazing.

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It's mouthwatering,
it's-- will make you cry.

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And she's going to maybe speak
a little bit after the reading

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about the project.

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The materials she uses to make
the book, and the paper alone,

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have a story that
is just amazing.

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So now, I'd like to introduce
our fabulous poets the order

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will be Sherwin Bitsui,
Ofelia Zepeda, Alberto Ríos.

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There will be no introductions
or additional comments

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between readers.

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And after the reading,
the poets will

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be happy to sign your books.

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And there are some for sale,
courtesy of the UA bookstore,

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in the back.

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Sherwin Bitsui is
an Arizona poet,

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originally from
White Cone, Arizona

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on the Navajo reservation.

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He now lives in Tucson, Arizona.

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His works include Shapeshift and
the critically acclaimed Flood

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Song.

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Ofelia Zepeda is a Tohono
O'odham poet and professor

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of linguistics at the
University of Arizona.

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Her works include Where Clouds
Are Formed , Ocean Power,

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Home Places--

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Contemporary Native
American Writing

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from Sun Tracks, A Papago
Grammar, and When it Rains--

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A Papago and Pima Poetry.

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Alberto Álvaro Ríos, originally
from Nogales, Arizona,

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is a regents Professor of
English at the Arizona State

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University.

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He has published many
volumes of poetry,

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including The Dangerous Shirt,
The Theater of the Night,

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and The Smallest Muscle
in the Human Body, which

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was a finalist for the
National Book Award.

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He is also a writer of
fiction and nonfiction.

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Please help me
welcome our guests.

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[APPLAUSE]

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