WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.792 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.792 --> 00:00:03.690 align:middle line:84%
[INAUDIBLE],, that
was the gist of it.

00:00:03.690 --> 00:00:06.480 align:middle line:90%


00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:11.850 align:middle line:84%
It wasn't that blunt,
but it was the point.

00:00:11.850 --> 00:00:14.540 align:middle line:84%
A poem called
"Forgetfulness" that I've

00:00:14.540 --> 00:00:18.200 align:middle line:84%
wrote from some time
ago and intend to read.

00:00:18.200 --> 00:00:20.810 align:middle line:84%
And I just start out by
talking about literary amnesia,

00:00:20.810 --> 00:00:22.310 align:middle line:90%
as I've heard it called.

00:00:22.310 --> 00:00:26.930 align:middle line:84%
That is, forgetting
what you have read.

00:00:26.930 --> 00:00:29.690 align:middle line:90%
"Forgetfulness."

00:00:29.690 --> 00:00:32.990 align:middle line:84%
"The name of the author
is the first to go,

00:00:32.990 --> 00:00:36.410 align:middle line:84%
followed obediently by
the title, the plot,

00:00:36.410 --> 00:00:41.210 align:middle line:84%
the heartbreaking
conclusion, the entire novel,

00:00:41.210 --> 00:00:44.600 align:middle line:84%
which suddenly becomes one you
have never read, never even

00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:50.220 align:middle line:84%
heard of, it is as if, one
by one, the memories you used

00:00:50.220 --> 00:00:54.840 align:middle line:84%
to harbor decided to retire
to the southern hemisphere

00:00:54.840 --> 00:00:57.480 align:middle line:84%
of the brain, to a
little fishing village

00:00:57.480 --> 00:01:00.528 align:middle line:90%
where there are no phones.

00:01:00.528 --> 00:01:05.519 align:middle line:84%
Long ago you kissed the names
of the nine muses goodbye

00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:10.200 align:middle line:84%
and you watched the quadratic
equation pack its bag,

00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:14.040 align:middle line:84%
and even now as you memorize
the order of the planets,

00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:18.630 align:middle line:84%
something else is slipping
away, a state flower perhaps,

00:01:18.630 --> 00:01:23.560 align:middle line:84%
the address an uncle,
the capital of Paraguay.

00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:26.620 align:middle line:84%
Whatever it is you are
struggling to remember,

00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:29.680 align:middle line:84%
it is not poised on
the tip of your tongue

00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:35.140 align:middle line:84%
not even lurking in some
obscure corner of your spleen.

00:01:35.140 --> 00:01:40.780 align:middle line:84%
It has floated away down a dark
mythological river whose name

00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:49.210 align:middle line:84%
begins with an L as far as you
can recall well on your own way

00:01:49.210 --> 00:01:51.970 align:middle line:84%
to oblivion where
you will join those

00:01:51.970 --> 00:01:57.270 align:middle line:84%
who have forgotten even how to
swim and how to ride a bicycle.

00:01:57.270 --> 00:01:59.790 align:middle line:84%
No wonder you rise in
the middle of the night

00:01:59.790 --> 00:02:04.110 align:middle line:84%
to look up the date of a
famous battle in a book on war.

00:02:04.110 --> 00:02:07.170 align:middle line:84%
No wonder the moon in
the window seems to have

00:02:07.170 --> 00:02:11.220 align:middle line:84%
drifted out of a love poem that
you used to know by heart."

00:02:11.220 --> 00:02:19.550 align:middle line:90%


00:02:19.550 --> 00:02:21.020 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:02:21.020 --> 00:02:23.670 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to read
two more poems.