WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.500 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.500 --> 00:00:05.554 align:middle line:84% Yes, someone must be ready to start this discussion. 00:00:05.554 --> 00:00:08.280 align:middle line:90% 00:00:08.280 --> 00:00:12.490 align:middle line:84% What do you consider the most difficult thing for you 00:00:12.490 --> 00:00:15.210 align:middle line:90% about writing? 00:00:15.210 --> 00:00:16.210 align:middle line:90% What's the hardest part? 00:00:16.210 --> 00:00:23.110 align:middle line:90% 00:00:23.110 --> 00:00:28.960 align:middle line:84% He asked what the hardest part of the writing was for me. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:32.500 align:middle line:90% 00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:34.330 align:middle line:84% Well, it's a very difficult question 00:00:34.330 --> 00:00:37.120 align:middle line:84% because it's often very hard for me to write. 00:00:37.120 --> 00:00:45.010 align:middle line:84% And I can give almost a sociological explanation of it 00:00:45.010 --> 00:00:49.600 align:middle line:84% because my writing is very much disturbed by all 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:51.910 align:middle line:84% the other activities that I have to do. 00:00:51.910 --> 00:00:56.260 align:middle line:84% I have a job, and I have a family and all these things, 00:00:56.260 --> 00:01:02.290 align:middle line:84% which in themselves, are very important to me, but just 00:01:02.290 --> 00:01:06.670 align:middle line:84% for writing it's not very good to have a big job 00:01:06.670 --> 00:01:10.760 align:middle line:84% and family you really want to be with and so on. 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:17.740 align:middle line:84% So this is the practical problem for me 00:01:17.740 --> 00:01:20.200 align:middle line:84% just to come into a situation where 00:01:20.200 --> 00:01:25.810 align:middle line:84% I feel that I can write without being disturbed. 00:01:25.810 --> 00:01:31.000 align:middle line:84% That happens in the summer often when I'm on vacation and so on. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:35.710 align:middle line:84% I need some margin to sit down and concentrate. 00:01:35.710 --> 00:01:39.070 align:middle line:84% And in my job, for instance, the language I use there-- 00:01:39.070 --> 00:01:43.270 align:middle line:84% I am psychologist, and I have to write reports 00:01:43.270 --> 00:01:46.300 align:middle line:90% about people and so on. 00:01:46.300 --> 00:01:50.950 align:middle line:84% The language there is absolutely eating up the poetical language 00:01:50.950 --> 00:01:52.300 align:middle line:90% inside me. 00:01:52.300 --> 00:01:53.830 align:middle line:90% I can feel that. 00:01:53.830 --> 00:01:56.770 align:middle line:90% 00:01:56.770 --> 00:02:00.760 align:middle line:84% So what I need to write it is a place where 00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:05.800 align:middle line:90% I can just concentrate on it. 00:02:05.800 --> 00:02:08.650 align:middle line:84% And that's the most difficult for me to arrange it that way. 00:02:08.650 --> 00:02:11.390 align:middle line:90% 00:02:11.390 --> 00:02:16.090 align:middle line:84% But at the same time I know many writers 00:02:16.090 --> 00:02:19.580 align:middle line:84% who can handle these things very well. 00:02:19.580 --> 00:02:24.040 align:middle line:84% So I think there must be a deeper 00:02:24.040 --> 00:02:25.840 align:middle line:90% explanation to the whole thing. 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:28.990 align:middle line:90% It probably has to do with-- 00:02:28.990 --> 00:02:31.270 align:middle line:84% in order to write, I must have a feeling 00:02:31.270 --> 00:02:33.740 align:middle line:90% that this is very important. 00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:35.290 align:middle line:90% This is something I really-- 00:02:35.290 --> 00:02:41.270 align:middle line:84% I can do something for some creative thing for mankind 00:02:41.270 --> 00:02:41.770 align:middle line:90% or so. 00:02:41.770 --> 00:02:47.860 align:middle line:84% I think it's some morality involved in the whole thing. 