WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.907 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.907 --> 00:00:02.490 align:middle line:84% And I'm going to read some newer work. 00:00:02.490 --> 00:00:06.690 align:middle line:84% This is from the project that I came here to work on. 00:00:06.690 --> 00:00:11.220 align:middle line:84% It is a translation of Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy. 00:00:11.220 --> 00:00:15.300 align:middle line:84% If you know his philosophy, his earlier work, The Tractatus, 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:18.780 align:middle line:84% translated from philosophy into poetry. 00:00:18.780 --> 00:00:22.650 align:middle line:84% And I undertook that project because I knew his text deals 00:00:22.650 --> 00:00:24.390 align:middle line:84% with language and the nature of language, 00:00:24.390 --> 00:00:27.330 align:middle line:84% and how it might relate to reality. 00:00:27.330 --> 00:00:29.250 align:middle line:84% He believes there could be a one to one 00:00:29.250 --> 00:00:33.330 align:middle line:84% correspondence between a thing and a word. 00:00:33.330 --> 00:00:36.870 align:middle line:84% And so I started out just thinking about, well, 00:00:36.870 --> 00:00:38.760 align:middle line:84% I know I need to approach this text, 00:00:38.760 --> 00:00:40.290 align:middle line:90% but I'm not really sure how. 00:00:40.290 --> 00:00:43.680 align:middle line:84% It's notoriously abstract and he doesn't really 00:00:43.680 --> 00:00:45.160 align:middle line:90% give many examples. 00:00:45.160 --> 00:00:48.360 align:middle line:84% So I decided to translate it into poetic terms 00:00:48.360 --> 00:00:51.120 align:middle line:84% in order to kind of understand it for myself. 00:00:51.120 --> 00:00:53.130 align:middle line:84% And along the way, the project has 00:00:53.130 --> 00:00:57.720 align:middle line:84% become an argument with him, a dialogue with him 00:00:57.720 --> 00:00:58.860 align:middle line:90% and its own narrative. 00:00:58.860 --> 00:01:02.380 align:middle line:84% It's kind of taken on a life of its own. 00:01:02.380 --> 00:01:04.080 align:middle line:90% So I'm going to read. 00:01:04.080 --> 00:01:07.680 align:middle line:84% I'll read a smattering from throughout the manuscript, 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:10.050 align:middle line:84% but I'm going to start with the first part, in which I 00:01:10.050 --> 00:01:13.080 align:middle line:84% basically took his terms and substituted 00:01:13.080 --> 00:01:14.490 align:middle line:90% more concrete words. 00:01:14.490 --> 00:01:16.540 align:middle line:84% So I won't go through all of them. 00:01:16.540 --> 00:01:19.650 align:middle line:84% But in this section the word "willow" 00:01:19.650 --> 00:01:23.070 align:middle line:90% stands for his word "world". 00:01:23.070 --> 00:01:27.030 align:middle line:90% "One. A Possible Willow." 00:01:27.030 --> 00:01:30.330 align:middle line:84% The willow is all that is the case. 00:01:30.330 --> 00:01:33.990 align:middle line:90% The willow is sky, not leaves. 00:01:33.990 --> 00:01:39.180 align:middle line:84% The willow is determined by sky and by its being all sky. 00:01:39.180 --> 00:01:42.510 align:middle line:84% The fullness of sky determines what is the case, 00:01:42.510 --> 00:01:45.910 align:middle line:84% and also whatever is not the case. 00:01:45.910 --> 00:01:49.530 align:middle line:84% The sky in a clamoring space is the willow. 00:01:49.530 --> 00:01:52.800 align:middle line:90% The willow divides into sky. 00:01:52.800 --> 00:01:55.770 align:middle line:84% Each leaf can be the case, or not the case, 00:01:55.770 --> 00:01:59.090 align:middle line:84% while everything else remains the same. 00:01:59.090 --> 00:02:00.000 align:middle line:90%