WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.772 align:middle line:84% The next poem is called "Nieve," "Snow." 00:00:02.772 --> 00:00:05.090 align:middle line:90% And it's about first time. 00:00:05.090 --> 00:00:07.816 align:middle line:84% About my dream of seeing snow, my wanting 00:00:07.816 --> 00:00:10.286 align:middle line:84% to see snow. [? In Mexico we ?] will never see snow 00:00:10.286 --> 00:00:12.262 align:middle line:90% except maybe in the mountains. 00:00:12.262 --> 00:00:14.440 align:middle line:84% I remember the first time I saw snow. 00:00:14.440 --> 00:00:16.277 align:middle line:84% The poet I mentioned, [? Lezama ?],, 00:00:16.277 --> 00:00:19.140 align:middle line:84% is the Cuban poet [? Lezama Lima ?].. 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:21.050 align:middle line:90% Nieve. 00:00:21.050 --> 00:00:24.030 align:middle line:84% Lo más extraño de la nieve es no haberla visto, 00:00:24.030 --> 00:00:28.190 align:middle line:84% pero convocarla con un hábito de la sombra o una condición de 00:00:28.190 --> 00:00:30.170 align:middle line:90% ciertas palabras. 00:00:30.170 --> 00:00:33.690 align:middle line:84% La nieve solicita de Lezama, por ejemplo. 00:00:33.690 --> 00:00:36.270 align:middle line:90% Su nieve perpleja en el trigo. 00:00:36.270 --> 00:00:39.090 align:middle line:90% Su festón enhebrado de nieve. 00:00:39.090 --> 00:00:41.100 align:middle line:90% Su pulpa cortesana. 00:00:41.100 --> 00:00:45.120 align:middle line:84% Sus insectos ciegos a pique por el flanco frío, 00:00:45.120 --> 00:00:49.260 align:middle line:84% sus nieves declamadas, sus nieves invitadas, 00:00:49.260 --> 00:00:52.050 align:middle line:84% sus nieves que escrutan gamos en el bosque. 00:00:52.050 --> 00:00:56.790 align:middle line:84% Y follajes cubiertos por la red de una luz tan tenue como la 00:00:56.790 --> 00:01:01.420 align:middle line:84% falacia del invierno fijo en las palmeras que se deshace con el 00:01:01.420 --> 00:01:03.130 align:middle line:90% primer golpe de sol. 00:01:03.130 --> 00:01:04.690 align:middle line:90% Su rastro de arena. 00:01:04.690 --> 00:01:08.750 align:middle line:84% Y la brisa canicular pintada de verde. 00:01:08.750 --> 00:01:12.230 align:middle line:84% ¿Qué es esa nieve retenida por sus paradojas? 00:01:12.230 --> 00:01:16.470 align:middle line:84% La nieve de alguien, íntima e instransmisible o la nieve del 00:01:16.470 --> 00:01:17.730 align:middle line:90% mundo. 00:01:17.730 --> 00:01:19.950 align:middle line:90% Una analogía redundante. 00:01:19.950 --> 00:01:24.000 align:middle line:84% Si el mármol es parásito de la nieve, no a la inversa. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:27.360 align:middle line:84% La cercanía blanca es tan absoluta que, entonces, 00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:28.890 align:middle line:90% se cancela. 00:01:28.890 --> 00:01:33.900 align:middle line:84% Y no hay conocimiento, pero con otras formas, con otros hechos, 00:01:33.900 --> 00:01:37.740 align:middle line:84% el símil puede tener la consistencia de un acto. 00:01:37.740 --> 00:01:39.570 align:middle line:90% Nunca he visto el muérdago. 00:01:39.570 --> 00:01:41.580 align:middle line:90% Su amarilla natividad. 00:01:41.580 --> 00:01:44.040 align:middle line:90% Sus bayas pálidas en el roble. 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:47.010 align:middle line:90% Su contorno suelto y sin corona. 00:01:47.010 --> 00:01:50.550 align:middle line:84% Sé que hay umbrales precisos donde impone la costumbre de un 00:01:50.550 --> 00:01:51.510 align:middle line:90% beso. 00:01:51.510 --> 00:01:55.350 align:middle line:84% O épocas en medio del verano, próximas a la sequía, 00:01:55.350 --> 00:01:59.370 align:middle line:84% en que arden una fogata por sacrificio o por memoria. 00:01:59.370 --> 00:02:02.780 align:middle line:84% Según los druidas, que para mí son como la nieve, 00:02:02.780 --> 00:02:04.680 align:middle line:90% el muérdago lo cura todo. 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:06.930 align:middle line:90% Es sabio e immortal. 00:02:06.930 --> 00:02:10.910 align:middle line:84% Lo mismo podría decirse de cualquier cosa que desconoce. 00:02:10.910 --> 00:02:14.150 align:middle line:84% El tojo en el mediodía de un monte quemado. 00:02:14.150 --> 00:02:16.960 align:middle line:90% El baobab en la tólida planicie. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:20.920 align:middle line:84% O los tisanuros en un hoyo distante del viento. 00:02:20.920 --> 00:02:23.410 align:middle line:84% La nieve a veces no tiene linderos, 00:02:23.410 --> 00:02:25.600 align:middle line:90% redime castas y fechas. 00:02:25.600 --> 00:02:29.020 align:middle line:84% Hace ritos en la tierra que invierten la simetría de lo que 00:02:29.020 --> 00:02:30.830 align:middle line:90% buscan los ojos. 00:02:30.830 --> 00:02:35.090 align:middle line:84% Entonces, las quimeras ya no se miran tras la reja como antes. 