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:49.090 align:middle line:90% I must have this feeling. 00:02:49.090 --> 00:02:53.440 align:middle line:84% It belongs to my inspiration that this is very important. 00:02:53.440 --> 00:02:56.590 align:middle line:90% And I seldom gets that feeling. 00:02:56.590 --> 00:03:01.250 align:middle line:84% I often find that I have sort of well, attitude 00:03:01.250 --> 00:03:02.710 align:middle line:90% to the whole thing which-- 00:03:02.710 --> 00:03:06.700 align:middle line:84% as if I were excusing myself all the time, 00:03:06.700 --> 00:03:10.480 align:middle line:90% apologizing for writing. 00:03:10.480 --> 00:03:12.310 align:middle line:84% That sounds strange to you because now I 00:03:12.310 --> 00:03:15.790 align:middle line:84% have been here in America for some time doing readings, 00:03:15.790 --> 00:03:16.690 align:middle line:90% and so on, and so on. 00:03:16.690 --> 00:03:22.840 align:middle line:84% But this feeling is still there, somewhere. 00:03:22.840 --> 00:03:24.280 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:27.010 align:middle line:84% You will understand that, I think. 00:03:27.010 --> 00:03:28.430 align:middle line:90% We talked about it. 00:03:28.430 --> 00:03:32.230 align:middle line:84% Do you have friends that feel the same way? 00:03:32.230 --> 00:03:34.060 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:03:34.060 --> 00:03:35.845 align:middle line:90% No, yeah, probably, maybe. 00:03:35.845 --> 00:03:40.330 align:middle line:90% 00:03:40.330 --> 00:03:47.900 align:middle line:84% All right, the problem is also, of course, 00:03:47.900 --> 00:03:52.570 align:middle line:90% that I'm too critical. 00:03:52.570 --> 00:03:58.630 align:middle line:84% I don't-- often this self-criticism starts just when 00:03:58.630 --> 00:04:00.410 align:middle line:90% the poem is on its way. 00:04:00.410 --> 00:04:02.330 align:middle line:90% And this is deadly. 00:04:02.330 --> 00:04:05.950 align:middle line:84% So I often-- a good thing is if I 00:04:05.950 --> 00:04:12.880 align:middle line:84% could start a very serious poem in a very playful way, 00:04:12.880 --> 00:04:18.339 align:middle line:84% as if it were not meant to be something serious. 00:04:18.339 --> 00:04:22.450 align:middle line:84% And then, I can double cross this whole inhibition a little. 00:04:22.450 --> 00:04:26.860 align:middle line:84% So I can-- the poem can come forward 00:04:26.860 --> 00:04:34.750 align:middle line:84% for quite a bit until I suddenly realized oh, this is serious. 00:04:34.750 --> 00:04:37.780 align:middle line:84% And then, it might be too late for the inhibition 00:04:37.780 --> 00:04:38.800 align:middle line:90% at that time. 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:48.210 align:middle line:84% For instance, this prose poem about Funchal, about my visit 00:04:48.210 --> 00:04:50.510 align:middle line:90% to this Portuguese place. 00:04:50.510 --> 00:04:54.220 align:middle line:84% It starts like you play with this visit to the fish 00:04:54.220 --> 00:04:57.610 align:middle line:84% restaurant and so on, which was just something I noted down 00:04:57.610 --> 00:05:01.510 align:middle line:90% as a memory of a fantastic day. 00:05:01.510 --> 00:05:02.995 align:middle line:90% But the problem is very serious. 00:05:02.995 --> 00:05:09.610 align:middle line:90% 00:05:09.610 --> 00:05:13.480 align:middle line:84% It became serious, but it was already so much written, 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:15.040 align:middle line:90% so it had to go on, you see. 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:20.030 align:middle line:90% 00:05:20.030 --> 00:05:23.360 align:middle line:84% I have not found that these inhibitions are less 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:26.480 align:middle line:90% because of this translation. 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:29.300 align:middle line:84% It's because of certain fame and so on. 00:05:29.300 --> 00:05:40.040 align:middle line:84% On the contrary, it wasn't the way more easy 15 years ago. 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:41.600 align:middle line:90% Does this make any sense to you? 