WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:04.800 align:middle line:84% After this next poem in, we will have 00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:07.480 align:middle line:84% a moment when you will talk among yourselves 00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:10.870 align:middle line:84% and I will drink a glass of water. 00:00:10.870 --> 00:00:14.130 align:middle line:84% The next poem is the one written apparently in my own voice, 00:00:14.130 --> 00:00:17.250 align:middle line:84% and it is indeed a letter written by me 00:00:17.250 --> 00:00:23.850 align:middle line:84% from a strange place back to home and to someone 00:00:23.850 --> 00:00:24.930 align:middle line:90% I grew up with. 00:00:24.930 --> 00:00:29.070 align:middle line:84% I'm sure you have discovered, as I discovered on this occasion, 00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:32.130 align:middle line:84% that when you travel, it is often in order 00:00:32.130 --> 00:00:34.200 align:middle line:90% to be brought home to yourself. 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:37.530 align:middle line:84% And on this occasion, and on this travel, 00:00:37.530 --> 00:00:41.550 align:middle line:84% I was reminded of something that had happened to me when 00:00:41.550 --> 00:00:45.330 align:middle line:84% I was very little, and I wish to share it 00:00:45.330 --> 00:00:48.330 align:middle line:90% with the companion of my past. 00:00:48.330 --> 00:00:54.660 align:middle line:84% I had gone to a progressive school in Cleveland, Ohio. 00:00:54.660 --> 00:01:01.510 align:middle line:84% And there had been a time when our class made 00:01:01.510 --> 00:01:05.790 align:middle line:84% a kind of expedition to what was called the Great Lakes 00:01:05.790 --> 00:01:08.100 align:middle line:90% Exhibition or Exposition. 00:01:08.100 --> 00:01:13.660 align:middle line:84% And there was a whole thing about being Vikings that year. 00:01:13.660 --> 00:01:16.980 align:middle line:84% And there is some recollection of that in this poem. 00:01:16.980 --> 00:01:20.130 align:middle line:84% And it came to me rather oddly because the poem 00:01:20.130 --> 00:01:25.320 align:middle line:84% was written in the form of a letter to my old friend Anne 00:01:25.320 --> 00:01:27.180 align:middle line:90% from Beyoglu. 00:01:27.180 --> 00:01:30.840 align:middle line:84% Beyoglu is the European side of the Straits 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:39.300 align:middle line:84% at Istanbul, where I was in the journey, as you will hear. 00:01:39.300 --> 00:01:41.040 align:middle line:84% The poem is called "From Beyoglu." 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:43.770 align:middle line:90% 00:01:43.770 --> 00:01:47.790 align:middle line:84% "Dear Anne, counting here and now, 00:01:47.790 --> 00:01:51.660 align:middle line:84% I can discover ten boats-- no, no, a dozen boats. 00:01:51.660 --> 00:01:55.680 align:middle line:84% In this light, or lack of it, in this unlikely emptiness of air 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:58.620 align:middle line:84% that lets me look miles up the Bosporus, 00:01:58.620 --> 00:02:02.610 align:middle line:84% miles down the Marmara to Kadikoy, miles across the Horn 00:02:02.610 --> 00:02:06.660 align:middle line:90% to Uskudar, some dozen boats. 00:02:06.660 --> 00:02:10.710 align:middle line:84% Lighted each one, if not by light revealed, 00:02:10.710 --> 00:02:13.740 align:middle line:84% are set like moving jewels in the water. 00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:17.190 align:middle line:90% Shiftless, still. 