WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.895 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.895 --> 00:00:03.520 align:middle line:90% The gentleman-- 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:04.020 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:04.020 --> 00:00:05.170 align:middle line:90% --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 --> 00:00:18.220 align:middle line:90% I'm too neurotic and selfish. 00:00:18.220 --> 00:00:18.720 align:middle line:90% I don't. 00:00:18.720 --> 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 --> 00:00:26.830 align:middle line:90% felt like, oh, that's my work. 00:00:26.830 --> 00:00:28.580 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:28.580 --> 00:00:29.352 align:middle line:90% 00:00:29.352 --> 00:00:30.520 align:middle line:90% Just trying to be honest. 00:00:30.520 --> 00:00:31.840 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:31.840 --> 00:00:34.470 align:middle line:90% But a lot of people do it. 00:00:34.470 --> 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 --> 00:00:39.580 align:middle line:84% worked on a direct collaboration, 00:00:39.580 --> 00:00:43.950 align:middle line:84% but I'll read something, and I'll get pissed off by it 00:00:43.950 --> 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 --> 00:00:51.050 align:middle line:84% I often will write in response to them. 00:00:51.050 --> 00:00:53.470 align:middle line:84% And usually, unbeknownst to them, thank goodness, but-- 00:00:53.470 --> 00:00:54.820 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:54.820 --> 00:00:56.290 align:middle line:90% 00:00:56.290 --> 00:00:58.930 align:middle line:84% It either has a positive spin or I 00:00:58.930 --> 00:01:01.660 align:middle line:84% think I can say something better or whatever, but yeah. 00:01:01.660 --> 00:01:05.660 align:middle line:84% So I'm reactive, but not necessarily collaborative. 00:01:05.660 --> 00:01:06.475 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 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% My two favorites are two that Olga Broumas did. 00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:15.220 align:middle line:84% She did one with T. Begley called "Sappho's Gymnasium," 00:01:15.220 --> 00:01:16.547 align:middle line:90% which is fantastic. 00:01:16.547 --> 00:01:18.130 align:middle line:84% And then she did one with Jane Miller, 00:01:18.130 --> 00:01:21.495 align:middle line:84% actually, called "Black Holes, Black Stockings" I think, 00:01:21.495 --> 00:01:22.870 align:middle line:84% and they're both in her book Rave 00:01:22.870 --> 00:01:27.040 align:middle line:84% so you should check those out if you're interested to see how 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:28.840 align:middle line:90% awesome a collaboration can be. 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:34.570 align:middle line:90% 00:01:34.570 --> 00:01:36.470 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:01:36.470 --> 00:01:42.230 align:middle line:84% Anna, you mentioned Mayakovsky and his writing poems 00:01:42.230 --> 00:01:48.370 align:middle line:84% in, as I understand it, a situation of duress. 00:01:48.370 --> 00:01:52.390 align:middle line:84% And I'd like to hear you talk about-- 00:01:52.390 --> 00:01:55.791 align:middle line:84% maybe both of you could address-- 00:01:55.791 --> 00:01:59.390 align:middle line:84% today, it seems that poets can say things 00:01:59.390 --> 00:02:02.132 align:middle line:84% and maybe there's not much consequence, perhaps, 00:02:02.132 --> 00:02:05.190 align:middle line:84% with this day in our society, or they 00:02:05.190 --> 00:02:07.650 align:middle line:90% 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 surface 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 --> 00:02:36.790 align:middle line:84% But I think once you dig deeper, and especially 00:02:36.790 --> 00:02:40.270 align:middle line:84% if poets become activists, which some 00:02:40.270 --> 00:02:44.870 align:middle line:84% do grow to become activists, do have to suffer consequences. 00:02:44.870 --> 00:02:47.510 align:middle line:90% So I think poets-- 00:02:47.510 --> 00:02:51.130 align:middle line:84% maybe censorship is not completely in the level 00:02:51.130 --> 00:02:52.790 align:middle line:90% of words, although it is. 00:02:52.790 --> 00:02:55.330 align:middle line:84% Artists have-- I think poets don't 00:02:55.330 --> 00:02:59.890 align:middle line:84% have the visibility necessarily to suffer, but things happen. 00:02:59.890 --> 00:03:03.730 align:middle line:84% Like the Dixie Chicks diss Bush and suddenly their record sales 00:03:03.730 --> 00:03:06.980 align:middle line:84% plummet, or they can be heard on certain radio stations, 00:03:06.980 --> 00:03:07.480 align:middle line:90% 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 --> 00:03:14.200 align:middle line:84% to really suffer by it, but I think 00:03:14.200 --> 00:03:17.690 align:middle line:84% when poets become activists, then it still does happen. 