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'll just bear
with me one minute,

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I have an image that should
come up here rather quickly.

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It's coming.

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Months ago, the Poetry
Center contacted four poets

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with a complicated
schematic for--

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[AUDIENCE MURMURS]

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It'll go away.

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It'll go away.

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[LAUGHTER]

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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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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, 15 lines or less,

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and then translate two 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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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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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, a
process that is,

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at its best, inexact, full
of gaps, 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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For more than one of
the poets, the sense

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of urgency that accompanied
their queries about the words

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on the page, for me,
created a tone or 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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The results of this attempt
and the poet's 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 is a window

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into another culture, a
two-way mirror providing,

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simultaneously, a view
out and a view in,

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doubling our attention back onto
our own language and literature

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and ways of thinking poetry,
even as it illuminates, however

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partially and
shadowed or stuttered

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or staggered light, 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 basically 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 papermaker

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from Paradise Valley, 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 mouth-watering.

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It 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

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alone have a story
that is just amazing.

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So now I'd like to introduce
our fabulous poets.

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The order will be Sherwin
Bitsui, Ofelia Zepeda,

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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

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will be happy to sign your book.

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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
Whitecone, Arizona,

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on the Navajo reservation, 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

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and Professor of linguistics
at the University of Arizona.

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Her works include Where
Clouds Are Formed,

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Ocean Power, Home Places,
Contemporary Native American

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Writing from Sun Tracks,
A Papago Grammar,

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and When It Rains,
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 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 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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