WEBVTT

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Thank you, everybody,
for coming,

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and thank you very much for
your hospitality, Tyler,

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and I thank the Center for
that hospitality as well.

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I usually don't
know how to begin,

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so we'll have to go
through this together.

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So I'll probably alternate
between translations

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and poetry.

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There is-- in the book If I
Were Another, which is not here,

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which is a translation of the
long poems of Mahmoud Darwish--

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there's a poem that-- a
book long poem called Mural,

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that he wrote after surviving
a near-death experience,

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before he eventually died.

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And I was talking
to young poets--

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and I'm not that old--

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about the idea that the
poem is not really--

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so it's one of the most
magnificent-- in my opinion--

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magnificent poems of our time.

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But we're not really--

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we don't have a
predilection to talk

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about a poem, written by an
Arab poet, that is actually

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a poem of praise.

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Which is to say, a poem
that celebrates life.

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And I urge many of
you to think that way

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when you think of the work
of certain Arab poets,

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where you just begin to probe
their work past this notion

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of looking for the wisdom of
survival, tragedy, and war,

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and what have you.

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So in a sense, this
poem was written

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about surviving an ICU stay.

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And so, in the
middle of it, there's

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a long conversation
with death, and I will

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read from that for starters.

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"Death, wait.

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Wait until I recover my
mind's clarity in spring,

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and my health, so you'll be a
noble hunter who doesn't hunt

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the doe near the water spring.

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Let the relation between
us be friendly and open.

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You have of my life what's
yours, when I fill it up,

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and of you, I have contemplating
the stars and the planets.

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No one's ever completely died.

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Those are souls that change
their residence and form.

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Death, my shadow that
leads me the third of two,

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the color of hesitation in
emerald and chrysolite peacock

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blood, sniper of the wolf's
heart, imagination's illness.

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Have a seat on the chair and
set your hunting tools aside

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under my window.

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Hang your heavy keys
on the house door,

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and don't stare at my arteries
to detect the final weakness.

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You are stronger than the
medical establishment,

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stronger than the respiratory
system and powerful honey,

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and you don't need my
disease to kill me.

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Rise above insects.

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Be yourself-- transparent,
a clear mail to the unknown.

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Be like love, a storm
on trees, and don't

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sit on doorsteps like a
beggar or a tax collector.

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Don't be a traffic
policeman in the streets.

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Be strong with radiant steel
and take off your fox's mask.

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Be nightly beautiful
with thorough blows,

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and say what you want.

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Say, from meaning
to meaning I come.

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Life is a flow I
intensify and define

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with my sultanate and scale.

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Death, wait, have a seat.

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Have a glass of wine, and
don't negotiate with me.

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The likes of you don't
negotiate with anyone,

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and the likes of me don't object
to the servant of the unknown.

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Take a rest.

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Perhaps the star wars
have tired you today.

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Who am I?

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Who am I in their midst
that you visit me.

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Do you have time
to test my poem?

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No, this is not your concern.

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You are responsible for
the clay in the human,

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not for what he says or does.

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Death, all the arts have
defeated you, all of them.

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All the songs in Mesopotamia
have defeated you.

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The Egyptians' obelisk, the
pharaohs' tombs, the carvings

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on Temple Rock, all
have defeated you

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and immortality has
escaped your traps.

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So do with us and with
yourself what you will."

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