00:02:17.190 --> 00:02:19.280 align:middle line:84% Or perhaps it's the sky they're set in, 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:23.300 align:middle line:84% plying up where further jewels fly from Yesilkoy to Ankara 00:02:23.300 --> 00:02:24.410 align:middle line:90% and all points east. 00:02:24.410 --> 00:02:27.020 align:middle line:84% The last few minutes lost me the horizon. 00:02:27.020 --> 00:02:29.750 align:middle line:90% There's no telling. 00:02:29.750 --> 00:02:33.260 align:middle line:84% Before when there was, say an hour ago at least, 00:02:33.260 --> 00:02:36.230 align:middle line:84% a door in the minaret level with our balcony 00:02:36.230 --> 00:02:38.960 align:middle line:84% opened and out stepped a man in shirt sleeves 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:42.470 align:middle line:84% cupping both hands around his mouth. 00:02:42.470 --> 00:02:47.030 align:middle line:84% Whereat the air ring with calls to prayer. 00:02:47.030 --> 00:02:49.470 align:middle line:90% Who could believe how loud? 00:02:49.470 --> 00:02:51.860 align:middle line:84% And there are little rings of light bulbs 00:02:51.860 --> 00:02:56.390 align:middle line:84% now just where that muezzin vanished once he'd 00:02:56.390 --> 00:02:58.520 align:middle line:90% bawled the sunset out of sight. 00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:02.000 align:middle line:84% And all the world that is not Turkish-- 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.590 align:middle line:90% turquoise-- turns ultramarine. 00:03:06.590 --> 00:03:11.000 align:middle line:84% Every light is a jewel, like the 12 boats. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:13.730 align:middle line:84% Even this balcony to them another gem. 00:03:13.730 --> 00:03:18.560 align:middle line:84% Jewels the kind you love, Anne, the kind we 00:03:18.560 --> 00:03:21.260 align:middle line:90% saw in the Seraglio. 00:03:21.260 --> 00:03:26.090 align:middle line:84% Amber drops labeled tears of the latest Phoenix. 00:03:26.090 --> 00:03:29.180 align:middle line:84% Draconites engendered in the colorless brain of serpents. 00:03:29.180 --> 00:03:30.920 align:middle line:84% An amethyst whose liquor at night 00:03:30.920 --> 00:03:34.010 align:middle line:84% thickens to sapphires, which will melt the wax they're 00:03:34.010 --> 00:03:36.980 align:middle line:90% sealed with, even by moonlight. 00:03:36.980 --> 00:03:39.020 align:middle line:84% Cloudy emeralds glistening in a glass 00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:41.690 align:middle line:84% as though slaves had licked them into shape. 00:03:41.690 --> 00:03:47.300 align:middle line:84% Stones, jewels, lights only farther 00:03:47.300 --> 00:03:52.130 align:middle line:84% off these marking sea, sky, and the now invisible promontories. 00:03:52.130 --> 00:04:00.440 align:middle line:84% Atmosphere in Istanbul mimics history changing the sky, 00:04:00.440 --> 00:04:03.920 align:middle line:84% changing the sea, leaching out all local color 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:08.430 align:middle line:84% from the land leaving the dust and ash. 00:04:08.430 --> 00:04:11.300 align:middle line:90% The moon at noon. 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:16.890 align:middle line:84% This afternoon, our third, it was a disaster here. 00:04:16.890 --> 00:04:18.950 align:middle line:84% Oh, Anne, my dear, everything here 00:04:18.950 --> 00:04:23.720 align:middle line:84% is a disaster, closed, under restoration, bricked 00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:27.020 align:middle line:84% up, broken, sadly lacking, reconstructed, 00:04:27.020 --> 00:04:29.870 align:middle line:84% brought down, now in disuse, utterly gutted. 