WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.020 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:00:01.020 --> 00:00:02.160 align:middle line:90%
Thank you so much, Marilyn.

00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:05.150 align:middle line:84%
As you mentioned, we do have
time for a few questions.

00:00:05.150 --> 00:00:07.110 align:middle line:84%
So if you have one,
just raise your hand

00:00:07.110 --> 00:00:08.250 align:middle line:90%
and I will come to you.

00:00:08.250 --> 00:00:11.510 align:middle line:90%


00:00:11.510 --> 00:00:14.360 align:middle line:84%
And if not, you
can ask questions

00:00:14.360 --> 00:00:15.740 align:middle line:90%
while books are being signed.

00:00:15.740 --> 00:00:20.080 align:middle line:90%


00:00:20.080 --> 00:00:21.590 align:middle line:90%
Yes.

00:00:21.590 --> 00:00:24.180 align:middle line:84%
Thank you so much
Marilyn, what a blessing.

00:00:24.180 --> 00:00:25.760 align:middle line:90%
I'm just curious.

00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:28.910 align:middle line:84%
The energy, you've done so
many translations, and so much

00:00:28.910 --> 00:00:29.880 align:middle line:90%
of your own work.

00:00:29.880 --> 00:00:34.040 align:middle line:84%
I'm wondering if the energy to
write a book like Love, Death,

00:00:34.040 --> 00:00:37.040 align:middle line:84%
and the Changing of the
Seasons, that cycle for me,

00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:39.950 align:middle line:84%
it feels like it cycles,
is the same energy

00:00:39.950 --> 00:00:43.970 align:middle line:84%
that sustains working in
translation and in the voice

00:00:43.970 --> 00:00:46.280 align:middle line:90%
and world of another writer.

00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:52.580 align:middle line:84%
Well first of all, I'd say
that each book of my, even

00:00:52.580 --> 00:00:56.840 align:middle line:84%
of my own, or each
poem, comes from,

00:00:56.840 --> 00:00:58.700 align:middle line:84%
often comes from a
different kind of energy.

00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:01.377 align:middle line:84%
And the sort of energy
that went into Love, Death,

00:01:01.377 --> 00:01:02.960 align:middle line:84%
and the Changing of
the Seasons, which

00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:05.060 align:middle line:84%
is a kind of novel
in verse, so it's

00:01:05.060 --> 00:01:09.680 align:middle line:84%
one impulse from the
beginning to the end,

00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:13.040 align:middle line:84%
is perhaps different,
well obviously different,

00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:17.150 align:middle line:84%
from writing a
sequence of short poems

00:01:17.150 --> 00:01:21.830 align:middle line:84%
or writing a poem
that talks back

00:01:21.830 --> 00:01:27.200 align:middle line:84%
to someone else's poems, someone
else's voices, like the ones

00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:30.830 align:middle line:84%
about Dahlia Ravikovitch
and Fadwa Tuqan.

00:01:30.830 --> 00:01:36.200 align:middle line:84%
But yeah, and translation
is a different,

00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:38.060 align:middle line:84%
not necessarily a
different impulse,

00:01:38.060 --> 00:01:40.970 align:middle line:84%
but it requires a
different kind of energy.

00:01:40.970 --> 00:01:45.410 align:middle line:84%
It requires using all of
the skills and tools one

00:01:45.410 --> 00:01:46.940 align:middle line:90%
has as a writer.

00:01:46.940 --> 00:01:50.570 align:middle line:84%
But at the same time,
leaving your ego

00:01:50.570 --> 00:01:54.050 align:middle line:84%
somewhere in the closet while
still keeping your hands

00:01:54.050 --> 00:01:55.260 align:middle line:90%
in the clay of language.

00:01:55.260 --> 00:01:58.460 align:middle line:84%
So although I think leaving
your ego in the closet

00:01:58.460 --> 00:02:00.410 align:middle line:90%
is a good idea most of the time.

00:02:00.410 --> 00:02:06.770 align:middle line:84%
But even more so,
when one is trying

00:02:06.770 --> 00:02:15.890 align:middle line:84%
to reproduce or bring across not
just the words, but the style,

00:02:15.890 --> 00:02:20.870 align:middle line:84%
the form, the energy
of somebody writing,

00:02:20.870 --> 00:02:22.600 align:middle line:84%
not only in a
different language,

00:02:22.600 --> 00:02:23.930 align:middle line:90%
but in a very different way.

