WEBVTT

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But we thought we would
read from our manifesto

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for Ultratranslation as
a way of introducing some

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of the ideas of what do we do
when we encounter work that

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feels impossible to translate,
which is we get really excited

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and then we write
things like this.

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And I would just say to--
when we were in the car today,

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there wasn't a moment.

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I can't remember.

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We were in so many cars
with so many people.

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[LAUGHTER]

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In one of the moments--

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there was a moment
where we were talking

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about poetry, obviously.

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And there was a moment
where I said, yeah,

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whenever you think that we
do as a poetic practice--

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so you might be
sitting there saying

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like, these people
aren't reading.

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Where's the poetry?

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And I think that's
part of the work

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that we're doing to is
trying to say poetry

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and poetic practice
can be bigger

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than just writing a poem.

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And so many people
in this audience

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are involved in
that work as well,

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so public poetry,
poetry and public,

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poetry in all kinds
of different forms,

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making a cargo track
of books as poetry,

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making an installation of books
as poetry, all of these things

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as a form of poetry, so
trying to open space.

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And for us, those practices are
absolutely not distinct from

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and, in fact, are completely
intertwined with our practice

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as cross-language organizers.

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That being politically
activated in the world

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is part of the poetic practice.

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"A Manifesto for
Ultratranslation."

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"Nothing is lost in translation.

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Nothing is lost in translation.

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Everything was already lost,
was always already lost

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long before we arrived.

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Translation is its own undoing,
a feedback loop, a Mobius strip

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or trip, an unwriting
of the original,

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which is never
the same as itself

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anyway, a writing of the
unoriginal translation.

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Translation is an asymptote.

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No matter how close
we try to get,

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there's always a space
between the two bodies,

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and that is the
space where we live,

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the space where we
transpose or are transposed.

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Untranslatability is at
the root of our practice.

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Moments of untranslatability
lead directly

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to untranslation,
undertranslation,

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overtranslation, and
excess extranslation

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a lack of limit and
expressions and impropriety,

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distranslation, retranslation,
multitranslation,

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a mistake, a conflict,
distranslation,

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an understanding of the
potential in not understanding,

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an ultratranslation.

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Ultratranslation, an
awareness, or hum, or breath.

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Not all translation
is ultratranslation.

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Ultratranslation is
moments within translation,

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a part of translation,
parting it

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to expose the irreducible gaps.

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Ultra translation bubbles
up from translation,

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moves translation
somewhere else,

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transposes it, ultra, spatially
beyond on the other side

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indicating elsewhere, ultra,
going beyond surpassing,

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transcending the limits,
ultra and excessive,

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or extreme degree.

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Ultratranslation is messy.

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Ultratranslation is excessive.

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Ultratranslation is unruly.

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Ultratranslation is absurdly
invested in the glories

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of translation ease.

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Ultratranslation takes
the untranslatable

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as starting point,
not ending point.

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Ultratranslation labors to
translate the untranslatable

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and also to preserve it, not
to reduce the irreducible.

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Not to know, but to acknowledge.

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Ultratranslation does
not replace translation,

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nor does it seek to depose.

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They exist beside one
another and concurrently,

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one feeding the
other, two bodies

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with the negative space
of relation between them,

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only in the geography
of the margins

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and the space
between only there.

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Ultratranslation
is not translation

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unmoored from meaning but
translation that questions what

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and how meaning itself means.

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We are opposed to
seamless translation

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as it seeks to stitch
innumerable disparate words

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and ideas and divides
together as if they had always

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been fused.

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We oppose ourselves
to poses, positions

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of control or superiority.

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We want ultratranslation
to untranslate the seams,

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to extratranslate the gaps,
to multitranslate the leaps,

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to infratranslate
the porosities.

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We want the transfer and
the untransferable both.

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We cannot take for granted that
this word can be used for that

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body.

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We cannot take as a given that
we share the same understanding

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of even or perhaps especially
the most familiar words.

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The familiar
demands translation.

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The ultrafamiliar
demands ultratranslation.

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Work across languages
needs contextualization.

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Ultratranslation
attempts to contextualize

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from within the language,
within the syntax,

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between and around the words,
the breath, the utterance, air

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and diaphragm
contracting and relaxing.

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Ultratranslation
lures translators out

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of invisibility and onto the
streets, into the margins,

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into the footnotes, into
annotation, into activism,

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into failure, into
irrationality, the intuitive

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channeling.

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The work might speak for itself,
but the translation never does.

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Nor can it be spoken for by the
translator or by anyone else.

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Rather translators
speak for ourselves,

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addressing questions of stance,
position, and perspective,

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replacing invisibility
with transparency

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by writing notes toward an
understanding of the tools

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and processes that made
the translation toward

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and understanding of the
ultratranslator's practice."

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Now we want to invite
Myriam Moscona to join us.

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[APPLAUSE]