WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.130 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.130 --> 00:00:09.300 align:middle line:84% And the second one is called "Dragon of Revolutionary Love." 00:00:09.300 --> 00:00:13.710 align:middle line:84% There is in Hanoi a lake, and in fact, there's 00:00:13.710 --> 00:00:16.440 align:middle line:84% more than one lake, but at this particular lake is-- 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:20.880 align:middle line:90% 00:00:20.880 --> 00:00:22.620 align:middle line:90% it may be called Dragon Lake. 00:00:22.620 --> 00:00:24.870 align:middle line:84% I have an idea that's not actually its name, 00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:29.550 align:middle line:84% but there's a legend about that lake 00:00:29.550 --> 00:00:39.210 align:middle line:84% and that is that long ago, a hero of Vietnam 00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:44.730 align:middle line:84% received from out the lake like King Arthur received the sword 00:00:44.730 --> 00:00:49.950 align:middle line:84% Excalibur, received a golden sword 00:00:49.950 --> 00:00:57.990 align:middle line:84% and with that, he saved his country in battle. 00:00:57.990 --> 00:01:04.440 align:middle line:84% And when the battle was over and won, 00:01:04.440 --> 00:01:09.900 align:middle line:84% he brought the sword back to return it to the lake. 00:01:09.900 --> 00:01:13.440 align:middle line:84% And he tossed it into the center of the lake 00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:20.850 align:middle line:84% and as it hit the water, it turned into a jade dragon. 00:01:20.850 --> 00:01:27.870 align:middle line:84% And that dragon, just as King Arthur himself, 00:01:27.870 --> 00:01:31.710 align:middle line:84% is said to sleep in Snowdon and someday will 00:01:31.710 --> 00:01:36.540 align:middle line:84% come to liberate Wales- I'm half Welsh, you know. 00:01:36.540 --> 00:01:42.360 align:middle line:84% So the dragon lives in the lake in Hanoi, 00:01:42.360 --> 00:01:50.250 align:middle line:84% and at the time of greatest need emerges, and will emerge 00:01:50.250 --> 00:01:55.500 align:middle line:90% to help the Vietnamese people. 00:01:55.500 --> 00:01:57.780 align:middle line:84% So the poem is called "Dragon of Revolutionary Love," 00:01:57.780 --> 00:02:01.290 align:middle line:84% and it doesn't refer directly to that legend, 00:02:01.290 --> 00:02:05.430 align:middle line:90% I wanted to explain the title. 00:02:05.430 --> 00:02:09.539 align:middle line:84% There's a word in the poem "debridement" which 00:02:09.539 --> 00:02:10.979 align:middle line:84% is sort of explained in the poem, 00:02:10.979 --> 00:02:12.810 align:middle line:84% but it's perhaps a little curious 00:02:12.810 --> 00:02:16.380 align:middle line:90% how I came by that word. 00:02:16.380 --> 00:02:18.630 align:middle line:84% It's irrelevant basically to the poem, 00:02:18.630 --> 00:02:22.560 align:middle line:84% but you may be interested to know that Muriel Rukeyser, who 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:24.960 align:middle line:84% was one of my two companions on that trip, 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:31.950 align:middle line:84% the other one being Jane Hart, a senator's wife from Michigan-- 00:02:31.950 --> 00:02:37.440 align:middle line:84% Phillip Hart's wife and herself a war tax resistor, 00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:41.640 align:middle line:84% the only senator's wife I guess who has been active 00:02:41.640 --> 00:02:44.280 align:middle line:90% against the war. 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:48.928 align:middle line:84% Well, Muriel Rukeyser, the poet, had an infected foot 00:02:48.928 --> 00:02:50.970 align:middle line:84% while she was there and had to go to the hospital 00:02:50.970 --> 00:02:53.620 align:middle line:84% to have it treated, and I went with her 00:02:53.620 --> 00:02:55.120 align:middle line:84% because her French wasn't very good. 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:57.360 align:middle line:84% And she was afraid that they might not 00:02:57.360 --> 00:02:59.680 align:middle line:84% understand exactly what needed to be done to it, 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:01.260 align:middle line:90% she'd had this before. 00:03:01.260 --> 00:03:05.000 align:middle line:90% And it was a-- 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:07.770 align:middle line:84% this particular kind of light scraping 00:03:07.770 --> 00:03:13.380 align:middle line:84% that requires to be done very, very delicately. 00:03:13.380 --> 00:03:16.620 align:middle line:84% And it was a new word to me, and it 00:03:16.620 --> 00:03:20.820 align:middle line:84% got into this poem that came out of our trip. 00:03:20.820 --> 00:03:23.430 align:middle line:90% You'll see where it occurs. 00:03:23.430 --> 00:03:26.670 align:middle line:90% There are three short sections. 00:03:26.670 --> 00:03:28.470 align:middle line:90% "One. 00:03:28.470 --> 00:03:33.480 align:middle line:84% All the grievous wounds the murderers crudely disguised 00:03:33.480 --> 00:03:36.990 align:middle line:84% as surgeons inflict on the innocent, 00:03:36.990 --> 00:03:40.050 align:middle line:84% gouging their flesh and the Earth and rivers 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:46.170 align:middle line:84% of their flesh, are only debridements, light scrapings 00:03:46.170 --> 00:03:50.340 align:middle line:84% of the layer just below the skin. 00:03:50.340 --> 00:03:55.500 align:middle line:84% Breathing their own stale breath inside their masks, fingers 00:03:55.500 --> 00:03:58.890 align:middle line:84% itching in bloody gloves, they fail 00:03:58.890 --> 00:04:02.910 align:middle line:84% to touch the spirit dragon, alive in the bone 00:04:02.910 --> 00:04:04.440 align:middle line:90% and marrow of their prey. 00:04:04.440 --> 00:04:07.240 align:middle line:90% 00:04:07.240 --> 00:04:09.520 align:middle line:90% Two. 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:17.140 align:middle line:84% From the red river's many mouths, uprises a spirit song. 00:04:17.140 --> 00:04:22.270 align:middle line:84% Glittering drops that fall free from the nets as fishermen 00:04:22.270 --> 00:04:29.980 align:middle line:84% take their catch, or the bright scales of the spirit dragon. 00:04:29.980 --> 00:04:32.380 align:middle line:90% Three. 00:04:32.380 --> 00:04:40.210 align:middle line:84% To live beyond survival, when a whole child hurries to school 00:04:40.210 --> 00:04:44.740 align:middle line:84% with a legless child on his back, both of them 00:04:44.740 --> 00:04:51.760 align:middle line:84% flushed with pride, the spirit dragon flies alongside them." 00:04:51.760 --> 00:04:54.460 align:middle line:90% 00:04:54.460 --> 00:04:56.010 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:04:56.010 --> 00:05:02.498 align:middle line:90%