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:44.750 align:middle line:84% Because I'm not speaking about technical things, which 00:05:44.750 --> 00:05:48.515 align:middle line:84% are not that the real problems in writing, I think. 00:05:48.515 --> 00:05:53.870 align:middle line:84% I think the real problems are somewhere deep inside, 00:05:53.870 --> 00:05:55.100 align:middle line:90% psychological things. 00:05:55.100 --> 00:06:05.820 align:middle line:90% 00:06:05.820 --> 00:06:09.350 align:middle line:84% What was the most important advantage of your childhood? 00:06:09.350 --> 00:06:09.850 align:middle line:90% Oh. 00:06:09.850 --> 00:06:13.990 align:middle line:90% 00:06:13.990 --> 00:06:17.126 align:middle line:90% [INDISTINCT CHATTER] 00:06:17.126 --> 00:06:22.630 align:middle line:90% 00:06:22.630 --> 00:06:26.000 align:middle line:84% I have to think it over, but you could tell your most important 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:30.260 align:middle line:90% event, warm me up a little. 00:06:30.260 --> 00:06:39.180 align:middle line:90% 00:06:39.180 --> 00:06:46.160 align:middle line:84% In childhood everything is very important because what 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:50.850 align:middle line:84% you experience between the first year of your life 00:06:50.850 --> 00:06:56.420 align:middle line:84% and until you become 18 or so it's 00:06:56.420 --> 00:07:04.850 align:middle line:84% impossible to make a list of where one thing is definitely 00:07:04.850 --> 00:07:06.590 align:middle line:84% more important than another thing. 00:07:06.590 --> 00:07:12.040 align:middle line:90% 00:07:12.040 --> 00:07:14.620 align:middle line:84% I have described the one important thing was 00:07:14.620 --> 00:07:17.230 align:middle line:84% the death of my grandmother, probably, 00:07:17.230 --> 00:07:19.000 align:middle line:90% which I described in this poem. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:25.050 align:middle line:84% But I don't think it was the most important thing. 00:07:25.050 --> 00:07:27.610 align:middle line:84% What's important is not the particular event, 00:07:27.610 --> 00:07:32.485 align:middle line:84% but the surroundings you live in, the continuous things. 00:07:32.485 --> 00:07:35.300 align:middle line:90% 00:07:35.300 --> 00:07:41.130 align:middle line:84% That's more important than the events themselves, 00:07:41.130 --> 00:07:45.250 align:middle line:90% your relationships and so on. 00:07:45.250 --> 00:07:49.150 align:middle line:90% 00:07:49.150 --> 00:07:50.320 align:middle line:90% Do you have this? 00:07:50.320 --> 00:07:54.780 align:middle line:90% 00:07:54.780 --> 00:07:57.600 align:middle line:84% I don't want to be too confessional. 00:07:57.600 --> 00:07:58.830 align:middle line:90% I could tell you things. 00:07:58.830 --> 00:08:09.755 align:middle line:90% 00:08:09.755 --> 00:08:10.255 align:middle line:90% Please. 00:08:10.255 --> 00:08:13.150 align:middle line:90% 00:08:13.150 --> 00:08:14.637 align:middle line:84% What other people are trying to say 00:08:14.637 --> 00:08:20.968 align:middle line:84% is acknowledging that poetry is to you, when 00:08:20.968 --> 00:08:25.028 align:middle line:84% you start to think about their version of what you've written. 00:08:25.028 --> 00:08:36.766 align:middle line:84% [AUDIO OUT] --those translations, 00:08:36.766 --> 00:08:38.260 align:middle line:90% I agree with them. 00:08:38.260 --> 00:08:41.260 align:middle line:90% What do you think about that? 00:08:41.260 --> 00:08:43.390 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:08:43.390 --> 00:08:49.870 align:middle line:84% I am-- the three or the four translators that 00:08:49.870 --> 00:08:53.290 align:middle line:84% have made many translations of me 00:08:53.290 --> 00:08:58.270 align:middle line:84% as well as Bly, as it is with Fulton, and Charters. 