WEBVTT

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Here's another one.

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I have to tell you a
short story about it

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because it makes absolutely
no sense unless you

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know the story.

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That's not a good thing
to say about a poem.

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In Central Asia in Samarkand--

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Samarkand is a very
great and beautiful city

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and one of the oldest
surely in the world--

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there are ruins on
the edge of the city.

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In this decade, I've
forgotten which year

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Samarkand celebrated
officially its

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2500th anniversary as a city.

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And on the edge of the city
at the ruins of Afrasiyab,

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which are some of the
richest archeological ruins

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in the world they are finding
evidence which turns out

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to be about twice that old.

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Anyway, the city is full of
marvelous medieval mosques,

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the ruins of mosques
and some of them

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are terribly impressive
even as ruins.

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And what they must have
been when they were whole

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staggers the imagination.

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One of these is the
Bibi-Khanym mosque.

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It's a great ruin there
right in the old city

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and it towers 60 meters
high or something.

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But legend has it, Bibi-Khanym
was Tamerlane's favorite wife--

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he had 600 or so,
she was his favorite.

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And she was said to be
the most beautiful woman

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in the world in her time.

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And Tamerlane was
extremely jealous.

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And Tamerlane was always
going off to conquer things,

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conquer distant parts of the
world, and on one occasion

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he went away on what we
Kiowa sometimes

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call a raiding
expedition, and he

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was gone for a couple of years.

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And in his absence,
Bibi-Khanym decided

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to present him upon his
return with a present

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and she wanted it to be
the greatest present that

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had ever been given to a man.

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And so she sought out
the greatest architect

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and she directed him to
build a mosque for Tamerlane

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and he should have it ready
when Tamerlane returned.

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And sure enough, it came about
that this magnificent mosque

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was constructed.

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But in the course
of the construction

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the architect fell head over
heels in love with Bibi-Khanym.

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And so just at a crucial stage
of the construction he came

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to her and he said, 'Bibi baby,
I am hopelessly in love with

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you and I cannot sleep.

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I can think of nothing else,
I cannot survive another day

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unless you kiss me."

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And Bibi-Khanym was horrified.

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She said, "No, no, no, no,
no, you don't understand.

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Choose any other of Tamerlane's
wives but leave me alone.

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But he persisted.

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And so everything
was at a standstill

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and the situation was
becoming rather desperate.

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And so Bibi-Khanym brought the
architect some colored eggs

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and she said to him,
you see how these

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appear to be different
one from another

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but inside they are all alike,
and so it is with women.

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And the next day the
architect brought

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to Bibi-Khanym two vials of
clear liquid and he said,

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you see how these vials appear
to contain the same thing

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but one is water and
the other is vodka.

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And so before in the
face of that logic

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she simply withered away and
she said, "Kiss me, you fool."

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And so he kissed her, and he
kissed her with such passion

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that he left a mark on her face.

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And you know who came home
just at that moment in history.

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And there from there on the
legend just disintegrates.

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One version has it that
Tamerlane threw Bibi-Khanym

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off the highest
tower of the mosque.

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And don't even ask what
he did to the architect.

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But I was intrigued
by that legend

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and so I wrote this poem.

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You didn't think I was going
to get around to that, did you?

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This is called
"Bibi-Khanym Mosque."

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"The eggs were of
different colors

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each one like a stone in the
shallows of the Zarafshan.

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My Lord Tamerlane
I have been true,

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when you were gone to the
South I remembered you.

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And here is the proportion
this architecture

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is the sign the whole
geometry of my devotion.

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The architect confounded
me with water and with wine

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and now is the stain of his
dark odour at my mouth."

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