WEBVTT

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Hello, everyone.

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My name is Cybele Knowles. I'm
the coordinator of the Poetry

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Center's Reading
& Lecture Series.

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And tonight the Poetry
Center and the Department

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of East Asian studies present
poet, editor, and translator,

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Jeffrey Yang, giving
a talk entitled

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"Lost Illusions" on
poetry translation

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and literary publishing.

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I'm very excited
about tonight's event.

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And I have a few more things
than usual to say about it.

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So I'm going to just get a few
announcements out of the way

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first.

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To let you know that we have
Jeffrey's books for sale, 20%

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off the cover price over there.

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We've got books that
he's edited as well as

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books that he's authored.

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And Poetry Center docents,
Elaine and Jessie,

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will be very happy
to sell you books.

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And Jeffrey will be
happy to sign books

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after the talk is over.

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And we also have surveys--

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again surveys.

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Your feedback helps us very much
in planning our reading series

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and helps us win the grants that
allow us to present events free

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of charge.

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So after the
reading, if you would

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like to fill out a survey.

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You can get one from
Poetry Center volunteer

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Andrea over there.

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And we have a survey
incentive tonight.

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If you turn in a completed
survey to Andrea.

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She will give you a Reese's
Peanut Butter cup, a big one.

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OK.

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In my last announcements
but important ones.

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I want to tell you about
some upcoming events.

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So tomorrow night, of course,
here in this room at 7:00.

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We have our annual
next word in poetry

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reading featuring Jeffrey
reading from his work and also

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Tucson's own Katherine Larson.

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So that's tomorrow.

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That will be a
wonderful reading.

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I encourage you all
to come back for that.

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And also, if you haven't
purchased tickets yet

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for Love Notes.

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I also encourage you to do that.

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Love Notes is a Valentine's
Day inspired performance

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of music, dance, and poetry.

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And will be presented at
the Stevie Eller Theater

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on Main campus.

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It's happening during the
week of Valentine's Day.

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I know that there are
still lots of tickets

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available for Friday night.

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And I'm calling it the
thinking and feeling

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person's Valentine's Day date.

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It will include
Richard Siken reading

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a litany, in which certain
things are crossed out

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to piano music composed
just for the occasion.

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And I'm really
excited about that.

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And if you have any questions
about Love Notes, ask me.

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OK.

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So now I want to tell you
a little bit about how

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tonight's event came to be.

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When Jeffrey's first book
of poems, An Aquarium,

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was published in 2008
by GrayWolf press.

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We immediately took notice.

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And basically we've been wanting
to bring him to the Poetry

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Center to read since then.

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The release of his second
book of poems, Vanishing Line,

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Was a perfect occasion
for that invitation.

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Then we learned that Jeffrey
had worked for many years

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as a poetry editor, still
does, at New Directions.

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And we thought, wow,
how cool would it

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be to work at the publishing
house that first published

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Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens,
Pound, and William Carlos

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Williams, and Gary Snyder's
Turtle Island, and more.

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And also a publishing
house that has always

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been a leader in publishing
works in translation

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from Neruda to Bolano.

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And then we got to learn
more about Jeffrey's projects

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at New Directions.

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For example, a beautiful
anthology entitled Birds,

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Beasts, and Seas,
anthology of nature poems

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gathered from New
directions titles.

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We also learned that
Jeffrey acquired

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and edited Tomas Transtromer's
collection of complete poems.

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Keeping in mind that Transtromer
just won a Nobel Prize

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in literature.

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And so that all provided
the answer to our question,

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how cool is it to work
at New Directions?

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The answer is, in Jeffrey's
case, extremely cool.

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And then the straw that really
broke the camel's back was

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learning that Jeffrey is
a translator of poetry

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and that in addition
to co-edited

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a lovely book of international
poetry -in- translation.

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And we have a few copies
over there tonight.

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He is a translator
of a forthcoming book

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of poems by Liu Xiaobo, who is a
foremost symbol of the struggle

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for human rights in
China, leading activists

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during the Tiananmen Square
protests of June 4, 1989,

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currently incarcerated as a
political prisoner in China.

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The collection that Jeffrey's
translated of Liu Xiaobo's work

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is entitled June
Fourth Elegies, will

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be published by
Graywolf this April

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and presents the poems
written across 20 years

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and in this bilingual
volume Liu Xiaobo's poetry

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for the first time
published in both English

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and the Chinese original.

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So Jeffrey is a poet, and
an editor, and a translator.

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He does a lot of
important, wonderful work.

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And he does it
exceptionally well.

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And we thought that we'd
like to hear more about how

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he does it all and
some of the things he's

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learned along the way.

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So I think Jeffrey very
much for taking time out

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of his busy schedule
to visit us.

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And I thank Phil Gabriel
and the Department

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of East Asian studies for
co-sponsoring this talk.

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And please help me
welcome Jeffrey to Tucson.

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[APPLAUSE]

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