00:08:58.270 --> 00:09:04.340 align:middle line:84% I know them personally all, and I have collaborated with them. 00:09:04.340 --> 00:09:10.150 align:middle line:84% And I think that's very important 00:09:10.150 --> 00:09:14.605 align:middle line:84% because no one of them know Swedish extremely well. 00:09:14.605 --> 00:09:17.740 align:middle line:90% 00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:22.690 align:middle line:84% And Bly, for instance, knows Norwegian, which 00:09:22.690 --> 00:09:25.000 align:middle line:90% is similar but not Swedish. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:31.120 align:middle line:84% And Bly and I were working together. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:35.770 align:middle line:84% He was on my island, and we were sitting for two weeks 00:09:35.770 --> 00:09:41.060 align:middle line:84% doing translations and discussing together and so on. 00:09:41.060 --> 00:09:45.865 align:middle line:84% So that's the right way to do translation, I think. 00:09:45.865 --> 00:09:48.910 align:middle line:90% 00:09:48.910 --> 00:09:50.560 align:middle line:84% When you do it by correspondence, 00:09:50.560 --> 00:09:55.330 align:middle line:84% it is so taxing to sit there and write long, long, long letters 00:09:55.330 --> 00:09:57.520 align:middle line:84% which you could explain a certain thing 00:09:57.520 --> 00:09:59.650 align:middle line:84% very easily if you were sitting next to the fellow. 00:09:59.650 --> 00:10:05.080 align:middle line:84% You have to sit on the same bench with the translator. 00:10:05.080 --> 00:10:09.400 align:middle line:84% And the best thing is if the translator is in the same place 00:10:09.400 --> 00:10:14.380 align:middle line:84% as the poem takes place, which happened with this Sam 00:10:14.380 --> 00:10:15.460 align:middle line:90% Charters, for instance. 00:10:15.460 --> 00:10:21.730 align:middle line:84% The Baltics is very much in the archipelago, and he was there, 00:10:21.730 --> 00:10:26.110 align:middle line:84% and he knew the surroundings very well. 00:10:26.110 --> 00:10:31.330 align:middle line:84% And how he would translate the certain thing, 00:10:31.330 --> 00:10:34.120 align:middle line:84% it was not a question about dictionaries, 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:37.660 align:middle line:84% we just went to the place, and I pointed it out and said, 00:10:37.660 --> 00:10:39.070 align:middle line:90% that's the word. 00:10:39.070 --> 00:10:44.110 align:middle line:84% So he could see what it was he was going to translate. 00:10:44.110 --> 00:10:49.030 align:middle line:84% That's the ideal situation for translation, I think. 00:10:49.030 --> 00:10:53.530 align:middle line:84% I translated a poem of his the other day, yesterday, 00:10:53.530 --> 00:10:57.490 align:middle line:90% and I was in the desert, almost. 00:10:57.490 --> 00:11:03.160 align:middle line:84% I mean this is I think it's necessary for translators 00:11:03.160 --> 00:11:04.180 align:middle line:90% to travel a little. 00:11:04.180 --> 00:11:13.300 align:middle line:90% 00:11:13.300 --> 00:11:15.306 align:middle line:84% Is there a place in this country that you 00:11:15.306 --> 00:11:16.704 align:middle line:90% identify with strongly? 00:11:16.704 --> 00:11:20.440 align:middle line:90% 00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:21.163 align:middle line:90% What do you say? 00:11:21.163 --> 00:11:22.580 align:middle line:84% Is there a place in this country-- 00:11:22.580 --> 00:11:25.250 align:middle line:84% That you identify with strongly with the desert, 00:11:25.250 --> 00:11:28.764 align:middle line:90% or a Latin country or what? 00:11:28.764 --> 00:11:32.050 align:middle line:90% 00:11:32.050 --> 00:11:37.930 align:middle line:84% Well, it's very strange sometimes, 00:11:37.930 --> 00:11:44.500 align:middle line:84% that I was in Virginia, 10 days ago, and the country. 00:11:44.500 --> 00:11:47.710 align:middle line:84% And the strange thing was that it was very much like Sweden, 00:11:47.710 --> 00:11:48.860 align:middle line:90% in a way. 00:11:48.860 --> 00:11:52.750 align:middle line:84% But at the same time, completely unlike Sweden. 00:11:52.750 --> 00:11:55.900 align:middle line:84% So the first impression I got from the landscape 00:11:55.900 --> 00:11:58.040 align:middle line:90% was that this is like home. 00:11:58.040 --> 00:12:01.540 align:middle line:84% But when I looked closer, there was nothing to recognize, 00:12:01.540 --> 00:12:03.290 align:middle line:90% everything was different. 