00:04:29.870 --> 00:04:33.620 align:middle line:84% Quite ruined, badly weathered, reinforced, past repair, 00:04:33.620 --> 00:04:38.420 align:middle line:84% toppled, razed, formerly vast, slashed, scarred, contaminated, 00:04:38.420 --> 00:04:40.940 align:middle line:84% stripped, stolen, sacked, defaced, 00:04:40.940 --> 00:04:45.210 align:middle line:84% vandalized, once resplendent, damaged by the sultan's death, 00:04:45.210 --> 00:04:47.720 align:middle line:84% interrupted, damaged by earthquake, 00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:53.348 align:middle line:84% lost, burnt, unexcavated, filled in, whereabouts unknown. 00:04:53.348 --> 00:05:00.380 align:middle line:84% And we returned without a word to the hotel, twilight, 00:05:00.380 --> 00:05:02.870 align:middle line:90% and the view. 00:05:02.870 --> 00:05:06.950 align:middle line:90% But at night, these ashes glow. 00:05:06.950 --> 00:05:10.700 align:middle line:84% This dust kindles, like the sultan's topaz, 00:05:10.700 --> 00:05:12.200 align:middle line:90% sallow then suddenly red. 00:05:12.200 --> 00:05:17.450 align:middle line:84% The moon turns Greek fire, catches. 00:05:17.450 --> 00:05:23.270 align:middle line:84% While I watch, I hear the past appear. 00:05:23.270 --> 00:05:27.590 align:middle line:84% The moment the moon rises or the city on its pyre 00:05:27.590 --> 00:05:32.450 align:middle line:84% sinks back to Constantinople and then to Byzantium. 00:05:32.450 --> 00:05:37.310 align:middle line:84% S in the room behind me switches on the radio, full blast 00:05:37.310 --> 00:05:43.160 align:middle line:84% and the music, fierce as that muezzin's, fills the air. 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:44.210 align:middle line:90% Finlandia. 00:05:44.210 --> 00:05:47.120 align:middle line:90% 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:52.850 align:middle line:84% Dearest Anne, do you remember the year we were Vikings? 00:05:52.850 --> 00:05:55.370 align:middle line:84% Monday after Monday, Miss Peterson 00:05:55.370 --> 00:05:59.240 align:middle line:84% started off with the Silver Songbook, Sibelius, 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:04.760 align:middle line:84% and oh, land of lakes and azure streams a-flowing. 00:06:04.760 --> 00:06:07.760 align:middle line:84% Sure, Von Karajan conveys it better, 00:06:07.760 --> 00:06:11.390 align:middle line:90% the true Viking from Vienna. 00:06:11.390 --> 00:06:13.880 align:middle line:90% But the truth? 00:06:13.880 --> 00:06:16.400 align:middle line:84% The trouble is I can't tell, Anne. 00:06:16.400 --> 00:06:18.500 align:middle line:84% I can't tell the truth from travesty. 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:22.490 align:middle line:84% Children shrilling Sibelius in a ring supposing the black Finns 00:06:22.490 --> 00:06:24.440 align:middle line:90% to be their blonde Vikings. 00:06:24.440 --> 00:06:26.450 align:middle line:90% We were those children. 00:06:26.450 --> 00:06:27.650 align:middle line:90% We sang. 00:06:27.650 --> 00:06:28.910 align:middle line:90% We suffered. 00:06:28.910 --> 00:06:31.580 align:middle line:90% We were there. 00:06:31.580 --> 00:06:33.290 align:middle line:90% Where were we? 00:06:33.290 --> 00:06:34.970 align:middle line:90% Wasn't it real? 00:06:34.970 --> 00:06:37.430 align:middle line:90% Is only this real? 00:06:37.430 --> 00:06:41.750 align:middle line:84% This complacent stirring orchestration here and now 00:06:41.750 --> 00:06:44.900 align:middle line:90% and the moon and Istanbul. 00:06:44.900 --> 00:06:48.560 align:middle line:84% Are all those mornings silver singing 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:54.080 align:middle line:84% gone when you and I were Great Lakes Vikings? 00:06:54.080 --> 00:06:58.970 align:middle line:84% They come upon me, and I am theirs. 00:06:58.970 --> 00:07:02.870 align:middle line:84% Such music summons me to my own devotions imperative 00:07:02.870 --> 00:07:06.560 align:middle line:90% as any howls from the minaret. 