WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.880 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:01.880 --> 00:00:06.580 align:middle line:90% 00:00:06.580 --> 00:00:07.930 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:07.930 --> 00:00:10.030 align:middle line:90% Well, thank you so much. 00:00:10.030 --> 00:00:10.820 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Tyler. 00:00:10.820 --> 00:00:11.530 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Mary. 00:00:11.530 --> 00:00:14.110 align:middle line:84% And it's wonderful to be back in Tucson. 00:00:14.110 --> 00:00:17.020 align:middle line:84% This is, I think, the fifth time-- 00:00:17.020 --> 00:00:18.610 align:middle line:90% is that better? 00:00:18.610 --> 00:00:25.780 align:middle line:84% Fifth time I've been here, but the last time was something 00:00:25.780 --> 00:00:26.875 align:middle line:90% like 14 years ago. 00:00:26.875 --> 00:00:28.750 align:middle line:84% And it's just so-- it's wonderful to be back. 00:00:28.750 --> 00:00:34.740 align:middle line:90% 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:42.790 align:middle line:90% Well, I'm going to actually-- 00:00:42.790 --> 00:00:45.870 align:middle line:84% I will read book poems and a few translations. 00:00:45.870 --> 00:00:53.700 align:middle line:90% And this-- no, no, no, I'll-- 00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:54.377 align:middle line:90% this way? 00:00:54.377 --> 00:00:54.877 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:54.877 --> 00:00:56.790 align:middle line:84% Yeah, just-- you can use it this far from it. 00:00:56.790 --> 00:00:57.300 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:57.300 --> 00:01:02.160 align:middle line:90% 00:01:02.160 --> 00:01:04.920 align:middle line:84% Well, I'll start with this poem, in part-- 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:09.460 align:middle line:84% it's quite recent and because it in fact, 00:01:09.460 --> 00:01:13.440 align:middle line:84% it starts-- it starts with a question of translation. 00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:21.935 align:middle line:84% And it was written a little over a year ago when I was walking 00:01:21.935 --> 00:01:26.560 align:middle line:84% on one of the bridges across the Seine with a Syrian friend, 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:30.240 align:middle line:84% a woman named, Fadwa Souleimane, who, in Syria, 00:01:30.240 --> 00:01:34.950 align:middle line:84% was a well-known actor and who engaged herself 00:01:34.950 --> 00:01:41.070 align:middle line:84% in the revolution and spoke for a new-- 00:01:41.070 --> 00:01:42.570 align:middle line:84% in the hope of a new government that 00:01:42.570 --> 00:01:45.630 align:middle line:84% would be for all the people and hearing all their voices. 00:01:45.630 --> 00:01:53.430 align:middle line:84% And a result of which she's now a political refugee. 00:01:53.430 --> 00:02:03.330 align:middle line:84% And we saw-- we were talking and I said something 00:02:03.330 --> 00:02:06.150 align:middle line:84% to her in bad Arabic, or at least, badly pronounced 00:02:06.150 --> 00:02:09.840 align:middle line:84% Arabic, which is where the poem starts. 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:12.600 align:middle line:84% And just then, we saw a man walking along 00:02:12.600 --> 00:02:15.210 align:middle line:84% the street whom we both recognized who is also 00:02:15.210 --> 00:02:18.570 align:middle line:84% a Syrian political refugee, whom I had last 00:02:18.570 --> 00:02:22.620 align:middle line:84% seen also in Paris at a meeting in support 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:24.660 align:middle line:90% of political refugees. 00:02:24.660 --> 00:02:27.300 align:middle line:84% And she-- the last time in the city 00:02:27.300 --> 00:02:31.680 align:middle line:84% of Homs in Syria, making a speech 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:34.920 align:middle line:84% to the insurgents in front of the very famous clock 00:02:34.920 --> 00:02:36.300 align:middle line:90% tower of Homs. 00:02:36.300 --> 00:02:40.840 align:middle line:84% So I think that's all I have to say. 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:45.480 align:middle line:84% Said the old woman who barely spoke the language, 00:02:45.480 --> 00:02:50.370 align:middle line:84% freedom is a dream and we don't know whose. 00:02:50.370 --> 00:02:56.050 align:middle line:84% Said the insurgent who was now in exile, when I began to write 00:02:56.050 --> 00:02:57.985 align:middle line:90% the story, I started bleeding. 00:02:57.985 --> 00:03:00.550 align:middle line:90% 00:03:00.550 --> 00:03:04.390 align:middle line:84% Freedom is a dream and we don't know whose. 00:03:04.390 --> 00:03:08.440 align:middle line:84% That man I last saw speaking in front of the clock tower 00:03:08.440 --> 00:03:12.370 align:middle line:84% when I began to write the story, I 00:03:12.370 --> 00:03:15.280 align:middle line:84% started bleeding five years after I 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:17.425 align:middle line:90% knew I'd have no more children. 00:03:17.425 --> 00:03:20.080 align:middle line:90% 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.800 align:middle line:84% That man I last saw speaking in front of the clock tower 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:28.300 align:middle line:84% turned an anonymous corner and disappeared. 00:03:28.300 --> 00:03:32.870 align:middle line:84% Five years after I knew I'd have no more children, 00:03:32.870 --> 00:03:36.040 align:middle line:84% my oldest son was called up for the army, 00:03:36.040 --> 00:03:41.380 align:middle line:84% turned an anonymous corner and disappeared. 00:03:41.380 --> 00:03:45.420 align:middle line:84% My nephew, my best friend, my second sister, 00:03:45.420 --> 00:03:48.210 align:middle line:84% whose oldest son was called up for the army 00:03:48.210 --> 00:03:53.240 align:middle line:84% are looking for work now in other countries. 00:03:53.240 --> 00:03:58.700 align:middle line:84% Her nephew, his best friend, his younger sister, a doctor, 00:03:58.700 --> 00:04:03.050 align:middle line:84% an actress, an engineer, are looking for work now 00:04:03.050 --> 00:04:07.130 align:middle line:84% in other countries, stumbling, disillusioned 00:04:07.130 --> 00:04:10.440 align:middle line:90% in a new language. 00:04:10.440 --> 00:04:13.670 align:middle line:84% A doctor, an actress, an engineer, 00:04:13.670 --> 00:04:16.490 align:middle line:84% wrestle with the rudiments of grammar, 00:04:16.490 --> 00:04:22.160 align:middle line:84% disillusioned, stumbling in a new language, hating their luck 00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:26.400 align:middle line:90% and knowing they are lucky. 00:04:26.400 --> 00:04:29.400 align:middle line:84% Wrestling with the rudiments of grammar, 00:04:29.400 --> 00:04:35.120 align:middle line:84% the old woman who barely speaks the language, hated her luck. 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:40.660 align:middle line:84% I know that I am lucky, said the insurgent who is now in exile. 00:04:40.660 --> 00:04:43.000 align:middle line:90%