00:12:03.290 --> 00:12:07.210 align:middle line:84% And that's very disturbing, in a way, because it makes 00:12:07.210 --> 00:12:10.960 align:middle line:84% you feel like a dead person who returns 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:15.650 align:middle line:84% to his old surroundings, and everything is different, 00:12:15.650 --> 00:12:18.700 align:middle line:90% but everything is the same. 00:12:18.700 --> 00:12:24.100 align:middle line:84% In a strange way, I found that the south around Atlanta 00:12:24.100 --> 00:12:26.800 align:middle line:90% was, in a way, more like Sweden. 00:12:26.800 --> 00:12:29.530 align:middle line:90% I was very surprised by this. 00:12:29.530 --> 00:12:30.850 align:middle line:90% I can't explain it. 00:12:30.850 --> 00:12:33.210 align:middle line:84% Probably New Hampshire would be like Sweden. 00:12:33.210 --> 00:12:34.210 align:middle line:90% I have never been there. 00:12:34.210 --> 00:12:37.630 align:middle line:90% 00:12:37.630 --> 00:12:41.240 align:middle line:90% This desert is so different. 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:47.590 align:middle line:84% So I feel very relaxed here because there is no ambition 00:12:47.590 --> 00:12:50.620 align:middle line:90% to try to make it like Sweden. 00:12:50.620 --> 00:12:57.190 align:middle line:84% But something that is similar is the feeling 00:12:57.190 --> 00:13:02.800 align:middle line:84% you get of being a solitary figure in the landscape, which 00:13:02.800 --> 00:13:05.260 align:middle line:84% is very important experience, and which 00:13:05.260 --> 00:13:13.060 align:middle line:84% is probably the basic position for me as a poet. 00:13:13.060 --> 00:13:19.540 align:middle line:84% And that's a situation you always are in here, when 00:13:19.540 --> 00:13:22.720 align:middle line:90% you move out from the city. 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:26.470 align:middle line:84% Then, of course, I find certain parts 00:13:26.470 --> 00:13:29.070 align:middle line:90% of New York very fascinating. 00:13:29.070 --> 00:13:30.940 align:middle line:84% So I love certain parts of New York 00:13:30.940 --> 00:13:34.990 align:middle line:84% because I have lived there for well, 00:13:34.990 --> 00:13:41.060 align:middle line:84% maybe, three weeks in different locations. 00:13:41.060 --> 00:13:43.630 align:middle line:90% So this city is very-- 00:13:43.630 --> 00:13:47.380 align:middle line:84% a part of it I hate, but a part of it I love. 00:13:47.380 --> 00:13:50.830 align:middle line:84% So I can identify with certain parts of New York. 00:13:50.830 --> 00:14:10.440 align:middle line:90% 00:14:10.440 --> 00:14:14.172 align:middle line:84% Do you ever get ideas about poems to write from your work? 00:14:14.172 --> 00:14:19.950 align:middle line:90% 00:14:19.950 --> 00:14:27.180 align:middle line:84% Yes, the same question I got from a class here studying 00:14:27.180 --> 00:14:30.930 align:middle line:90% Scandinavian literature. 00:14:30.930 --> 00:14:35.220 align:middle line:84% Are there any from this class, here? 00:14:35.220 --> 00:14:35.730 align:middle line:90% No one. 00:14:35.730 --> 00:14:39.600 align:middle line:90% 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:41.790 align:middle line:84% So I can repeat what I answered them. 00:14:41.790 --> 00:14:46.650 align:middle line:90% 00:14:46.650 --> 00:14:49.260 align:middle line:84% Because my job is very important for me, 00:14:49.260 --> 00:14:52.570 align:middle line:84% it goes into other writing some way or another. 00:14:52.570 --> 00:14:58.440 align:middle line:84% But I don't know if it can be detected. 00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:03.630 align:middle line:84% It's one poem of mine, an earlier one, who is really-- 00:15:03.630 --> 00:15:06.600 align:middle line:84% where the whole scene is directly taken 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:09.150 align:middle line:90% from a situation in my job. 00:15:09.150 --> 00:15:14.220 align:middle line:90% And I might read it, now. 00:15:14.220 --> 00:15:19.740 align:middle line:84% But there are many other poems where there are parts of my job 00:15:19.740 --> 00:15:24.960 align:middle line:90% are sneaking in. 