WEBVTT

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The next poem is
called "Nieve," "Snow."

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And it's about first time.

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About my dream of
seeing snow, my wanting

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to see snow. [? In Mexico we ?]
will never see snow

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except maybe in the mountains.

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I remember the first
time I saw snow.

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The poet I mentioned,
[? Lezama ?],,

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is the Cuban poet
[? Lezama Lima ?]..

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Nieve.

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Lo más extraño de la
nieve es no haberla visto,

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pero convocarla con un hábito
de la sombra o una condición de

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ciertas palabras.

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La nieve solicita de
Lezama, por ejemplo.

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Su nieve perpleja en el trigo.

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Su festón enhebrado de nieve.

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Su pulpa cortesana.

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Sus insectos ciegos a
pique por el flanco frío,

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sus nieves declamadas,
sus nieves invitadas,

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sus nieves que escrutan
gamos en el bosque.

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Y follajes cubiertos por la red
de una luz tan tenue como la

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falacia del invierno fijo en las
palmeras que se deshace con el

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primer golpe de sol.

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Su rastro de arena.

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Y la brisa canicular
pintada de verde.

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¿Qué es esa nieve retenida
por sus paradojas?

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La nieve de alguien, íntima e
instransmisible o la nieve del

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mundo.

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Una analogía redundante.

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Si el mármol es parásito de
la nieve, no a la inversa.

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La cercanía blanca es tan
absoluta que, entonces,

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se cancela.

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Y no hay conocimiento, pero con
otras formas, con otros hechos,

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el símil puede tener la
consistencia de un acto.

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Nunca he visto el muérdago.

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Su amarilla natividad.

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Sus bayas pálidas en el roble.

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Su contorno suelto y sin corona.

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Sé que hay umbrales precisos
donde impone la costumbre de un

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beso.

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O épocas en medio del
verano, próximas a la sequía,

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en que arden una fogata por
sacrificio o por memoria.

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Según los druidas, que
para mí son como la nieve,

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el muérdago lo cura todo.

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Es sabio e immortal.

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Lo mismo podría decirse de
cualquier cosa que desconoce.

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El tojo en el mediodía
de un monte quemado.

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El baobab en la tólida planicie.

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O los tisanuros en un
hoyo distante del viento.

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La nieve a veces
no tiene linderos,

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redime castas y fechas.

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Hace ritos en la tierra que
invierten la simetría de lo que

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buscan los ojos.

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Entonces, las quimeras ya no se
miran tras la reja como antes.

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Y así ocurre de repente.

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Cuando descubrí la nieve
de verdad, la nieve sola,

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ya no importaba.

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"Snow."

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"The strangest thing
about snow is not

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having seen it, to summon
it as a habit assumption

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or condition of certain words.

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Lezama's solicitous
snow, for example.

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The snow perplexed on the wheat.

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His braided festoon of
snow, its courtesan's flesh.

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His blind insects sinking
into the cold flank.

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His recited snow.

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His invited snow.

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His snow that
scrutinizes the bucks

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in the forest and the foliage
covered by a network of light

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as tenuous as the
fallacy of winter.

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Fixed among the
palms, which melts

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with the sun's first shock.

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Its trail of sand, and the
sultry breezes painted green.

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What is that snow held
together by its paradox?

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Is it someone's snow,
intimate and intransmissible,

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or is it the snow of the world?

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A redundant analogy: If marble
is snow's parasite, and not

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the other way around?

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The white proximity is so
absolute, it negates itself.

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And there is no knowledge.

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But with other forms,
with other facts,

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the snow may have the
consistency of an act.

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I have never seen mistletoe,
its yellow nativity,

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its berries pale on the oak,
its loose, crownless outline.

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I know there are certain
thresholds where it seals

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the tradition of the kiss.

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Or times in midsummer,
close to drought,

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when it blazes out of
sacrifice or memory.

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The druids believed.

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For me, they too, are like snow.

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That mistletoe cures everything,
is wise, and immortal.

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You can say the same
for anything unknown.

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The gorse bush at mid-day
on the burnt land.

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The baobab of torrid
plains, or the silverfish

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in a distant hole of wind.

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Sometimes snow has no borders.

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It redeems caste, dates.

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It creates rites on Earth
to improve the symmetry

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of what our eyes look for.

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Then the chimeras are not
seen from behind the fence

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as they were.

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And that's how
suddenly it happens.

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When I discovered the true
snow, the snow itself,

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it didn't matter anymore.

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