WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.380 align:middle line:90%
"Canal."

00:00:01.380 --> 00:00:05.070 align:middle line:84%
"Canal" begins with a
short epigram explaining

00:00:05.070 --> 00:00:07.080 align:middle line:84%
a situation, a
historical situation,

00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:08.820 align:middle line:90%
that I was writing from.

00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:12.030 align:middle line:84%
It's from the Jesuit
lettres edifiantes.

00:00:12.030 --> 00:00:14.610 align:middle line:84%
"The emperor, Shennong,
ordered a celebration

00:00:14.610 --> 00:00:16.710 align:middle line:90%
for his mother's 50th birthday.

00:00:16.710 --> 00:00:20.460 align:middle line:84%
As the water route from the
Beijing Palace to Yuanmingyuan

00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:23.430 align:middle line:84%
was frozen solid,
thousands of workers

00:00:23.430 --> 00:00:26.220 align:middle line:84%
were charged with beating the
water day and night to prevent

00:00:26.220 --> 00:00:27.600 align:middle line:90%
ice from forming.

00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:30.110 align:middle line:90%
This proved fruitless.

00:00:30.110 --> 00:00:32.549 align:middle line:90%
Canal.

00:00:32.549 --> 00:00:34.860 align:middle line:84%
Now, the green
beginnings of the peach

00:00:34.860 --> 00:00:39.060 align:middle line:84%
hang from a Chinese branch,
hard little fist shaking

00:00:39.060 --> 00:00:42.090 align:middle line:84%
at spring in the summer
palace, somewhere here,

00:00:42.090 --> 00:00:46.770 align:middle line:84%
beneath my sternum, sore
with working new earth.

00:00:46.770 --> 00:00:50.490 align:middle line:84%
This river, is it the
wanting, too well-known?

00:00:50.490 --> 00:00:55.170 align:middle line:84%
From the southern temple where
I'm all body, touch, and scent.

00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:57.690 align:middle line:84%
This canal to the
red-tiled palace,

00:00:57.690 --> 00:01:01.710 align:middle line:84%
locusts, they say, of love's
innocuous little barge.

00:01:01.710 --> 00:01:06.060 align:middle line:84%
Who located the heart so
high and generous oversight?

00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:09.360 align:middle line:84%
And who do I employ for
the beating of these things

00:01:09.360 --> 00:01:11.550 align:middle line:84%
where canals freeze
between the stone

00:01:11.550 --> 00:01:15.880 align:middle line:84%
banks of blank familiarity and
small arguments that harden

00:01:15.880 --> 00:01:18.150 align:middle line:90%
layer on layer?

00:01:18.150 --> 00:01:20.490 align:middle line:84%
There are secrets they
say to maintaining

00:01:20.490 --> 00:01:25.650 align:middle line:84%
flow, fluids that move us to
celebration beneath the gates.

00:01:25.650 --> 00:01:28.230 align:middle line:84%
In the backyard,
gorges of blossoms

00:01:28.230 --> 00:01:30.570 align:middle line:84%
hanging from two
species of pear tree,

00:01:30.570 --> 00:01:34.830 align:middle line:84%
spreading scent, a strange
sweet mingling of warm feet

00:01:34.830 --> 00:01:36.850 align:middle line:90%
and perfumes.

00:01:36.850 --> 00:01:39.030 align:middle line:84%
I'm digging, and
it feels like work

00:01:39.030 --> 00:01:43.110 align:middle line:84%
to keep the balance, the
shovels repetitive blow.

00:01:43.110 --> 00:01:47.610 align:middle line:84%
And startle a sulfur gold oriole
rises from the overturned earth

00:01:47.610 --> 00:01:49.020 align:middle line:90%
in endless furrow.

00:01:49.020 --> 00:01:52.920 align:middle line:84%
And it occurs to me to
question the reverse of water

00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:57.180 align:middle line:84%
has become too liquid where the
other springs resurge strong,

00:01:57.180 --> 00:02:00.750 align:middle line:84%
floods drip, strangle the
garden of perfect brightness,

00:02:00.750 --> 00:02:04.710 align:middle line:84%
or hydrous arms reach
beyond their well-worn beds.

00:02:04.710 --> 00:02:07.710 align:middle line:90%
How to harden superfluid desire?

00:02:07.710 --> 00:02:10.979 align:middle line:84%
If emperor, I'd order
a million red troops

00:02:10.979 --> 00:02:15.680 align:middle line:84%
to press their thick fingers
to this gushing in my heart."

00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:17.000 align:middle line:90%