WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.170 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.170 --> 00:00:04.750 align:middle line:90% OK, you get a break now. 00:00:04.750 --> 00:00:06.240 align:middle line:90% So two poems. 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:10.830 align:middle line:84% In this poem, I'm writing 'alams. 00:00:10.830 --> 00:00:15.150 align:middle line:90% 'Alams are tiny North African-- 00:00:15.150 --> 00:00:17.610 align:middle line:84% not really, no, it's Libyan really, Libyan and Western 00:00:17.610 --> 00:00:20.430 align:middle line:90% Egyptian Bedouin type of song. 00:00:20.430 --> 00:00:22.140 align:middle line:90% And they're tiny, tiny songs. 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:24.060 align:middle line:84% And what you hear in the 'alam performance 00:00:24.060 --> 00:00:31.500 align:middle line:84% is the 'alam singer singing one of these lines after another. 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:34.840 align:middle line:90% They echo each other. 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:37.770 align:middle line:90% And so that's one part. 00:00:37.770 --> 00:00:42.690 align:middle line:84% But also I'm combining this into a [? mawwāl, ?] which is 00:00:42.690 --> 00:00:49.140 align:middle line:84% the unaccompanied melodic singing that an Arab singer 00:00:49.140 --> 00:00:49.980 align:middle line:90% must do. 00:00:49.980 --> 00:00:53.640 align:middle line:84% He can take a line of poetry and just plays with it 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:54.360 align:middle line:90% and sings it. 00:00:54.360 --> 00:00:55.920 align:middle line:90% The musicians can then-- 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:59.620 align:middle line:90% they kind of echo his voice. 00:00:59.620 --> 00:01:02.850 align:middle line:84% So this is 'alam and [? mawwāl. ?] And 00:01:02.850 --> 00:01:04.530 align:middle line:90% it's "'Alams for Cairo." 00:01:04.530 --> 00:01:08.730 align:middle line:84% Cairo is, of course, the cultural hub of the Middle 00:01:08.730 --> 00:01:10.800 align:middle line:84% East, has been one of the cultures at least, 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:11.790 align:middle line:90% the center was. 00:01:11.790 --> 00:01:16.920 align:middle line:84% But it is also a city under really a terrible dictatorship, 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:20.910 align:middle line:84% which has given the go ahead to continue as it is. 00:01:20.910 --> 00:01:23.790 align:middle line:90% So "'Alams for Cairo Nights." 00:01:23.790 --> 00:01:26.970 align:middle line:84% And this also is a salute to Cairo. 00:01:26.970 --> 00:01:30.495 align:middle line:84% They employ some words from the great singer Umm Kulthum. 00:01:30.495 --> 00:01:33.710 align:middle line:90% 00:01:33.710 --> 00:01:36.185 align:middle line:90% And it's all lyric love alams. 00:01:36.185 --> 00:01:38.780 align:middle line:90% 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:43.940 align:middle line:84% "You chose love, spun a world into love. 00:01:43.940 --> 00:01:47.870 align:middle line:84% You chose love, wove a world into love. 00:01:47.870 --> 00:01:51.650 align:middle line:84% When you're with me, I can't bear to blink. 00:01:51.650 --> 00:01:54.860 align:middle line:84% When you're with me, I can't yield to close my eyes, 00:01:54.860 --> 00:01:58.160 align:middle line:84% I can't bear the absence, not even for a second, 00:01:58.160 --> 00:02:01.160 align:middle line:84% the absence of your arms disarmed. 00:02:01.160 --> 00:02:03.590 align:middle line:90% I can't wallow behind my lids. 00:02:03.590 --> 00:02:05.720 align:middle line:90% This is how bad I can't bear. 00:02:05.720 --> 00:02:07.040 align:middle line:90% I can't bear such waste. 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:10.520 align:middle line:84% This is how much, this is how hard, this is how much, 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.190 align:middle line:90% this is how dark it gets. 00:02:13.190 --> 00:02:17.600 align:middle line:84% This is how much a word not said to no one else. 00:02:17.600 --> 00:02:19.850 align:middle line:84% With a word, a word like this love, 00:02:19.850 --> 00:02:22.730 align:middle line:84% a word so much can be said, a word 00:02:22.730 --> 00:02:26.600 align:middle line:84% unsaid in tenderness, a word like you. 00:02:26.600 --> 00:02:29.870 align:middle line:84% A word like the word love, where are they, 00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:31.790 align:middle line:90% your likes to be found? 00:02:31.790 --> 00:02:33.530 align:middle line:90% Where can one look? 00:02:33.530 --> 00:02:36.770 align:middle line:84% A word answers nowhere to be found. 00:02:36.770 --> 00:02:39.320 align:middle line:90% I hear it, a love that burns-- 00:02:39.320 --> 00:02:41.840 align:middle line:90% never burned out, but it burns. 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:45.290 align:middle line:84% A song that says my heart still burns, 00:02:45.290 --> 00:02:50.750 align:middle line:84% I hear it like a song that says and stays my love doesn't end. 00:02:50.750 --> 00:02:55.040 align:middle line:84% I want to talk to you in all the ways I don't talk, 00:02:55.040 --> 00:02:58.370 align:middle line:84% in a way that's open in secret and talk. 00:02:58.370 --> 00:03:01.820 align:middle line:84% I want to talk to you in the ways I don't talk even 00:03:01.820 --> 00:03:07.520 align:middle line:84% in secret, a way that opens in secret, our secret, our love, 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:08.810 align:middle line:90% a kind of music. 00:03:08.810 --> 00:03:11.310 align:middle line:90% We try to catch up with words. 00:03:11.310 --> 00:03:16.640 align:middle line:84% We try to catch with words our love when our secret tries 00:03:16.640 --> 00:03:18.080 align:middle line:90% to catch its words. 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:20.150 align:middle line:84% With words of love, a kind of music 00:03:20.150 --> 00:03:22.700 align:middle line:84% we try to catch with our hands that 00:03:22.700 --> 00:03:26.660 align:middle line:84% plays our hearts with a word that burns, a word like you, 00:03:26.660 --> 00:03:29.900 align:middle line:84% a word I can't talk, where in secret 00:03:29.900 --> 00:03:32.990 align:middle line:84% is caught, a word where love is, where 00:03:32.990 --> 00:03:40.310 align:middle line:84% love tries to catch its words and where love is caught. 00:03:40.310 --> 00:03:42.440 align:middle line:84% Ends up sounding like Gertrude Stein, too, so. 00:03:42.440 --> 00:03:43.293 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:43.293 --> 00:03:45.710 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] Gertrude Stein, and [? I'm ?] [? cool, ?] too. 00:03:45.710 --> 00:03:46.470 align:middle line:90% Who knew? 00:03:46.470 --> 00:03:48.020 align:middle line:90% OK.