WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.608 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.608 --> 00:00:01.650 align:middle line:90% Well, I'm going to read-- 00:00:01.650 --> 00:00:03.870 align:middle line:84% I'm breaking out of that manuscript now. 00:00:03.870 --> 00:00:08.640 align:middle line:84% And I'm breaking into something else temporarily. 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:11.910 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read one section from a long poem which 00:00:11.910 --> 00:00:18.240 align:middle line:84% has been in progress for seven years, of which five parts are 00:00:18.240 --> 00:00:19.710 align:middle line:90% done. 00:00:19.710 --> 00:00:21.360 align:middle line:84% And it will not be done, I suppose, 00:00:21.360 --> 00:00:23.760 align:middle line:90% for another four or five years. 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:27.060 align:middle line:84% It is called-- the whole thing is called "Mountains and Rivers 00:00:27.060 --> 00:00:29.700 align:middle line:90% Without End." 00:00:29.700 --> 00:00:31.860 align:middle line:84% And this particular section I'm going to read now 00:00:31.860 --> 00:00:33.315 align:middle line:90% is called "The Market." 00:00:33.315 --> 00:00:36.090 align:middle line:90% 00:00:36.090 --> 00:00:39.420 align:middle line:84% The specific references, the market references here, 00:00:39.420 --> 00:00:43.830 align:middle line:84% are to the Crystal Palace market in San Francisco, 00:00:43.830 --> 00:00:48.450 align:middle line:84% the public market in Saigon, the public market in Kathmandu, 00:00:48.450 --> 00:00:50.790 align:middle line:84% and the market along the Ganges in Benares. 00:00:50.790 --> 00:00:56.960 align:middle line:90% 00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:59.850 align:middle line:84% Saigon is the most beautiful city in Asia, 00:00:59.850 --> 00:01:01.010 align:middle line:90% or at least it was. 00:01:01.010 --> 00:01:02.427 align:middle line:84% It was the only city in Asia where 00:01:02.427 --> 00:01:06.800 align:middle line:84% you could get good French bread anywhere you wanted, too. 00:01:06.800 --> 00:01:11.870 align:middle line:84% Part of the city, downtown, the countryside-- 00:01:11.870 --> 00:01:15.680 align:middle line:84% John Muir, up before dawn, packing pears 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:20.750 align:middle line:84% in the best boxes, beat out the others to market-- 00:01:20.750 --> 00:01:25.460 align:middle line:84% the Crystal Palace on the morning milk run train. 00:01:25.460 --> 00:01:30.800 align:middle line:84% Me, milk bottles by bike, Guernsey milk, 6% butter fat, 00:01:30.800 --> 00:01:34.370 align:middle line:84% raw, left to rise natural, $0.10 a quart. 00:01:34.370 --> 00:01:38.330 align:middle line:84% Slipped on the frost turning into a driveway 00:01:38.330 --> 00:01:41.060 align:middle line:90% and broke all nine quarts. 00:01:41.060 --> 00:01:44.090 align:middle line:90% That was when we had cows. 00:01:44.090 --> 00:01:47.330 align:middle line:84% The feathery hemlock out back by manure pile 00:01:47.330 --> 00:01:51.620 align:middle line:84% where one cow once lay with milk fever-- 00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:55.040 align:middle line:84% transfusions and worries until the vet 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:00.910 align:middle line:84% come, we do this still dark in the morning. 00:02:00.910 --> 00:02:02.840 align:middle line:90% Part one-- 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:07.460 align:middle line:84% To town on thin, high-wheel carts, 00:02:07.460 --> 00:02:13.430 align:middle line:84% squat on the box-top stall, papayas, banana, sliced fish, 00:02:13.430 --> 00:02:18.380 align:middle line:84% grated ginger, fruit for fish, meat for flowers, 00:02:18.380 --> 00:02:21.110 align:middle line:84% French bread for ladle steamer, tea 00:02:21.110 --> 00:02:26.480 align:middle line:84% giant rough glazed earthware for brass shrine bowls. 00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:31.970 align:middle line:84% Push through fish, bound pullets lay on their sides, wet slab, 00:02:31.970 --> 00:02:35.930 align:middle line:84% watch us with glimmering eye, slosh water, 00:02:35.930 --> 00:02:39.110 align:middle line:84% a carrot, a lettuce, a ball of cooked noodle, 00:02:39.110 --> 00:02:43.130 align:middle line:84% beggars hang by the flower stall, give them all some. 00:02:43.130 --> 00:02:48.650 align:middle line:84% Strong women, dirt from the hills in her nails, 00:02:48.650 --> 00:02:52.130 align:middle line:84% valley thatch houses, palm groves for hedges, 00:02:52.130 --> 00:02:55.190 align:middle line:84% rice field and thrasher, white rice, 00:02:55.190 --> 00:03:00.080 align:middle line:84% dongs and piastres to market, the changes, 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:01.865 align:middle line:90% how much is our change? 