00:02:23.930 --> 00:02:36.180 align:middle line:90%


00:02:36.180 --> 00:02:40.560 align:middle line:84%
Could you just tell me the poet,
I think a Palestinian-French

00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:45.600 align:middle line:84%
poet, who did the three
poems that you read, called--

00:02:45.600 --> 00:02:49.430 align:middle line:84%
Oh, she's not, she's
Lebanese, not Palestinian.

00:02:49.430 --> 00:02:56.190 align:middle line:84%
Venus Khoury-Ghata, Venus, like
the goddess K-H-O-U-R-Y hyphen

00:02:56.190 --> 00:02:59.970 align:middle line:90%
G-H-A-T-A. Her name is on this.

00:02:59.970 --> 00:03:02.850 align:middle line:84%
And I've actually
translated four

00:03:02.850 --> 00:03:06.630 align:middle line:84%
of her books, which
are available in one

00:03:06.630 --> 00:03:07.410 align:middle line:90%
place or another.

00:03:07.410 --> 00:03:09.180 align:middle line:90%
Could you spell her last name?

00:03:09.180 --> 00:03:17.680 align:middle line:90%
K-H-O-U-R-Y hyphen G-H-A-T-A.

00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:18.180 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:03:18.180 --> 00:03:27.040 align:middle line:90%


00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:28.990 align:middle line:84%
Thank you so much
for that reading.

00:03:28.990 --> 00:03:32.740 align:middle line:84%
I'm really interested in how
you translated from French

00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:36.340 align:middle line:84%
for so long and then,
even just in the poems

00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:38.590 align:middle line:84%
you read tonight,
translating from Arabic.

00:03:38.590 --> 00:03:40.960 align:middle line:84%
So at what point did you
decide that you needed

00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:42.340 align:middle line:84%
to learn Arabic,
and when did you

00:03:42.340 --> 00:03:44.215 align:middle line:84%
reach the point you felt
you could translate?

00:03:44.215 --> 00:03:50.480 align:middle line:84%
Well it's still very,
very, very, very hard.

00:03:50.480 --> 00:03:54.965 align:middle line:84%
But translation is one of
the ways to learn a language.

00:03:54.965 --> 00:03:58.060 align:middle line:90%


00:03:58.060 --> 00:04:02.080 align:middle line:84%
I mean, not taken
on lightly, and not

00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:06.250 align:middle line:84%
when you've been studying it
for a year, for six months.

00:04:06.250 --> 00:04:09.910 align:middle line:84%
But after a few years, one
of the things you're always,

00:04:09.910 --> 00:04:13.480 align:middle line:84%
at least I think, one is always
doing in learning a languages,

00:04:13.480 --> 00:04:18.790 align:middle line:84%
reading texts of whatever kind
and translating them into--

00:04:18.790 --> 00:04:22.660 align:middle line:84%
well, you translate them
to know what they mean.

00:04:22.660 --> 00:04:27.430 align:middle line:84%
And so from that to taking
a literary text, a poem,

00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:31.780 align:middle line:84%
or a poem, or a short story,
and trying to translate,

00:04:31.780 --> 00:04:35.620 align:middle line:84%
and making an attempt
to translate it,

00:04:35.620 --> 00:04:38.630 align:middle line:84%
seems it is a kind
of natural next step.

00:04:38.630 --> 00:04:41.800 align:middle line:84%
And there are poets
writing in Arabic,

00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:44.680 align:middle line:84%
it's sort of thrilling
to be able finally

00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:49.360 align:middle line:84%
to see what they really, what
those poems really sound like.

00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:53.260 align:middle line:84%
And not only to get them
through an English translation

00:04:53.260 --> 00:04:56.080 align:middle line:90%
or a French translation.

00:04:56.080 --> 00:04:58.330 align:middle line:84%
So it's very much
a work in progress,

00:04:58.330 --> 00:05:02.740 align:middle line:84%
but something I hope to
be able to do better.

00:05:02.740 --> 00:05:03.900 align:middle line:90%
Thank you so much Marilyn.

00:05:03.900 --> 00:05:05.280 align:middle line:90%
I think we'll leave it there.

00:05:05.280 --> 00:05:08.230 align:middle line:84%
And please, do check out
the books over on the table.

00:05:08.230 --> 00:05:10.440 align:middle line:84%
And Marilyn will be happy
to sign some after this.

00:05:10.440 --> 00:05:12.710 align:middle line:90%
And thank you all for coming.

00:05:12.710 --> 00:05:15.281 align:middle line:90%