WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.050 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.050 --> 00:00:03.480 align:middle line:84% Next poem is called "Self Portrait." 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:08.520 align:middle line:84% And in it, an older man, an old artist-- painter-- 00:00:08.520 --> 00:00:10.560 align:middle line:90% is speaking. 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:13.380 align:middle line:84% I got the idea from the poem from reading 00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:16.560 align:middle line:84% just this gorgeous art historian, just 00:00:16.560 --> 00:00:20.370 align:middle line:84% beautiful poetic, vigorous kind of prose. 00:00:20.370 --> 00:00:23.220 align:middle line:84% His name is Élie Faure, F-A-U-R-E, 00:00:23.220 --> 00:00:25.530 align:middle line:90% and he was a Frenchman. 00:00:25.530 --> 00:00:28.320 align:middle line:84% And these were translated, but they were translated very well. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:29.820 align:middle line:90% There's about five books. 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:32.940 align:middle line:84% And some of the anecdotes about painters, 00:00:32.940 --> 00:00:39.960 align:middle line:84% especially about the painter, Velazquez, are from Élie Faure. 00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:42.510 align:middle line:90% Just let me read you something. 00:00:42.510 --> 00:00:46.110 align:middle line:84% This is an introduction to one of the books, 00:00:46.110 --> 00:00:47.880 align:middle line:90% the book about modern art. 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:50.520 align:middle line:84% And it's just a little epigraph introduction to it. 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:52.650 align:middle line:90% He says, "I shall die. 00:00:52.650 --> 00:00:54.060 align:middle line:90% Men live. 00:00:54.060 --> 00:00:55.890 align:middle line:90% I believe in them. 00:00:55.890 --> 00:00:58.110 align:middle line:84% Their adventure will come to an end 00:00:58.110 --> 00:01:01.050 align:middle line:84% only with the adventure of the Earth. 00:01:01.050 --> 00:01:04.110 align:middle line:84% And when the Earth is dead, it will, perhaps, 00:01:04.110 --> 00:01:06.060 align:middle line:90% continue elsewhere. 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:09.900 align:middle line:84% It is only a moment of it that I have recounted in this book. 00:01:09.900 --> 00:01:13.530 align:middle line:84% But every living moment contains the whole of life. 00:01:13.530 --> 00:01:15.600 align:middle line:84% Whoever participates with confidence 00:01:15.600 --> 00:01:19.770 align:middle line:84% in the adventure of men has his portion of immortality." 00:01:19.770 --> 00:01:23.160 align:middle line:90% 00:01:23.160 --> 00:01:26.040 align:middle line:90% "Self Portrait." 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:29.580 align:middle line:84% "Certainly Velazquez saw these reflections. 00:01:29.580 --> 00:01:33.690 align:middle line:84% The stained beards of saints after the God's death, 00:01:33.690 --> 00:01:36.270 align:middle line:84% and the holes in their faces, declaring 00:01:36.270 --> 00:01:41.070 align:middle line:84% how empty life can be before the end, with the tongues cut out, 00:01:41.070 --> 00:01:44.880 align:middle line:90% the children already born. 00:01:44.880 --> 00:01:49.260 align:middle line:84% Down the hill, in a savage monastery, my apprentice sits. 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:51.450 align:middle line:84% We haven't yet made our communion, 00:01:51.450 --> 00:01:53.820 align:middle line:90% but he believes in me. 00:01:53.820 --> 00:01:56.940 align:middle line:84% In the boredom of hard bread and the delicate roots 00:01:56.940 --> 00:02:01.920 align:middle line:84% of his dinner, he says my name aloud to the walls. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:05.370 align:middle line:84% Out his window, over red sand and stone, 00:02:05.370 --> 00:02:08.910 align:middle line:84% a narrow stream of water makes its way. 00:02:08.910 --> 00:02:11.730 align:middle line:84% That young man must have seen enough-- 00:02:11.730 --> 00:02:15.210 align:middle line:84% brilliant lights of the city at night, and the man 00:02:15.210 --> 00:02:19.560 align:middle line:84% kissing himself in the yellow window on the hill. 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:23.460 align:middle line:84% It's me in the window, the model for this portrait. 00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:25.620 align:middle line:90% I give myself shamelessly. 00:02:25.620 --> 00:02:29.220 align:middle line:84% I showed the whole of my mouth, my genitals, 00:02:29.220 --> 00:02:34.350 align:middle line:84% an entire Spanish landscape, snakes down my belly. 00:02:34.350 --> 00:02:37.320 align:middle line:84% Still, we couldn't stop anyone from dying, 00:02:37.320 --> 00:02:40.980 align:middle line:90% or the sensitive from going mad. 00:02:40.980 --> 00:02:43.660 align:middle line:84% When Velazquez's coffin was opened, 00:02:43.660 --> 00:02:46.800 align:middle line:84% two skeletons were found holding hands, 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:49.770 align:middle line:90% but the skulls had turned aside. 00:02:49.770 --> 00:02:52.650 align:middle line:84% We live and die in the heart of each hour, 00:02:52.650 --> 00:02:55.590 align:middle line:90% making refusals into art. 00:02:55.590 --> 00:02:59.730 align:middle line:84% Our childhoods, pure hills of grape and wheat, 00:02:59.730 --> 00:03:03.480 align:middle line:84% were unhappy and should have been left behind. 00:03:03.480 --> 00:03:08.280 align:middle line:84% Our paintings were mirrors, glassy skin, nothing but light 00:03:08.280 --> 00:03:12.180 align:middle line:84% in whose flame a moth twisted and burned. 00:03:12.180 --> 00:03:16.800 align:middle line:84% Visions in the moist cafes, and nothing had to make sense. 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:19.690 align:middle line:84% We were honest, learning our craft, 00:03:19.690 --> 00:03:23.820 align:middle line:84% but traded love for ambition, the way the poor trade seeds 00:03:23.820 --> 00:03:27.060 align:middle line:90% from the garden for buttons. 00:03:27.060 --> 00:03:29.340 align:middle line:84% The gossip said we went out too often 00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:31.800 align:middle line:90% in our row boats, singing. 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:34.350 align:middle line:90% That we drank too much light. 00:03:34.350 --> 00:03:37.050 align:middle line:84% Under the wide lindens, the heavy shadows 00:03:37.050 --> 00:03:39.390 align:middle line:90% begin to spread their fruit. 00:03:39.390 --> 00:03:42.690 align:middle line:84% Younger men will find in those shadows grace 00:03:42.690 --> 00:03:46.840 align:middle line:84% in a green penumbra, out of which something mortal begins 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:47.340 align:middle line:90% to grow." 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:50.490 align:middle line:90% 00:03:50.490 --> 00:03:53.692 align:middle line:84% One great thing about writing a persona poem is you can act-- 00:03:53.692 --> 00:03:55.150 align:middle line:84% you can just say anything you want. 00:03:55.150 --> 00:03:56.880 align:middle line:84% You can be any person, you can be snotty, 00:03:56.880 --> 00:04:02.690 align:middle line:84% snooty, a little jaded like this old fellow is.