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:12.710 align:middle line:84% How to find a place for the past once it turns on you, 00:07:12.710 --> 00:07:16.620 align:middle line:84% and how to believe in the present play of lights 00:07:16.620 --> 00:07:19.540 align:middle line:90% and placid sea. 00:07:19.540 --> 00:07:23.680 align:middle line:84% My dozen boats have left the harbor basin black, 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:27.040 align:middle line:84% till one ferry edges out from Galata, from the bridge they 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:30.050 align:middle line:90% break in two at midnight. 00:07:30.050 --> 00:07:32.965 align:middle line:84% And as it trusts itself to darkness, 00:07:32.965 --> 00:07:35.770 align:middle line:84% my answer comes, nor is it, you would prompt me 00:07:35.770 --> 00:07:41.380 align:middle line:84% from the Songbook as if we ever lacked masters in displacement. 00:07:41.380 --> 00:07:51.100 align:middle line:84% Vladimir, Marcel, there is another world in this one. 00:07:51.100 --> 00:07:56.160 align:middle line:84% The past is in the present or nowhere. 00:07:56.160 --> 00:08:00.790 align:middle line:84% But mostly there, I find in Istanbul, nowhere city, 00:08:00.790 --> 00:08:03.220 align:middle line:90% faint beyond finding. 00:08:03.220 --> 00:08:07.330 align:middle line:84% A site for Baudelaire, hospital, whorehouse, prison, purgatory, 00:08:07.330 --> 00:08:14.650 align:middle line:84% hell, until the moon turns it on with a sound like Sibelius. 00:08:14.650 --> 00:08:20.680 align:middle line:84% Grace beyond argument or need granting the vision. 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:24.670 align:middle line:84% Unsounded, true Istanbul contains itself 00:08:24.670 --> 00:08:29.410 align:middle line:90% in glory, all trash. 00:08:29.410 --> 00:08:36.130 align:middle line:84% The year we were Vikings is here with the Blue Mosque, a dim 00:08:36.130 --> 00:08:43.150 align:middle line:84% splendor depending on a light, a sound, a memory given, 00:08:43.150 --> 00:08:45.220 align:middle line:90% not gained. 00:08:45.220 --> 00:08:49.720 align:middle line:84% Nothing is left, but nothing leaves. 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:52.690 align:middle line:84% That is the holy wisdom masquerading 00:08:52.690 --> 00:08:55.360 align:middle line:90% in Turkish delight. 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:59.320 align:middle line:84% Even Finlandia comes to an end, but with it 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:05.260 align:middle line:84% comes a kind of solace, Anne, a final comfort. 00:09:05.260 --> 00:09:10.240 align:middle line:84% The Finns are Turks, Mongol types who share a language. 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:13.810 align:middle line:84% Ural Altaic, characterized by vowel harmony, 00:09:13.810 --> 00:09:17.510 align:middle line:84% agglutinative forms and uniformity, 00:09:17.510 --> 00:09:19.180 align:middle line:90% which sounds like poetry, no? 00:09:19.180 --> 00:09:21.070 align:middle line:90% Even like a poem. 00:09:21.070 --> 00:09:24.130 align:middle line:84% And once we know Sibelius was born in Turku, Finland. 00:09:24.130 --> 00:09:26.860 align:middle line:90% 00:09:26.860 --> 00:09:28.930 align:middle line:90% S turns out the light. 00:09:28.930 --> 00:09:32.800 align:middle line:90% Our room ceases to be a jewel. 00:09:32.800 --> 00:09:37.810 align:middle line:84% The ferry from Galata misses Seraglio point. 00:09:37.810 --> 00:09:41.110 align:middle line:90% It is dinner time. 00:09:41.110 --> 00:09:45.280 align:middle line:84% Love, Anne dear, from the European side, 00:09:45.280 --> 00:09:48.490 align:middle line:90% from Beyoglu, where I am. 00:09:48.490 --> 00:09:50.040 align:middle line:90% Richard." 00:09:50.040 --> 00:10:06.094 align:middle line:90%