WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.630 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.630 --> 00:00:05.220 align:middle line:84% There's a section of this book of translations 00:00:05.220 --> 00:00:09.870 align:middle line:84% from the Italian of the poet named Dino Campana, who 00:00:09.870 --> 00:00:11.320 align:middle line:90% I think is a fabulous poet. 00:00:11.320 --> 00:00:13.770 align:middle line:84% There's only one book in English that I've ever seen, 00:00:13.770 --> 00:00:17.790 align:middle line:84% I've seen scattered poems in anthologies. 00:00:17.790 --> 00:00:19.980 align:middle line:84% So I made some of my own translations. 00:00:19.980 --> 00:00:21.630 align:middle line:84% Although I can't honestly call them 00:00:21.630 --> 00:00:25.710 align:middle line:84% translations because I don't speak a word of Italian. 00:00:25.710 --> 00:00:28.560 align:middle line:84% What I did was, over the years, and I was working on these, 00:00:28.560 --> 00:00:31.650 align:middle line:90% I would get anybody I knew-- 00:00:31.650 --> 00:00:34.770 align:middle line:84% colleagues, students, people, and literally 00:00:34.770 --> 00:00:38.960 align:middle line:84% people in pizza parlors, anybody who knew Italian. 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:41.590 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.590 --> 00:00:42.090 align:middle line:90% Truth. 00:00:42.090 --> 00:00:45.450 align:middle line:90% 00:00:45.450 --> 00:00:51.450 align:middle line:84% And I'd get them to do literal prose translations for me. 00:00:51.450 --> 00:00:53.247 align:middle line:90% And then I made my own versions. 00:00:53.247 --> 00:00:54.330 align:middle line:90% And I'll read one of them. 00:00:54.330 --> 00:00:57.096 align:middle line:90% 00:00:57.096 --> 00:00:59.690 align:middle line:90% It's called "Song of Darkness." 00:00:59.690 --> 00:01:04.519 align:middle line:84% He died in 1932 or six, or something like that. 00:01:04.519 --> 00:01:08.450 align:middle line:84% These poems are written in the teens, about 1914, '15. 00:01:08.450 --> 00:01:11.885 align:middle line:84% He spent the last 16 years of his life in a madhouse. 00:01:11.885 --> 00:01:15.740 align:middle line:90% 00:01:15.740 --> 00:01:18.020 align:middle line:90% "Song of Darkness." 00:01:18.020 --> 00:01:22.430 align:middle line:90% "The hues near dark grow slim. 00:01:22.430 --> 00:01:27.110 align:middle line:84% Nervous spirits, I hope the dark is sweet to the heart that 00:01:27.110 --> 00:01:29.060 align:middle line:90% stopped loving. 00:01:29.060 --> 00:01:33.500 align:middle line:84% We must listen to the beginnings of rivers, rivers, 00:01:33.500 --> 00:01:38.060 align:middle line:84% rivers that understand spirits, spirits that listen. 00:01:38.060 --> 00:01:41.900 align:middle line:84% Listen, the hues near dark grow thin, 00:01:41.900 --> 00:01:45.710 align:middle line:84% and to the nervous spirits the dark is sweet. 00:01:45.710 --> 00:01:51.320 align:middle line:84% Listen, fate has beaten you, for the lighthearted another life 00:01:51.320 --> 00:01:53.180 align:middle line:90% knocks at the door. 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:56.810 align:middle line:90% No more, more, more. 00:01:56.810 --> 00:02:00.950 align:middle line:84% Is there a tenderness to offset death? 00:02:00.950 --> 00:02:02.840 align:middle line:90% Know who still hugs you. 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:09.259 align:middle line:84% No, the sweet woman who whispers, no more, more. 00:02:09.259 --> 00:02:12.950 align:middle line:84% Here the wind lifts, and is gone. 00:02:12.950 --> 00:02:15.830 align:middle line:84% Here returns from the ocean and here we 00:02:15.830 --> 00:02:20.100 align:middle line:84% listen to the breathless heart that loved us more. 00:02:20.100 --> 00:02:25.160 align:middle line:84% Let's look-- the trees and water are already like night. 00:02:25.160 --> 00:02:28.550 align:middle line:84% The river moves in its speechless way. 00:02:28.550 --> 00:02:29.390 align:middle line:90% Bang! 00:02:29.390 --> 00:02:32.420 align:middle line:90% Mother, that man up there." 00:02:32.420 --> 00:02:35.170 align:middle line:90% Now he's talking about there.