When I wonder what was this way--
I wanted to read you a poem I wrote about being a failure
when I was a young girl.
It is a poem for Rosa Alcalá who is here to translate.
I don't know how many of you understand Spanish in the room?
Unos poquitos.
¿Cuántos?
2, 3, 4, 8, 10, más manitos.
OK. ¿Lo leo entonces?
No, ¿para qué?
No, I will not read it.
Because I'm afraid it's a little late,
and I thought how much time we have.
Five minutes?
OK, so it's time to go home.
[LAUGHTER]
Because there are two ladies here in this room
that I love with all my heart--
Rosa Alcalá, who translated these poems.
She was even translating me before she was born.
When I first heard her name, somebody said you must meet
this girl called Rosa Alcalá.
And I saw a wave coming at me--
a wave of Rosa Alcalá.
Alcalá is a castle!
It's a fortress!
It's a power!
Rosa, I felt coming--
and soon I met her.
And she translated these.
And then years-- years--
went by.
And I met another girl that's also here--
Julie Felix Brown.
And she there writing an interpretation, so-called,
of the same poems that Rosa had [? compared ?]
into something-- something-- that was new.
So for them, Rosa and Julie, Red cabezal.
[CHANTING IN SPANISH]
Pensar, envolvente y tenaz, caer y volver [INAUDIBLE] y
recomenzar.
Head net.
Rosa said, whenever Venus rises up--
the morning star on a name name--
named Net.
Then [? he ?] [? said, ?] [? Rosa. ?] But you must know
what's happening here with this [? mic ?]..
Thousands and thousands of breezes lead the rainbows--
a movie-- the eye of a flight.
They're blinding me and I can't see.
The unborn net is humid hem.
Unravelled sack, ink in a shell.
The thinking of thought.
Tenacious wrap the fall and return.
Nectar commencing, nectar commence.
Nada más.
[APPLAUSE]