00:03:01.865 --> 00:03:06.070 align:middle line:90% 00:03:06.070 --> 00:03:12.360 align:middle line:84% 75 feet hoed rows equals one hour explaining power steering, 00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:15.450 align:middle line:84% equals two big crayfish, equals all the buttermilk you can 00:03:15.450 --> 00:03:18.210 align:middle line:84% drink, equals 12 pounds cauliflower, 00:03:18.210 --> 00:03:20.280 align:middle line:84% equals five cartons Greek olives, 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:23.760 align:middle line:84% equals hitchhiking from Ogden, Utah to Burns, Oregon, 00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:26.760 align:middle line:84% equals aspirin, iodine, and bandages, 00:03:26.760 --> 00:03:30.150 align:middle line:84% equals a lay in Naples, equals beef, equals lamb ribs, 00:03:30.150 --> 00:03:33.210 align:middle line:84% equals Patna long-grain rice, eight pounds, 00:03:33.210 --> 00:03:38.610 align:middle line:84% equals two kilograms soybeans, equals a boxwood geisha comb, 00:03:38.610 --> 00:03:40.890 align:middle line:84% equals the whole family at the movies, 00:03:40.890 --> 00:03:44.320 align:middle line:84% equals whipping dirty clothes on rocks three days, 00:03:44.320 --> 00:03:48.510 align:middle line:84% some Indian river, equals piecing off beggars two weeks, 00:03:48.510 --> 00:03:52.350 align:middle line:84% equals bootlace and shoelace, equals a large box 00:03:52.350 --> 00:03:55.860 align:middle line:84% of petit-fours, chou-crémes, equals barley threshing-- 00:03:55.860 --> 00:04:01.320 align:middle line:84% mangoes, apples, custard apples, raspberries, equals a Christmas 00:04:01.320 --> 00:04:04.710 align:middle line:90% tree, equals a taxi ride-- 00:04:04.710 --> 00:04:08.670 align:middle line:84% carrots, daikon, eggplant, green peppers, oregano, 00:04:08.670 --> 00:04:16.320 align:middle line:84% white goat cheese, a swordfish, a salmon, a handful of silvery 00:04:16.320 --> 00:04:17.640 align:middle line:90% smelt in the pocket. 00:04:17.640 --> 00:04:22.530 align:middle line:84% Whisky in cars out late after dates, old folks 00:04:22.530 --> 00:04:26.730 align:middle line:84% eating cake in secret, breast milk enough, 00:04:26.730 --> 00:04:29.340 align:middle line:90% if the belly be fed. 00:04:29.340 --> 00:04:34.080 align:middle line:84% And wash down, hose off the aisles, 00:04:34.080 --> 00:04:38.550 align:middle line:84% reach under fruit stands, green gross rack, 00:04:38.550 --> 00:04:44.460 align:middle line:84% meat scum on chop blocks, bloody butcher concrete floor, 00:04:44.460 --> 00:04:49.020 align:middle line:84% old knives sharpened down to scalpels, brown wrap paper 00:04:49.020 --> 00:04:54.690 align:middle line:84% rolls, stiff push broom back, wet spilled food. 00:04:54.690 --> 00:05:01.290 align:middle line:84% When the market is closed, the cleanup comes, equals-- 00:05:01.290 --> 00:05:03.330 align:middle line:84% Billygoat pushing through people, 00:05:03.330 --> 00:05:08.310 align:middle line:84% stinking and grabbing a cabbage, arrogant, tough, he took it, 00:05:08.310 --> 00:05:09.090 align:middle line:90% they let him. 00:05:09.090 --> 00:05:12.450 align:middle line:90% Kathmandu-- the market. 00:05:12.450 --> 00:05:18.750 align:middle line:84% I gave a man 70 paise in return for a clay pot of curds. 00:05:18.750 --> 00:05:20.322 align:middle line:90% Was it worth it? 00:05:20.322 --> 00:05:21.540 align:middle line:90% How can I tell? 00:05:21.540 --> 00:05:24.320 align:middle line:90% 00:05:24.320 --> 00:05:25.040 align:middle line:90% Part three-- 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:28.510 align:middle line:90% 00:05:28.510 --> 00:05:35.170 align:middle line:84% They eat feces in the dark on stone floors, 00:05:35.170 --> 00:05:42.250 align:middle line:84% one-legged animals, hopping cows, limping dogs, blind cats, 00:05:42.250 --> 00:05:48.550 align:middle line:84% crunching garbage in the market, broken fingers, cabbage head 00:05:48.550 --> 00:05:51.310 align:middle line:90% on the ground. 00:05:51.310 --> 00:05:56.440 align:middle line:84% Who has young face, open pit eyes, 00:05:56.440 --> 00:05:59.350 align:middle line:84% between the bullock carts and people, 00:05:59.350 --> 00:06:02.470 align:middle line:84% head pivot with the footsteps passing 00:06:02.470 --> 00:06:07.270 align:middle line:84% by, dark scrotum spilled on the street, penis 00:06:07.270 --> 00:06:13.750 align:middle line:84% laid by his thigh, torso turns with the sun. 00:06:13.750 --> 00:06:20.260 align:middle line:84% I came to buy a few bananas by the Ganges while waiting 00:06:20.260 --> 00:06:22.260 align:middle line:90% for my wife.