WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.810 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.810 --> 00:00:03.870 align:middle line:84%
This is called
"Reading History."

00:00:03.870 --> 00:00:04.920 align:middle line:90%
This is a library.

00:00:04.920 --> 00:00:09.240 align:middle line:84%
I spent probably
years in libraries

00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:11.290 align:middle line:90%
reading all sorts of things.

00:00:11.290 --> 00:00:14.640 align:middle line:84%
And I love libraries
and have a number

00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:18.300 align:middle line:84%
of poems about
libraries, but here's

00:00:18.300 --> 00:00:24.748 align:middle line:84%
one called "Reading History,"
dedicated to the German poet,

00:00:24.748 --> 00:00:25.540 align:middle line:90%
who is still alive.

00:00:25.540 --> 00:00:29.312 align:middle line:84%
He's quite old, Hans
Mangus Enzensberger.

00:00:29.312 --> 00:00:34.510 align:middle line:90%


00:00:34.510 --> 00:00:38.620 align:middle line:84%
At times reading
here in the library,

00:00:38.620 --> 00:00:41.980 align:middle line:84%
I'm given a glimpse of those
condemned to death centuries

00:00:41.980 --> 00:00:46.540 align:middle line:90%
ago and of their executioners.

00:00:46.540 --> 00:00:51.040 align:middle line:84%
I see each pale face before
me, the way a judge pronouncing

00:00:51.040 --> 00:00:54.760 align:middle line:84%
a sentence would,
marveling at the thought

00:00:54.760 --> 00:00:58.510 align:middle line:90%
that I do not exist yet.

00:00:58.510 --> 00:01:03.400 align:middle line:84%
With eyes closed I can
hear the evening birds.

00:01:03.400 --> 00:01:07.060 align:middle line:84%
Soon there will be quiet,
and the final light on Earth

00:01:07.060 --> 00:01:11.770 align:middle line:84%
will commence in the
fullness of its sorrow.

00:01:11.770 --> 00:01:16.660 align:middle line:84%
How vast, dark and impenetrable
are the early-morning skies

00:01:16.660 --> 00:01:21.850 align:middle line:84%
of those left to their death
in a world from which I'm

00:01:21.850 --> 00:01:24.100 align:middle line:90%
entirely absent.

00:01:24.100 --> 00:01:29.460 align:middle line:84%
But I can still watch
someone slump back.

00:01:29.460 --> 00:01:33.600 align:middle line:84%
Someone who is walking away
from me with his hands high,

00:01:33.600 --> 00:01:36.330 align:middle line:84%
his gray head still
on his shoulders,

00:01:36.330 --> 00:01:41.100 align:middle line:84%
someone who knew what
little remains of his life,

00:01:41.100 --> 00:01:47.656 align:middle line:84%
knows in some vague way about
me, and thinks of me as God,

00:01:47.656 --> 00:01:49.700 align:middle line:90%
as the devil.

00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:50.365 align:middle line:90%