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:26.940 align:middle line:84% I have one very gloomy thing called, 00:15:26.940 --> 00:15:32.460 align:middle line:84% "Night Duty," which is partly about my position 00:15:32.460 --> 00:15:36.720 align:middle line:84% as a thinking and writing person in the late 1960s, in Sweden, 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:40.350 align:middle line:90% but partly also is a sort of-- 00:15:40.350 --> 00:15:46.035 align:middle line:84% it borrows a lot from my time as a psychologist in prison. 00:15:46.035 --> 00:15:50.970 align:middle line:90% 00:15:50.970 --> 00:15:53.670 align:middle line:84% And I was a psychologist in a youth prison 00:15:53.670 --> 00:15:57.030 align:middle line:84% for some time and these experiences 00:15:57.030 --> 00:16:01.530 align:middle line:84% are very important because they have made me-- 00:16:01.530 --> 00:16:06.840 align:middle line:84% they had changed some of my ideas 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:10.740 align:middle line:84% about what society is like, and what people are like. 00:16:10.740 --> 00:16:15.900 align:middle line:84% But also, I think, the surroundings, 00:16:15.900 --> 00:16:22.080 align:middle line:84% they sneak into the poems from that time, very much. 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:28.110 align:middle line:84% Well, but I'll read this poem from my job, from 1957. 00:16:28.110 --> 00:16:34.320 align:middle line:84% At that time, I was a very newly licensed psychologist, 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:39.510 align:middle line:84% and I was not experienced at all. 00:16:39.510 --> 00:16:45.540 align:middle line:84% I was working in an office connected with the Stockholm 00:16:45.540 --> 00:16:46.860 align:middle line:90% University. 00:16:46.860 --> 00:16:49.230 align:middle line:90% And we made tests. 00:16:49.230 --> 00:16:53.980 align:middle line:84% We tested people for different reasons. 00:16:53.980 --> 00:17:03.240 align:middle line:84% And it was-- one day it was a 20-year-old boy with-- 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:09.060 align:middle line:84% he was epileptic, and he had had a fit just before. 00:17:09.060 --> 00:17:13.589 align:middle line:84% And when he was on his way to our testing, 00:17:13.589 --> 00:17:18.374 align:middle line:84% and he broke his jaw, so he had a bandage. 00:17:18.374 --> 00:17:21.390 align:middle line:90% 00:17:21.390 --> 00:17:25.319 align:middle line:84% And I was probably nervous about the whole situation. 00:17:25.319 --> 00:17:27.119 align:middle line:84% I was quite new and I didn't know 00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:29.910 align:middle line:84% what to do with the person who has an epileptic fit in front 00:17:29.910 --> 00:17:31.530 align:middle line:90% of you. 00:17:31.530 --> 00:17:36.240 align:middle line:84% So this tension is probably in this poem, very much. 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:38.520 align:middle line:84% Well, he was sitting in front of me, 00:17:38.520 --> 00:17:42.010 align:middle line:84% and behind him was the reproduction of a van Gogh 00:17:42.010 --> 00:17:42.510 align:middle line:90% painting. 00:17:42.510 --> 00:17:47.820 align:middle line:90% 00:17:47.820 --> 00:17:48.555 align:middle line:90% This is the poem. 00:17:48.555 --> 00:17:51.930 align:middle line:90% 00:17:51.930 --> 00:17:52.965 align:middle line:90% "After the Attack." 00:17:52.965 --> 00:17:55.970 align:middle line:90% 00:17:55.970 --> 00:18:02.180 align:middle line:84% The sick boy locked in a vision with tongue stiff as a horn. 00:18:02.180 --> 00:18:04.930 align:middle line:90% 00:18:04.930 --> 00:18:09.580 align:middle line:84% He sits with his back toward a painting of a wheat field. 00:18:09.580 --> 00:18:15.880 align:middle line:84% The bandage around his jaw reminds one of an embalming. 