00:03:17.690 --> 00:03:19.840 align:middle line:84% So I think there's this surface of permission, 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:22.330 align:middle line:84% and we're all sitting in our homes, watching cable, 00:03:22.330 --> 00:03:23.990 align:middle line:90% 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 --> 00:03:33.430 align:middle line:84% So-- anyway, if that makes any sense. 00:03:33.430 --> 00:03:41.382 align:middle line:90% 00:03:41.382 --> 00:03:42.390 align:middle line:90% Oh, there's one. 00:03:42.390 --> 00:03:43.900 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:03:43.900 --> 00:03:44.400 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:48.570 align:middle line:84% I read a question and answer session that you did, 00:03:48.570 --> 00:03:52.200 align:middle line:84% and you talked about Native poets, and just 00:03:52.200 --> 00:03:54.600 align:middle line:84% the different concepts like alterity. 00:03:54.600 --> 00:03:57.450 align:middle line:84% I was just wondering what's your relationship, with native poets 00:03:57.450 --> 00:03:58.920 align:middle line:90% and their work? 00:03:58.920 --> 00:04:04.440 align:middle line:84% Well, that piece came about because at AWP last year, 00:04:04.440 --> 00:04:08.160 align:middle line:84% I went to a panel of writers who graduated 00:04:08.160 --> 00:04:15.360 align:middle line:84% from the Institute of Arts, and of Indian American Arts 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:16.620 align:middle line:90% or American Indian Arts. 00:04:16.620 --> 00:04:17.790 align:middle line:90% I'm an Indian-American. 00:04:17.790 --> 00:04:19.649 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:19.649 --> 00:04:20.339 align:middle line:90% You know. 00:04:20.339 --> 00:04:24.450 align:middle line:84% And it was just an amazing breath of-- 00:04:24.450 --> 00:04:27.717 align:middle line:84% breadth with a D in it-- of work, and then I got this-- 00:04:27.717 --> 00:04:29.550 align:middle line:84% I had to answer the survey, which is, what's 00:04:29.550 --> 00:04:31.500 align:middle line:90% American about American poetry? 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:34.660 align:middle line:84% And I was like, well, what's America 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 --> 00:04:40.980 align:middle line:84% And I'm sorry to say that it seems like, from the beginning, 00:04:40.980 --> 00:04:45.210 align:middle line:84% the project of America has been a project of expansion. 00:04:45.210 --> 00:04:50.730 align:middle line:84% It was an expansion westward from England to the coast, 00:04:50.730 --> 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 --> 00:04:56.357 align:middle line:84% Because all the quotes from the passport 00:04:56.357 --> 00:04:59.820 align:middle line:84% are this manifest destiny, 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 --> 00:05:02.940 align:middle line:84% We have this sort of God given right 00:05:02.940 --> 00:05:05.820 align:middle line:84% to expand to the West Coast, and then 00:05:05.820 --> 00:05:09.300 align:middle line:84% let's go further to Hawaii, and Guam, and Philippines. 00:05:09.300 --> 00:05:10.450 align:middle line:90% Let's keep going. 00:05:10.450 --> 00:05:13.705 align:middle line:84% And then the last line of the passport, so then Paul Virgilio 00:05:13.705 --> 00:05:16.080 align:middle line:84% writes about the American arms reaching around the globe, 00:05:16.080 --> 00:05:17.880 align:middle line:84% and then they touch each other eventually. 00:05:17.880 --> 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 --> 00:05:28.140 align:middle line:84% it's Lyndon Johnson, where he says something 00:05:28.140 --> 00:05:32.010 align:middle line:84% like, whatever the future holds, we will bend it to human will. 00:05:32.010 --> 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% They were 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 --> 00:05:45.090 align:middle line:84% on the very bottom, is a new line. 00:05:45.090 --> 00:05:46.948 align:middle line:90% It's not on 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 --> 00:05:55.930 align:middle line:84% Please do not bend or submerge in water. 00:05:55.930 --> 00:05:57.270 align:middle line:90% So how do you feel about that? 00:05:57.270 --> 00:05:59.142 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:59.142 --> 00:06:02.700 align:middle line:84% No, I'm asking you, how do you feel about that? 00:06:02.700 --> 00:06:05.220 align:middle line:84% So I became-- so this was a certain moment for me where 00:06:05.220 --> 00:06:08.040 align:middle line:84% I was trying to answer, what is American about American poetry, 00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:13.260 align:middle line:84% and it led me back to those Native American, Indigenous 00:06:13.260 --> 00:06:16.440 align:middle line:84% communities that are creating art, and creating literature, 00:06:16.440 --> 00:06:21.180 align:middle line:84% and have been existent all along throughout what we consider 00:06:21.180 --> 00:06:22.890 align:middle line:90% to be American history. 