00:02:35.090 --> 00:02:37.070 align:middle line:90% Y así ocurre de repente. 00:02:37.070 --> 00:02:40.490 align:middle line:84% Cuando descubrí la nieve de verdad, la nieve sola, 00:02:40.490 --> 00:02:43.740 align:middle line:90% ya no importaba. 00:02:43.760 --> 00:02:45.570 align:middle line:90% "Snow." 00:02:45.570 --> 00:02:48.270 align:middle line:84% "The strangest thing about snow is not 00:02:48.270 --> 00:02:51.840 align:middle line:84% having seen it, to summon it as a habit assumption 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:54.010 align:middle line:90% or condition of certain words. 00:02:54.010 --> 00:02:57.100 align:middle line:84% Lezama's solicitous snow, for example. 00:02:57.100 --> 00:02:59.280 align:middle line:90% The snow perplexed on the wheat. 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:03.240 align:middle line:84% His braided festoon of snow, its courtesan's flesh. 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:06.990 align:middle line:84% His blind insects sinking into the cold flank. 00:03:06.990 --> 00:03:08.640 align:middle line:90% His recited snow. 00:03:08.640 --> 00:03:10.290 align:middle line:90% His invited snow. 00:03:10.290 --> 00:03:12.540 align:middle line:84% His snow that scrutinizes the bucks 00:03:12.540 --> 00:03:16.830 align:middle line:84% in the forest and the foliage covered by a network of light 00:03:16.830 --> 00:03:19.740 align:middle line:84% as tenuous as the fallacy of winter. 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:22.230 align:middle line:84% Fixed among the palms, which melts 00:03:22.230 --> 00:03:24.090 align:middle line:90% with the sun's first shock. 00:03:24.090 --> 00:03:28.980 align:middle line:84% Its trail of sand, and the sultry breezes painted green. 00:03:28.980 --> 00:03:32.310 align:middle line:84% What is that snow held together by its paradox? 00:03:32.310 --> 00:03:35.910 align:middle line:84% Is it someone's snow, intimate and intransmissible, 00:03:35.910 --> 00:03:38.100 align:middle line:90% or is it the snow of the world? 00:03:38.100 --> 00:03:42.390 align:middle line:84% A redundant analogy: If marble is snow's parasite, and not 00:03:42.390 --> 00:03:43.840 align:middle line:90% the other way around? 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:47.730 align:middle line:84% The white proximity is so absolute, it negates itself. 00:03:47.730 --> 00:03:50.250 align:middle line:90% And there is no knowledge. 00:03:50.250 --> 00:03:52.860 align:middle line:84% But with other forms, with other facts, 00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:56.070 align:middle line:84% the snow may have the consistency of an act. 00:03:56.070 --> 00:03:59.430 align:middle line:84% I have never seen mistletoe, its yellow nativity, 00:03:59.430 --> 00:04:04.240 align:middle line:84% its berries pale on the oak, its loose, crownless outline. 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:06.330 align:middle line:84% I know there are certain thresholds where it seals 00:04:06.330 --> 00:04:07.980 align:middle line:90% the tradition of the kiss. 00:04:07.980 --> 00:04:10.650 align:middle line:84% Or times in midsummer, close to drought, 00:04:10.650 --> 00:04:14.220 align:middle line:84% when it blazes out of sacrifice or memory. 00:04:14.220 --> 00:04:15.870 align:middle line:90% The druids believed. 00:04:15.870 --> 00:04:18.480 align:middle line:90% For me, they too, are like snow. 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:22.800 align:middle line:84% That mistletoe cures everything, is wise, and immortal. 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:25.750 align:middle line:84% You can say the same for anything unknown. 00:04:25.750 --> 00:04:29.220 align:middle line:84% The gorse bush at mid-day on the burnt land. 00:04:29.220 --> 00:04:33.220 align:middle line:84% The baobab of torrid plains, or the silverfish 00:04:33.220 --> 00:04:35.760 align:middle line:90% in a distant hole of wind. 00:04:35.760 --> 00:04:38.410 align:middle line:90% Sometimes snow has no borders. 00:04:38.410 --> 00:04:40.770 align:middle line:90% It redeems caste, dates. 00:04:40.770 --> 00:04:44.250 align:middle line:84% It creates rites on Earth to improve the symmetry 00:04:44.250 --> 00:04:46.260 align:middle line:90% of what our eyes look for. 00:04:46.260 --> 00:04:49.065 align:middle line:84% Then the chimeras are not seen from behind the fence 00:04:49.065 --> 00:04:51.270 align:middle line:90% as they were. 00:04:51.270 --> 00:04:53.610 align:middle line:84% And that's how suddenly it happens. 00:04:53.610 --> 00:04:57.060 align:middle line:84% When I discovered the true snow, the snow itself, 00:04:57.060 --> 00:04:59.575 align:middle line:90% it didn't matter anymore. 00:04:59.575 --> 00:05:00.075 align:middle line:90%