00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:19.150 align:middle line:84% His spectacles are thick as a diver's. 00:18:19.150 --> 00:18:22.600 align:middle line:84% Nothing has any answer and is sudden as a telephone 00:18:22.600 --> 00:18:23.575 align:middle line:90% ringing in the night. 00:18:23.575 --> 00:18:27.550 align:middle line:90% 00:18:27.550 --> 00:18:29.620 align:middle line:90% But the painting there. 00:18:29.620 --> 00:18:32.770 align:middle line:84% It's a landscape that makes one feel peaceful 00:18:32.770 --> 00:18:36.940 align:middle line:84% even though the wheat is a golden storm. 00:18:36.940 --> 00:18:41.320 align:middle line:84% Blue, fiery blue sky and driving clouds. 00:18:41.320 --> 00:18:45.070 align:middle line:84% Beneath in the yellow waves some white shirts 00:18:45.070 --> 00:18:47.860 align:middle line:90% are sailing, threshers. 00:18:47.860 --> 00:18:48.895 align:middle line:90% They cast no shadow. 00:18:48.895 --> 00:18:53.670 align:middle line:90% 00:18:53.670 --> 00:18:55.560 align:middle line:84% At the far end of the field, a man 00:18:55.560 --> 00:18:57.300 align:middle line:90% seems to be looking this way. 00:18:57.300 --> 00:19:01.680 align:middle line:84% A broad hat leaves his face in shadow. 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:04.680 align:middle line:84% He seems to look at the dark shape in the room here, 00:19:04.680 --> 00:19:05.715 align:middle line:90% as though to help. 00:19:05.715 --> 00:19:08.340 align:middle line:90% 00:19:08.340 --> 00:19:10.950 align:middle line:84% Gradually, the painting begins to stretch 00:19:10.950 --> 00:19:16.080 align:middle line:84% and open behind the boy who is sick and sunk in himself. 00:19:16.080 --> 00:19:18.060 align:middle line:84% It throws sparks and makes noise. 00:19:18.060 --> 00:19:23.850 align:middle line:84% Every wheat head throws off light as if to wake him up. 00:19:23.850 --> 00:19:27.360 align:middle line:84% The other man in the wheat makes a sign. 00:19:27.360 --> 00:19:30.460 align:middle line:90% 00:19:30.460 --> 00:19:33.190 align:middle line:90% He has come nearer. 00:19:33.190 --> 00:19:34.120 align:middle line:90% No one notices. 00:19:34.120 --> 00:19:47.630 align:middle line:90% 00:19:47.630 --> 00:19:55.610 align:middle line:84% Yes, you can also see that the part in the poem I 00:19:55.610 --> 00:20:00.980 align:middle line:84% read the "Baltics," the part about the Russian composer, 00:20:00.980 --> 00:20:02.210 align:middle line:90% his stroke. 00:20:02.210 --> 00:20:09.080 align:middle line:84% And this is something I met in my work. 00:20:09.080 --> 00:20:14.030 align:middle line:84% I've been working very much with traffic accident victims, 00:20:14.030 --> 00:20:15.980 align:middle line:90% and I was interested in-- 00:20:15.980 --> 00:20:18.320 align:middle line:84% I have been interested in brain injuries. 00:20:18.320 --> 00:20:21.380 align:middle line:84% And I met the description of his case, 00:20:21.380 --> 00:20:34.700 align:middle line:84% I met in a Soviet scholar paper by the Russian brain 00:20:34.700 --> 00:20:37.970 align:middle line:90% specialist, Luria. 00:20:37.970 --> 00:20:42.410 align:middle line:84% And it was reprinted in the Journal of Neuropathology 00:20:42.410 --> 00:20:48.282 align:middle line:90% or something, here in America. 00:20:48.282 --> 00:20:51.380 align:middle line:90% 00:20:51.380 --> 00:20:56.710 align:middle line:84% Well, so the job comes in different places 00:20:56.710 --> 00:20:58.930 align:middle line:90% in the writing. 00:20:58.930 --> 00:21:01.405 align:middle line:84% It's both giving and taking, this job. 00:21:01.405 --> 00:21:10.610 align:middle line:90% 00:21:10.610 --> 00:21:13.250 align:middle line:84% It might be time to go to sleep, now. 00:21:13.250 --> 00:21:17.540 align:middle line:84% So it's in the night, according to the newspaper, isn't it? 00:21:17.540 --> 00:21:20.955 align:middle line:90% 00:21:20.955 --> 00:21:21.455 align:middle line:90% 3:00. 00:21:21.455 --> 00:21:24.170 align:middle line:90% 00:21:24.170 --> 00:21:24.770 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:21:24.770 --> 00:21:25.370 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:21:25.370 --> 00:21:28.420 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:21:28.420 --> 00:21:38.000 align:middle line:90%