00:06:22.890 --> 00:06:25.410 align:middle line:84% And I started to think about Judith Johnson's 00:06:25.410 --> 00:06:28.360 align:middle line:84% essay, "The Poetics of Generosity," where she says, 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:31.860 align:middle line:84% well, maybe Muriel Rukeyser is the mainstream, 00:06:31.860 --> 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 --> 00:06:42.450 align:middle line:84% and you have to think about those male other canonical 00:06:42.450 --> 00:06:44.130 align:middle line:90% authors in relationship to her. 00:06:44.130 --> 00:06:45.690 align:middle line:84% So then I thought, if we're going 00:06:45.690 --> 00:06:48.240 align:middle line:84% to talk, 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% Bitsuii, 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 --> 00:07:10.302 align:middle line:84% but-- and a poet named ML Smoker, 00:07:10.302 --> 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 --> 00:07:20.263 align:middle line:84% Why are all the festivals and everything, 00:07:20.263 --> 00:07:21.930 align:middle line:84% you know, Dodge Festival and everything. 00:07:21.930 --> 00:07:26.760 align:middle line:84% We need to pay attention 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 --> 00:07:32.790 align:middle line:90% And it's an issue of-- 00:07:32.790 --> 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 sort of 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 --> 00:07:46.140 align:middle line:84% And so what Lucille Clifton is saying, instead of making it 00:07:46.140 --> 00:07:49.620 align:middle line:84% evening the playing field, let's make it African centered. 00:07:49.620 --> 00:07:52.000 align:middle line:84% So as a counterbalance, 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 --> 00:07:59.670 align:middle line:84% let us see ourselves as the marginalized thing. 00:07:59.670 --> 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 --> 00:08:15.960 align:middle line:84% That site of marginality, of marginalizing ourselves, 00:08:15.960 --> 00:08:19.170 align:middle line:84% will be good for us in the long run I think, 00:08:19.170 --> 00:08:22.320 align:middle line:84% and it will start us thinking about a lot of things 00:08:22.320 --> 00:08:24.390 align:middle line:84% that we haven't really thought about very much. 00:08:24.390 --> 00:08:26.550 align:middle line:84% Because that manifest destiny led 00:08:26.550 --> 00:08:29.310 align:middle line:84% then 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 --> 00:08:35.370 align:middle line:84% and we are now seeing these Democratic movements happening 00:08:35.370 --> 00:08:36.870 align:middle line:84% in the Middle East where it's like-- 00:08:36.870 --> 00:08:38.787 align:middle line:84% we were talking about this at dinner earlier-- 00:08:38.787 --> 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 a 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 --> 00:08:57.870 align:middle line:84% who can say what would be happening now, 00:08:57.870 --> 00:08:59.970 align:middle line:84% that the people in Iraq would have 00:08:59.970 --> 00:09:04.500 align:middle line:84% been at some forefront of some powerful, new Democratic 00:09:04.500 --> 00:09:06.960 align:middle line:84% 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 --> 00:09:13.140 align:middle line:84% the superior one and that we know how to do everything 00:09:13.140 --> 00:09:15.840 align:middle line:84% properly, and we'll educate you and give you democracy. 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:17.080 align:middle line:90% It's ridiculous. 00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:17.580 align:middle line:90% I'm sorry. 00:09:17.580 --> 00:09:18.610 align:middle line:84% I went a long way from your question. 00:09:18.610 --> 00:09:19.368 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:09:19.368 --> 00:09:21.240 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:21.862 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:09:21.862 --> 00:09:23.320 align:middle line:84% I went along way from your question 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:25.450 align:middle line:84% about Native American poets, but these two things 00:09:25.450 --> 00:09:27.610 align:middle line:90% are not unrelated, obviously. 00:09:27.610 --> 00:09:30.580 align:middle line:90% 00:09:30.580 --> 00:09:31.956 align:middle line:90% Now everyone is scared of me. 00:09:31.956 --> 00:09:33.740 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:09:33.740 --> 00:09:35.530 align:middle line:90% 00:09:35.530 --> 00:09:38.030 align:middle line:90% It's [INAUDIBLE] 00:09:38.030 --> 00:09:38.780 align:middle line:90% One more question. 00:09:38.780 --> 00:09:41.330 align:middle line:90% 00:09:41.330 --> 00:09:42.530 align:middle line:90% Question. 00:09:42.530 --> 00:09:44.390 align:middle line:84% Have either have you done translations? 00:09:44.390 --> 00:09:48.490 align:middle line:84% Since you talk about it, I'm curious. 00:09:48.490 --> 00:09:49.870 align:middle line:90% Sure. 00:09:49.870 --> 00:09:51.430 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:09:51.430 --> 00:09:53.450 align:middle line:90% 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 --> 00:09:59.470 align:middle line:90% found more time to do it. 00:09:59.470 --> 00:10:03.580 align:middle line:84% And I translated a number of contribution 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:06.160 align:middle line:84% by Croatian women poets for this new anthology 00:10:06.160 --> 00:10:09.580 align:middle line:84% that Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young put out. 00:10:09.580 --> 00:10:13.450 align:middle line:84% It's called-- 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 --> 00:10:25.980 align:middle line:84% worldwide, and it's a kind of amazing amazing project. 00:10:25.980 --> 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 --> 00:10:44.950 align:middle line:84% And also I've been translating a Serbian poet, 00:10:44.950 --> 00:10:47.057 align:middle line:90% Zvonko Karanovich. 00:10:47.057 --> 00:10:47.890 align:middle line:90% He's really amazing. 00:10:47.890 --> 00:10:49.090 align:middle line:90% He's a kind of like-- 00:10:49.090 --> 00:10:52.420 align:middle line:84% I guess his heritage is a 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 --> 00:11:02.920 align:middle line:84% And he was one of the only people 00:11:02.920 --> 00:11:07.450 align:middle line:84% writing anti-government poetry in '90s Serbia. 00:11:07.450 --> 00:11:10.970 align:middle line:90% And 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-- 00:11:19.180 --> 00:11:22.043 align:middle line:84% to me, poetry is like a cheap high because you-- 00:11:22.043 --> 00:11:23.710 align:middle line:84% translating poetry iss 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 --> 00:11:29.240 align:middle line:84% You're like, I did this all myself. 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:29.865 align:middle line:90% No, you didn't. 00:11:29.865 --> 00:11:30.670 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:11:30.670 --> 00:11:32.260 align:middle line:90% So it's a good way-- 00:11:32.260 --> 00:11:34.870 align:middle line:84% I think for me, also 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 --> 00:11:39.880 align:middle line:84% and get things flowing again, and just sort of inhabiting 00:11:39.880 --> 00:11:42.190 align:middle line:90% 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 --> 00:11:49.090 align:middle line:90% Actually, I think, who was it? 00:11:49.090 --> 00:11:51.950 align:middle line:90% I watched some interview on PBS. 00:11:51.950 --> 00:11:53.710 align:middle line:84% I think it was Rachel Waithe, and she 00:11:53.710 --> 00:11:57.250 align:middle line:90% said, how strange it must be-- 00:11:57.250 --> 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 --> 00:12:04.270 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:12:04.270 --> 00:12:05.470 align:middle line:90% 00:12:05.470 --> 00:12:07.940 align:middle line:84% How can 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 --> 00:12:13.060 align:middle line:84% So I think with translating, that's sort of how writers, 00:12:13.060 --> 00:12:16.990 align:middle line:84% or anyone who speaks another 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 --> 00:12:45.080 align:middle line:84% He traveled in India and he went to Varanasi and other places, 00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:46.630 align:middle line:84% and then came back to Iran and wrote 00:12:46.630 --> 00:12:48.930 align:middle line:84% this poem 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 --> 00:12:51.850 align:middle line:84% It's a long poem, and it'll be published 00:12:51.850 --> 00:12:54.850 align:middle line:90% 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 struck with me-- 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 --> 00:13:11.380 align:middle line:84% The rose is my qibla 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 --> 00:13:23.320 align:middle line:90% My black stone is the wind. 00:13:23.320 --> 00:13:29.500 align:middle line:84% It drifts from orchard to orchard and town to town." 00:13:29.500 --> 00:13:31.270 align:middle line:90% So that's my current rapture. 00:13:31.270 --> 00:13:33.058 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:13:33.058 --> 00:13:37.522 align:middle line:90% 00:13:37.522 --> 00:13:39.450 align:middle line:90% All right, thank you so much. 00:13:39.450 --> 00:13:40.650 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:13:40.650 --> 00:13:45.150 align:middle line:90% 00:13:45.150 --> 00:13:45.750 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:13:45.750 --> 00:13:46.650 align:middle line:90% That was really fun. 00:13:46.650 --> 00:13:48.658 align:middle line:90% 00:13:48.658 --> 00:13:49.950 align:middle line:90% Thank you for coming, everyone. 00:13:49.950 --> 00:13:52.400 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER]