WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.550 align:middle line:90% News for the next newsletter-- 00:00:02.550 --> 00:00:05.340 align:middle line:84% so that we can compile a newsletter before the semester 00:00:05.340 --> 00:00:08.039 align:middle line:90% ends. 00:00:08.039 --> 00:00:12.930 align:middle line:84% The spring contest has been moved up this year. 00:00:12.930 --> 00:00:16.660 align:middle line:84% And the deadline for entries will be December 7th, 00:00:16.660 --> 00:00:18.520 align:middle line:90% the last day of classes. 00:00:18.520 --> 00:00:21.757 align:middle line:84% And I have a few thousand contest entry blanks 00:00:21.757 --> 00:00:23.340 align:middle line:84% with me tonight, and I'll put them out 00:00:23.340 --> 00:00:24.960 align:middle line:90% on the reception table. 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:26.680 align:middle line:84% Reception table's right out in the hall, 00:00:26.680 --> 00:00:30.060 align:middle line:84% and I hope you can all stay and have some punch and cookies, 00:00:30.060 --> 00:00:32.400 align:middle line:90% meet Myra Sklarew. 00:00:32.400 --> 00:00:35.400 align:middle line:84% Our next reading will be one week from tonight 00:00:35.400 --> 00:00:37.080 align:middle line:90% in this auditorium. 00:00:37.080 --> 00:00:40.530 align:middle line:84% And the reader will be Carolyn Forché. 00:00:40.530 --> 00:00:43.200 align:middle line:84% We have three more readings for the semester. 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:46.980 align:middle line:84% Carolyn Forché next week, student reading the following 00:00:46.980 --> 00:00:51.750 align:middle line:84% week, and John Logan will be reading for us on November 6th. 00:00:51.750 --> 00:00:54.780 align:middle line:84% Mr Logan's reading was not announced 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:56.100 align:middle line:90% in the semester brochure. 00:00:56.100 --> 00:00:57.990 align:middle line:84% We'll be sending out a special notice on-- 00:00:57.990 --> 00:01:06.360 align:middle line:90% 00:01:06.360 --> 00:01:09.970 align:middle line:84% Myra Sklarew comes to us from the American University 00:01:09.970 --> 00:01:10.975 align:middle line:90% in Washington, DC. 00:01:10.975 --> 00:01:14.760 align:middle line:90% 00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:21.320 align:middle line:84% Her books of poetry are, In the Basket of the Blind, 00:01:21.320 --> 00:01:25.070 align:middle line:84% From the Backyard of the Diaspora. 00:01:25.070 --> 00:01:28.370 align:middle line:84% Blessed Art Thou, No One, and most recently, 00:01:28.370 --> 00:01:33.327 align:middle line:84% from the University of Georgia Press, The Science of Goodbyes. 00:01:33.327 --> 00:01:34.910 align:middle line:84% It's a great pleasure to introduce her 00:01:34.910 --> 00:01:36.080 align:middle line:90% to you, Myra Sklarew. 00:01:36.080 --> 00:01:46.360 align:middle line:90% 00:01:46.360 --> 00:01:48.790 align:middle line:90% It's very nice to be in Arizona. 00:01:48.790 --> 00:01:54.480 align:middle line:90% 00:01:54.480 --> 00:02:00.210 align:middle line:84% And it's very nice to be in the backyard of Lois and Richard 00:02:00.210 --> 00:02:01.950 align:middle line:90% Shelton. 00:02:01.950 --> 00:02:05.040 align:middle line:84% I hope Richard will forgive me if I start with a poem of his 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:06.960 align:middle line:84% that I have loved for a long time. 00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:08.759 align:middle line:84% I can't see too well at a distance, 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:12.510 align:middle line:84% so I can't tell if he's grimacing or nodding 00:02:12.510 --> 00:02:13.320 align:middle line:90% approvingly. 00:02:13.320 --> 00:02:18.930 align:middle line:90% 00:02:18.930 --> 00:02:22.770 align:middle line:84% It's particularly wonderful when you love someone's poetry 00:02:22.770 --> 00:02:23.730 align:middle line:90% before you meet them. 00:02:23.730 --> 00:02:28.570 align:middle line:84% You have no obligation therefore to like them or their poetry. 00:02:28.570 --> 00:02:33.330 align:middle line:84% And when you discover that you find a poem in a magazine 00:02:33.330 --> 00:02:34.300 align:middle line:90% that you really love. 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:37.710 align:middle line:84% And then long afterwards, you meet the person who wrote it. 00:02:37.710 --> 00:02:40.140 align:middle line:84% And you find that you like that person. 00:02:40.140 --> 00:02:41.970 align:middle line:84% And then you meet his wife and you 00:02:41.970 --> 00:02:44.220 align:middle line:84% find that you, which happened today, 00:02:44.220 --> 00:02:47.100 align:middle line:84% that you feel as though you've known her most of your life. 00:02:47.100 --> 00:02:50.380 align:middle line:90% That's a very special thing. 00:02:50.380 --> 00:02:52.830 align:middle line:84% And I also want to say, having been 00:02:52.830 --> 00:02:56.490 align:middle line:84% taken for granted by my students for 100 years. 00:02:56.490 --> 00:02:58.740 align:middle line:84% That you have a real treasure here 00:02:58.740 --> 00:03:03.150 align:middle line:84% in Richard and Lois Shelton, and so I'll 00:03:03.150 --> 00:03:05.970 align:middle line:90% start with Richard's poem. 00:03:05.970 --> 00:03:09.000 align:middle line:84% "The Princes of Exile" I won't read it 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:10.230 align:middle line:90% the way he would read it. 00:03:10.230 --> 00:03:12.450 align:middle line:84% I hope I'll be forgiven for that. 00:03:12.450 --> 00:03:16.170 align:middle line:84% "The princes of exile stand near the gates 00:03:16.170 --> 00:03:20.670 align:middle line:84% of the desert and watch for travelers who pass by. 00:03:20.670 --> 00:03:24.540 align:middle line:84% When they see a familiar face they turn aside 00:03:24.540 --> 00:03:26.760 align:middle line:90% and remain at a distance. 00:03:26.760 --> 00:03:29.490 align:middle line:84% Instead of the music of home, they 00:03:29.490 --> 00:03:35.190 align:middle line:84% hear a foreign wind singing to trees, which bear no leaves. 00:03:35.190 --> 00:03:39.150 align:middle line:84% The princes of exile move through languages 00:03:39.150 --> 00:03:43.200 align:middle line:84% and are refracted dragging their crippled shadows 00:03:43.200 --> 00:03:45.570 align:middle line:90% beneath an alien sun. 00:03:45.570 --> 00:03:47.910 align:middle line:90% They wear masks of greeting. 00:03:47.910 --> 00:03:51.990 align:middle line:84% When they close their eyes, no one can see them. 00:03:51.990 --> 00:03:56.520 align:middle line:84% The princes of exile pray for sleep and that each day 00:03:56.520 --> 00:03:58.590 align:middle line:90% will be shorter than the last. 00:03:58.590 --> 00:04:01.890 align:middle line:84% They go with the passionate daughters of strangers 00:04:01.890 --> 00:04:03.990 align:middle line:90% and are unsatisfied. 00:04:03.990 --> 00:04:08.790 align:middle line:84% They lie awake trying to name stars they do not recognize. 00:04:08.790 --> 00:04:11.340 align:middle line:84% When a traveler crosses the border 00:04:11.340 --> 00:04:14.880 align:middle line:84% between foreign countries, he shifts a burden 00:04:14.880 --> 00:04:17.040 align:middle line:90% from one hand to the other. 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:20.310 align:middle line:84% When he crosses the border into his own land, 00:04:20.310 --> 00:04:23.280 align:middle line:84% he removes a pebble from his shoe. 00:04:23.280 --> 00:04:28.770 align:middle line:84% The princes of sacrifice return as rain in a drought year. 00:04:28.770 --> 00:04:32.040 align:middle line:84% The princes of war return as sores 00:04:32.040 --> 00:04:34.470 align:middle line:90% on the faces of politicians. 00:04:34.470 --> 00:04:38.160 align:middle line:84% The princes of betrayal return impaled 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:40.320 align:middle line:90% on the swords of their friends. 00:04:40.320 --> 00:04:44.880 align:middle line:84% But the princes of exile never return." 00:04:44.880 --> 00:04:46.548 align:middle line:90% It's a beautiful poem. 00:04:46.548 --> 00:04:49.536 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:04:49.536 --> 00:04:54.520 align:middle line:90% 00:04:54.520 --> 00:04:56.710 align:middle line:84% I feel tonight a little bit, and I 00:04:56.710 --> 00:05:00.160 align:middle line:84% don't intend any comparison, like Dylan Thomas when he 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:02.140 align:middle line:90% came to read at Hopkins once. 00:05:02.140 --> 00:05:04.750 align:middle line:84% He refused to read any of his own poems 00:05:04.750 --> 00:05:08.890 align:middle line:84% and he only would read Yates, and I 00:05:08.890 --> 00:05:11.410 align:middle line:84% want to read one or two more things by other people. 00:05:11.410 --> 00:05:18.560 align:middle line:84% I don't intend to be like Dylan Thomas, no one could be. 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:24.500 align:middle line:84% This is by a Polish poet named Tadeusz Różewicz or something 00:05:24.500 --> 00:05:25.230 align:middle line:90% like that. 00:05:25.230 --> 00:05:28.820 align:middle line:84% And it's called "Transformations" can you hear? 00:05:28.820 --> 00:05:30.410 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:05:30.410 --> 00:05:35.210 align:middle line:84% "My little son enters the room and says, you are a vulture. 00:05:35.210 --> 00:05:36.590 align:middle line:90% I am a mouse. 00:05:36.590 --> 00:05:38.330 align:middle line:90% I put away my book. 00:05:38.330 --> 00:05:41.310 align:middle line:90% Wings and claws grow out of me. 00:05:41.310 --> 00:05:44.360 align:middle line:84% Their ominous shadows race on the walls. 00:05:44.360 --> 00:05:45.680 align:middle line:90% I am a vulture. 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:47.300 align:middle line:90% He is a mouse. 00:05:47.300 --> 00:05:48.740 align:middle line:90% You are a wolf. 00:05:48.740 --> 00:05:50.000 align:middle line:90% I am a goat. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.120 align:middle line:84% I walked around the table and am a wolf. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:56.600 align:middle line:84% Window panes gleam like fangs in the dark, 00:05:56.600 --> 00:06:00.410 align:middle line:84% while he runs to his mother safe his head hidden 00:06:00.410 --> 00:06:01.730 align:middle line:90% in the warmth of her dress." 00:06:01.730 --> 00:06:05.770 align:middle line:90% 00:06:05.770 --> 00:06:13.030 align:middle line:84% And a small couple of poems by one of my favorite Greek poets, 00:06:13.030 --> 00:06:14.830 align:middle line:84% who you also won't have heard of, 00:06:14.830 --> 00:06:19.390 align:middle line:84% named Takis Sinopoulos He was a physician, a pathologist, who 00:06:19.390 --> 00:06:21.340 align:middle line:90% died about a year ago. 00:06:21.340 --> 00:06:25.480 align:middle line:84% I always meant to go and see him, and I waited too long. 00:06:25.480 --> 00:06:29.020 align:middle line:84% I always lost courage when I got anywhere near his house, 00:06:29.020 --> 00:06:35.080 align:middle line:84% and I found out when I was last in Greece that it was too late, 00:06:35.080 --> 00:06:38.440 align:middle line:90% which is probably just as well. 00:06:38.440 --> 00:06:41.890 align:middle line:84% "There was a poem, and it was full of holes. 00:06:41.890 --> 00:06:45.970 align:middle line:84% So you could see the poet eating, falling in love, 00:06:45.970 --> 00:06:48.805 align:middle line:84% taking off his shoes, and going to sleep." 00:06:48.805 --> 00:06:52.230 align:middle line:90% 00:06:52.230 --> 00:06:56.640 align:middle line:84% "Speaking so often about hunger we forgot to protect our bread. 00:06:56.640 --> 00:06:59.820 align:middle line:84% Now, in the cupboard the mice are reveling 00:06:59.820 --> 00:07:03.750 align:middle line:90% in their astonishing freedom." 00:07:03.750 --> 00:07:06.210 align:middle line:84% "Poet, my friend, you speak a language 00:07:06.210 --> 00:07:10.140 align:middle line:84% that fills the room with so I am opening the window 00:07:10.140 --> 00:07:12.150 align:middle line:90% to let in water and fish. 00:07:12.150 --> 00:07:23.430 align:middle line:90% 00:07:23.430 --> 00:07:27.870 align:middle line:84% When I was in Greece, a couple of years ago. 00:07:27.870 --> 00:07:32.010 align:middle line:84% In a small village, the children in that village 00:07:32.010 --> 00:07:33.630 align:middle line:84% figured out that they could teach me 00:07:33.630 --> 00:07:37.170 align:middle line:84% the wrong words, the wrong Greek words for things. 00:07:37.170 --> 00:07:45.160 align:middle line:84% And that got to be a kind of game that was fun in a way. 00:07:45.160 --> 00:07:48.000 align:middle line:84% I went back a few years after that, 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:50.160 align:middle line:84% and they by then had grown up some 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:53.950 align:middle line:84% and weren't quite as silly with me as we had been before. 00:07:53.950 --> 00:07:56.490 align:middle line:84% But they remembered the game and they improved on it 00:07:56.490 --> 00:07:57.750 align:middle line:90% the second time. 00:07:57.750 --> 00:08:00.810 align:middle line:84% This is a poem written after the first time. 00:08:00.810 --> 00:08:05.710 align:middle line:84% It's called "Exchange for a [INAUDIBLE] and [INAUDIBLE]"" 00:08:05.710 --> 00:08:08.800 align:middle line:84% "In the morning, the children teased me giving me 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:10.720 align:middle line:90% the word melon for shoe. 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:14.410 align:middle line:84% Corpuzi they laugh pointing to my foot. 00:08:14.410 --> 00:08:17.350 align:middle line:84% I imagine a great ripe cantaloupe. 00:08:17.350 --> 00:08:20.110 align:middle line:84% In the evening, they take both my hands 00:08:20.110 --> 00:08:22.570 align:middle line:90% and pull me into the sky. 00:08:22.570 --> 00:08:26.800 align:middle line:84% Tell us, they whisper in Greek, what you call that they say. 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:31.270 align:middle line:84% Pointing to a firmament so alive with stars you cannot see 00:08:31.270 --> 00:08:32.950 align:middle line:90% the dark places. 00:08:32.950 --> 00:08:37.870 align:middle line:84% And tell us, they say, pointing to the slice of moon golden 00:08:37.870 --> 00:08:40.570 align:middle line:84% as the cheese ripening on the stone porches 00:08:40.570 --> 00:08:42.760 align:middle line:90% under silken mulberry trees. 00:08:42.760 --> 00:08:44.830 align:middle line:90% What it is named. 00:08:44.830 --> 00:08:47.600 align:middle line:84% And I think to tell them straight away, 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:51.460 align:middle line:84% opening my language to them like a gift brightly wrapped 00:08:51.460 --> 00:08:53.710 align:middle line:90% though it is fair to say here. 00:08:53.710 --> 00:08:57.760 align:middle line:84% I was tempted to teach them eyebrow in place of star, 00:08:57.760 --> 00:09:01.210 align:middle line:84% button for moon, scribble for sky. 00:09:01.210 --> 00:09:04.150 align:middle line:84% But I was leaving and I wouldn't see them again, 00:09:04.150 --> 00:09:06.910 align:middle line:84% so I unwrapped the words and took them 00:09:06.910 --> 00:09:10.300 align:middle line:84% and opened their hands and placed the words inside. 00:09:10.300 --> 00:09:13.600 align:middle line:84% So they could feel them the way children [AUDIO OUT] 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:16.630 align:middle line:84% feel the quivering body of a lightning bug 00:09:16.630 --> 00:09:18.190 align:middle line:90% after it is caught. 00:09:18.190 --> 00:09:22.900 align:middle line:84% Going off and on that way in the warm small cave of the poem." 00:09:22.900 --> 00:09:26.170 align:middle line:90% 00:09:26.170 --> 00:09:31.480 align:middle line:84% And another poem that's set in that landscape 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:33.580 align:middle line:90% called Somnambulist. 00:09:33.580 --> 00:09:34.765 align:middle line:90% And it's in three parts. 00:09:34.765 --> 00:09:41.430 align:middle line:90% 00:09:41.430 --> 00:09:46.890 align:middle line:84% I talk at first to an old man who's called Uncle George. 00:09:46.890 --> 00:09:50.430 align:middle line:90% In Greek, that's Barba Geórgios. 00:09:50.430 --> 00:09:54.060 align:middle line:84% "This morning while I slept, Barba Geórgios, 00:09:54.060 --> 00:09:58.380 align:middle line:84% you left one brown egg and a saucepan of goat's milk 00:09:58.380 --> 00:10:00.360 align:middle line:90% on the kitchen table. 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:03.840 align:middle line:84% Between the hen and her egg on my table 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:09.060 align:middle line:84% there is only the small distance between your house and mine. 00:10:09.060 --> 00:10:12.300 align:middle line:84% But what shall I bring for you, Barba Geórgios? 00:10:12.300 --> 00:10:16.410 align:middle line:84% The almonds on my tree are also on yours. 00:10:16.410 --> 00:10:19.170 align:middle line:84% Mulberries are on both our trees. 00:10:19.170 --> 00:10:22.710 align:middle line:84% In the evening, you tell Nikos that the great sea 00:10:22.710 --> 00:10:25.260 align:middle line:84% of your passion has turned to yogurt. 00:10:25.260 --> 00:10:28.980 align:middle line:84% And all the small spoons have departed. 00:10:28.980 --> 00:10:30.150 align:middle line:90% Two. 00:10:30.150 --> 00:10:32.460 align:middle line:84% When you are alone in the mountain, 00:10:32.460 --> 00:10:36.390 align:middle line:84% you may wear time on your finger as you would a ring 00:10:36.390 --> 00:10:39.840 align:middle line:84% or you may call it, and it will walk along your arm 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:41.460 align:middle line:90% like a pet bird. 00:10:41.460 --> 00:10:44.940 align:middle line:84% Or you may strike time as you would the tongue of a bell 00:10:44.940 --> 00:10:48.600 align:middle line:84% against its hollow, and there will be more of it. 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:52.260 align:middle line:84% In the morning, when you see small gatherings of dust, 00:10:52.260 --> 00:10:55.650 align:middle line:84% it will only be time that the hands of the clocks 00:10:55.650 --> 00:10:58.710 align:middle line:84% have pushed to the surface during the night. 00:10:58.710 --> 00:11:02.700 align:middle line:84% In this way have the seconds passed through our dreams. 00:11:02.700 --> 00:11:06.000 align:middle line:84% The first blue light of morning descends to Earth 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:12.240 align:middle line:84% in great crystalline chunks also carved by tools held in hands. 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:16.230 align:middle line:84% 5 o'clock measured in the language of bells, even 00:11:16.230 --> 00:11:18.570 align:middle line:84% the rain is molded by that spirit 00:11:18.570 --> 00:11:20.250 align:middle line:90% which filled with the dark. 00:11:20.250 --> 00:11:24.510 align:middle line:84% Large tears of the Pieta falling to the red tiles. 00:11:24.510 --> 00:11:25.830 align:middle line:90% Three. 00:11:25.830 --> 00:11:30.270 align:middle line:84% Perhaps I am only dreaming this town at the edge of a crater. 00:11:30.270 --> 00:11:34.950 align:middle line:84% Splinters of my love broken into the hearts of many others. 00:11:34.950 --> 00:11:39.990 align:middle line:84% Silence divided by the bells marking the places of goats 00:11:39.990 --> 00:11:42.420 align:middle line:90% here and there in the mountain. 00:11:42.420 --> 00:11:45.990 align:middle line:84% The sense that you are there hovering in the doorway 00:11:45.990 --> 00:11:48.300 align:middle line:90% or there in the field below. 00:11:48.300 --> 00:11:51.180 align:middle line:84% Or that it was you in the dark this morning. 00:11:51.180 --> 00:11:53.460 align:middle line:84% The sound of the hoofs of your mare 00:11:53.460 --> 00:11:55.710 align:middle line:90% on the stone of the mountain. 00:11:55.710 --> 00:11:58.830 align:middle line:84% What shall I look for among the groves and dim 00:11:58.830 --> 00:12:03.000 align:middle line:84% fences in the door yards and spring places. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:07.230 align:middle line:84% When you left, afterward I went on alone deeper 00:12:07.230 --> 00:12:11.700 align:middle line:84% into my life full of the years, which had accumulated in me. 00:12:11.700 --> 00:12:16.410 align:middle line:84% When you left, I went on along these nets of silence. 00:12:16.410 --> 00:12:20.250 align:middle line:84% Like one who starts out at the beginning when the way is 00:12:20.250 --> 00:12:24.452 align:middle line:90% narrow and the road opening." 00:12:24.452 --> 00:12:27.868 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:12:27.868 --> 00:12:35.190 align:middle line:90% 00:12:35.190 --> 00:12:37.530 align:middle line:84% When Ann Beattie, the prose writer, 00:12:37.530 --> 00:12:40.710 align:middle line:90% came to read at our school. 00:12:40.710 --> 00:12:43.200 align:middle line:84% She came and read in a church across the street. 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:47.430 align:middle line:84% And she began by saying, lock the doors. 00:12:47.430 --> 00:12:51.210 align:middle line:90% I have a lot to tell you. 00:12:51.210 --> 00:12:53.560 align:middle line:84% The terrible position of being the audience. 00:12:53.560 --> 00:12:54.060 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:12:54.060 --> 00:13:01.140 align:middle line:90% 00:13:01.140 --> 00:13:03.510 align:middle line:84% A student of mine was talking to me one day 00:13:03.510 --> 00:13:05.910 align:middle line:84% on the phone about how hard it was 00:13:05.910 --> 00:13:07.980 align:middle line:84% to live because everything you do 00:13:07.980 --> 00:13:11.370 align:middle line:84% is governed by so many things that others have done. 00:13:11.370 --> 00:13:14.190 align:middle line:84% In other words, in your relationships 00:13:14.190 --> 00:13:16.740 align:middle line:84% there are always the echoes of all the other relationships 00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:18.990 align:middle line:84% and of all of your early relationships. 00:13:18.990 --> 00:13:22.740 align:middle line:84% And I said, yes it's like the groaning table, 00:13:22.740 --> 00:13:24.930 align:middle line:84% except it's the groaning bed to bed 00:13:24.930 --> 00:13:27.760 align:middle line:84% and all your relatives are there with you. 00:13:27.760 --> 00:13:30.870 align:middle line:84% And she said, that sounds like a poem. 00:13:30.870 --> 00:13:32.610 align:middle line:90% And I said, well you write it. 00:13:32.610 --> 00:13:35.190 align:middle line:90% And then we both wrote it. 00:13:35.190 --> 00:13:37.950 align:middle line:84% So I don't know quite what to do with it 00:13:37.950 --> 00:13:41.760 align:middle line:84% except that it always makes me think of her. 00:13:41.760 --> 00:13:45.180 align:middle line:84% It owes its end to Rilke, so it owes itself 00:13:45.180 --> 00:13:48.720 align:middle line:90% to two people not just one. 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:51.600 align:middle line:90% "The Groaning Bed." 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:55.980 align:middle line:84% "When I lay me down to love, what small band of mothers 00:13:55.980 --> 00:13:59.850 align:middle line:84% comes crowding here What realm of fathers? 00:13:59.850 --> 00:14:02.100 align:middle line:90% This bed is filled with them. 00:14:02.100 --> 00:14:07.260 align:middle line:84% Each time I turn reptile bird and fish they turn with me. 00:14:07.260 --> 00:14:11.520 align:middle line:84% This full table bears on steadily its rich meal. 00:14:11.520 --> 00:14:15.210 align:middle line:84% My love such is the nature of this lying down together 00:14:15.210 --> 00:14:17.220 align:middle line:90% upon the groaning bed. 00:14:17.220 --> 00:14:19.830 align:middle line:84% Those who have been sleeping for centuries 00:14:19.830 --> 00:14:23.040 align:middle line:84% raise their drowsy heads and climb dreamily 00:14:23.040 --> 00:14:24.450 align:middle line:90% into bed with us. 00:14:24.450 --> 00:14:27.390 align:middle line:84% All our fathers resting like mountain [AUDIO OUT] 00:14:27.390 --> 00:14:28.830 align:middle line:90% within our depths. 00:14:28.830 --> 00:14:30.840 align:middle line:84% And the ancient riverbeds who were 00:14:30.840 --> 00:14:35.160 align:middle line:84% our mothers all this soundless landscape rises with us 00:14:35.160 --> 00:14:38.700 align:middle line:90% each time we go to love." 00:14:38.700 --> 00:14:41.350 align:middle line:84% That's Rilke the best of that's Rilke. 00:14:41.350 --> 00:15:04.110 align:middle line:90% 00:15:04.110 --> 00:15:05.640 align:middle line:90% Map. 00:15:05.640 --> 00:15:08.370 align:middle line:84% "I made a map from the parts of your life, 00:15:08.370 --> 00:15:11.640 align:middle line:84% and I carry it around like an idiot child. 00:15:11.640 --> 00:15:15.780 align:middle line:84% It clings to my side pointing dumbly at the world. 00:15:15.780 --> 00:15:19.170 align:middle line:84% Poor scholar it has forgotten so much. 00:15:19.170 --> 00:15:23.400 align:middle line:84% Who goes before Abraham and which brother killed which. 00:15:23.400 --> 00:15:26.040 align:middle line:84% Who dressed in the skin of a goat. 00:15:26.040 --> 00:15:29.500 align:middle line:84% I tell my map to make a line through all points above sea 00:15:29.500 --> 00:15:30.000 align:middle line:90% level. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.720 align:middle line:84% I tell it blue for oceans green for lowlands. 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:36.960 align:middle line:84% But it only shows which territories were lost 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:38.730 align:middle line:90% and which sons. 00:15:38.730 --> 00:15:41.010 align:middle line:84% My map doesn't know how many years 00:15:41.010 --> 00:15:44.520 align:middle line:84% between this night and the one where we said goodbye. 00:15:44.520 --> 00:15:47.610 align:middle line:84% There are so many things I wanted to ask you. 00:15:47.610 --> 00:15:50.520 align:middle line:84% So many things I have tried to tell you." 00:15:50.520 --> 00:16:05.030 align:middle line:90% 00:16:05.030 --> 00:16:07.370 align:middle line:84% I was in the Middle East this summer. 00:16:07.370 --> 00:16:17.620 align:middle line:84% And we were one day walking between fields of landmines. 00:16:17.620 --> 00:16:20.950 align:middle line:84% And this poem is from that experience. 00:16:20.950 --> 00:16:26.740 align:middle line:84% "At the Syrian border, walking between two Syrian minefields, 00:16:26.740 --> 00:16:29.890 align:middle line:90% I pretend I am a tourist here. 00:16:29.890 --> 00:16:33.220 align:middle line:84% What trees, I say, what mountains. 00:16:33.220 --> 00:16:37.150 align:middle line:84% I mouthed slogans bitter as the salt sea. 00:16:37.150 --> 00:16:40.420 align:middle line:84% The wind feeds on the basalt rock. 00:16:40.420 --> 00:16:43.600 align:middle line:84% Under every eucalyptus there is the yawning shadow 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:44.170 align:middle line:90% of a bunker." 00:16:44.170 --> 00:16:47.620 align:middle line:90% 00:16:47.620 --> 00:16:50.830 align:middle line:84% I'm sorry, I'm reading the wrong version. 00:16:50.830 --> 00:16:54.700 align:middle line:84% "Under every eucalyptus there is the yawning shadow of a bunker. 00:16:54.700 --> 00:16:57.460 align:middle line:90% My people is an armed camp. 00:16:57.460 --> 00:17:01.120 align:middle line:84% I remember a boy who made a bridge of his body 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:03.490 align:middle line:90% for the others to climb across. 00:17:03.490 --> 00:17:07.900 align:middle line:84% They turned him into air and fire and earth. 00:17:07.900 --> 00:17:10.510 align:middle line:84% And here is the place where a father 00:17:10.510 --> 00:17:14.500 align:middle line:84% let his child down a knotted sheet like Jacob, 00:17:14.500 --> 00:17:16.599 align:middle line:90% only not going up. 00:17:16.599 --> 00:17:20.650 align:middle line:84% One child by one child down the ladder of knots, 00:17:20.650 --> 00:17:24.250 align:middle line:84% and when he himself climbed down for the last time 00:17:24.250 --> 00:17:26.920 align:middle line:90% he found each one murdered. 00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:30.970 align:middle line:84% Oh, Jacob, let us put away our strange gods. 00:17:30.970 --> 00:17:33.490 align:middle line:90% My people is an armed camp. 00:17:33.490 --> 00:17:35.530 align:middle line:90% Her sons wear old face." 00:17:35.530 --> 00:17:39.910 align:middle line:90% 00:17:39.910 --> 00:17:43.695 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:17:43.695 --> 00:17:56.070 align:middle line:90% 00:17:56.070 --> 00:17:59.580 align:middle line:84% This is one something like that one. 00:17:59.580 --> 00:18:01.635 align:middle line:84% It was one of those conversations 00:18:01.635 --> 00:18:03.188 align:middle line:90% you have after the fact. 00:18:03.188 --> 00:18:04.980 align:middle line:84% You know we always think of the best things 00:18:04.980 --> 00:18:08.790 align:middle line:84% to say two years after the conversation. 00:18:08.790 --> 00:18:13.740 align:middle line:84% And I was having an argument with a good friend who's 00:18:13.740 --> 00:18:19.695 align:middle line:84% a Greek about the Israeli invasion into Lebanon. 00:18:19.695 --> 00:18:24.130 align:middle line:90% 00:18:24.130 --> 00:18:28.480 align:middle line:84% "Letter for Nikos Lebanon, June, 1982." 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:30.520 align:middle line:90% "Be reasonable, Nikos. 00:18:30.520 --> 00:18:32.560 align:middle line:90% Let us talk of particulars. 00:18:32.560 --> 00:18:36.340 align:middle line:84% The skull of a girl smashed against stone. 00:18:36.340 --> 00:18:39.220 align:middle line:84% Or a man dismembered between [AUDIO OUT].. 00:18:39.220 --> 00:18:42.580 align:middle line:84% We have found a new use for our machines. 00:18:42.580 --> 00:18:45.370 align:middle line:90% My friend has gone to five wars. 00:18:45.370 --> 00:18:48.100 align:middle line:90% Now he contributes his two sons. 00:18:48.100 --> 00:18:51.100 align:middle line:84% And hoping to escape like the rest of us, 00:18:51.100 --> 00:18:53.650 align:middle line:90% he puts on his uniform again. 00:18:53.650 --> 00:18:56.860 align:middle line:84% I've got my old job back, he writes. 00:18:56.860 --> 00:18:58.570 align:middle line:90% Who will win, Nikos? 00:18:58.570 --> 00:19:02.740 align:middle line:84% Not you, shouting at me from your sad vision of the past. 00:19:02.740 --> 00:19:05.530 align:middle line:84% And not my neighbor from Tripoli. 00:19:05.530 --> 00:19:10.270 align:middle line:84% Palestinian and Jew, we stand in the airport at Athens. 00:19:10.270 --> 00:19:12.640 align:middle line:90% I've just offered him my seat. 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:16.570 align:middle line:84% There is good feeling between us though he goes back to Libya 00:19:16.570 --> 00:19:19.450 align:middle line:84% to check on his stock of sub machine guns 00:19:19.450 --> 00:19:23.980 align:middle line:84% and I go back to America, where it is easier to be innocent. 00:19:23.980 --> 00:19:25.720 align:middle line:90% Who will win, Nikos? 00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:27.100 align:middle line:90% Not I. 00:19:27.100 --> 00:19:30.070 align:middle line:84% And if the drums are silent after all, 00:19:30.070 --> 00:19:33.130 align:middle line:84% surely we will have to invent this whole scenario 00:19:33.130 --> 00:19:35.920 align:middle line:90% from scratch, eh, Nikos? 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:40.030 align:middle line:84% The mountains will once again be melted with blood Owl 00:19:40.030 --> 00:19:42.670 align:middle line:84% and Raven the inheritors of this place. 00:19:42.670 --> 00:19:47.230 align:middle line:84% Here in America, I opened three tubes of paint and set 00:19:47.230 --> 00:19:50.410 align:middle line:84% the primary colors down on canvas, 00:19:50.410 --> 00:19:53.770 align:middle line:84% as though I could create the world from the beginning. 00:19:53.770 --> 00:19:58.120 align:middle line:84% With all that we know, we are required to begin again. 00:19:58.120 --> 00:20:02.260 align:middle line:84% Like the poor man who dreamed of a fine new suit. 00:20:02.260 --> 00:20:05.740 align:middle line:84% Yet when he took the suit home, it didn't fit. 00:20:05.740 --> 00:20:08.530 align:middle line:84% But first, the tailor admonished him. 00:20:08.530 --> 00:20:13.010 align:middle line:84% You must take off your old clothes." 00:20:13.010 --> 00:20:15.950 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:20:15.950 --> 00:20:21.830 align:middle line:90% 00:20:21.830 --> 00:20:27.290 align:middle line:84% It gets complicated in our age to write poems, personal poems. 00:20:27.290 --> 00:20:29.450 align:middle line:84% For a long time, Americans I think 00:20:29.450 --> 00:20:33.290 align:middle line:90% did write very personal poems. 00:20:33.290 --> 00:20:39.110 align:middle line:84% I think maybe because of a sense of being thrown back 00:20:39.110 --> 00:20:41.360 align:middle line:90% into themselves. 00:20:41.360 --> 00:20:45.680 align:middle line:84% But it gets harder and harder to stay in that because of the way 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:50.160 align:middle line:90% the world impinges on everyone. 00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:53.810 align:middle line:90% But this is a personal one. 00:20:53.810 --> 00:20:56.900 align:middle line:84% At school we're required, like everyone I guess, 00:20:56.900 --> 00:21:04.130 align:middle line:84% to document our lives so that we can keep our jobs. 00:21:04.130 --> 00:21:07.280 align:middle line:84% And I think everyone is required to document his life one 00:21:07.280 --> 00:21:09.260 align:middle line:90% way or the other. 00:21:09.260 --> 00:21:12.050 align:middle line:84% And one day, I turned in my document, 00:21:12.050 --> 00:21:14.720 align:middle line:84% and someone typing it again, changed 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:16.670 align:middle line:90% a few things by mistake. 00:21:16.670 --> 00:21:21.200 align:middle line:84% And it occurred to me that my life was exchangeable 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:24.830 align:middle line:84% or interchangeable with that of anyone else's. 00:21:24.830 --> 00:21:27.590 align:middle line:84% You could take all the facts and sort of throw them into a pot 00:21:27.590 --> 00:21:29.690 align:middle line:90% and pull out a couple of people. 00:21:29.690 --> 00:21:32.270 align:middle line:90% 00:21:32.270 --> 00:21:34.040 align:middle line:90% "Hieroglyphic." 00:21:34.040 --> 00:21:38.840 align:middle line:84% "Once, a girl innocently typing, put the wrong word on the page. 00:21:38.840 --> 00:21:44.220 align:middle line:84% And in a flash changed my career from physiology to psychology. 00:21:44.220 --> 00:21:47.360 align:middle line:84% I thought, what if the same girl types the place Earth 00:21:47.360 --> 00:21:48.560 align:middle line:90% after I die. 00:21:48.560 --> 00:21:50.660 align:middle line:90% Baltic for Baltimore? 00:21:50.660 --> 00:21:53.750 align:middle line:84% Or writes Black forests for White Mountain 00:21:53.750 --> 00:21:55.400 align:middle line:90% as my family name. 00:21:55.400 --> 00:21:59.240 align:middle line:84% Or instead of repose, puts down poseur. 00:21:59.240 --> 00:22:01.610 align:middle line:84% I thought, what if the cause of death 00:22:01.610 --> 00:22:05.300 align:middle line:84% were a broken heart instead of a broken down heart? 00:22:05.300 --> 00:22:09.470 align:middle line:84% My last street on earth Wormwood instead of Merry Wood. 00:22:09.470 --> 00:22:12.170 align:middle line:90% Who would argue my case for me? 00:22:12.170 --> 00:22:15.740 align:middle line:84% Surely, some good professor would come and read down 00:22:15.740 --> 00:22:18.890 align:middle line:84% the tome of my life from top to bottom 00:22:18.890 --> 00:22:21.980 align:middle line:84% like Hatshepsut's hieroglyphs, making up 00:22:21.980 --> 00:22:25.670 align:middle line:84% a wonderful story from wavy lines and birds 00:22:25.670 --> 00:22:29.330 align:middle line:84% and small unexpected footprints erased by the sea." 00:22:29.330 --> 00:22:38.100 align:middle line:90% 00:22:38.100 --> 00:22:40.450 align:middle line:90% I brought a story along. 00:22:40.450 --> 00:22:44.140 align:middle line:84% Anybody prefer a story instead of more poems? 00:22:44.140 --> 00:22:44.640 align:middle line:90% No. 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:48.410 align:middle line:90% 00:22:48.410 --> 00:22:49.520 align:middle line:90% Let's see how we are. 00:22:49.520 --> 00:22:54.980 align:middle line:90% 00:22:54.980 --> 00:22:57.170 align:middle line:84% I call this "Niels Bohr and the Elephant." 00:22:57.170 --> 00:23:00.110 align:middle line:90% You know who Niels Bohr was? 00:23:00.110 --> 00:23:00.986 align:middle line:90% Who was he? 00:23:00.986 --> 00:23:08.290 align:middle line:90% 00:23:08.290 --> 00:23:11.770 align:middle line:84% Bill Stafford tells a story about Niels Bohr 00:23:11.770 --> 00:23:18.010 align:middle line:84% that he could never finish a sentence or a paragraph. 00:23:18.010 --> 00:23:20.170 align:middle line:84% He'd get done and when he was in school 00:23:20.170 --> 00:23:22.900 align:middle line:90% he'd get done a certain essay. 00:23:22.900 --> 00:23:26.320 align:middle line:84% And he didn't seem to know that you brought it to a close. 00:23:26.320 --> 00:23:28.510 align:middle line:84% He'd always sort of start up again 00:23:28.510 --> 00:23:29.685 align:middle line:90% at the end of the paragraph. 00:23:29.685 --> 00:23:31.060 align:middle line:84% And the teacher always chided him 00:23:31.060 --> 00:23:35.440 align:middle line:84% for not being able to write the way we're 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:37.030 align:middle line:90% supposed to write in school. 00:23:37.030 --> 00:23:41.830 align:middle line:84% And there's a little booklet that Bill published 00:23:41.830 --> 00:23:44.920 align:middle line:90% which tells this story. 00:23:44.920 --> 00:23:50.630 align:middle line:84% And it's called, I think something like this, 00:23:50.630 --> 00:23:53.590 align:middle line:84% "I Would Like to Mention Aluminum." 00:23:53.590 --> 00:23:54.090 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:23:54.090 --> 00:23:57.580 align:middle line:90% 00:23:57.580 --> 00:24:00.520 align:middle line:84% My story is sort of uses Niels Bohr's-- 00:24:00.520 --> 00:24:04.012 align:middle line:84% one year I spent reading quantum mechanics and things 00:24:04.012 --> 00:24:04.720 align:middle line:90% about Niels Bohr. 00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:06.280 align:middle line:90% I don't know exactly why. 00:24:06.280 --> 00:24:10.090 align:middle line:84% And it's the way poets and writers graze in books. 00:24:10.090 --> 00:24:13.870 align:middle line:84% You sort of don't learn anything you just kind of graze around. 00:24:13.870 --> 00:24:16.510 align:middle line:90% 00:24:16.510 --> 00:24:19.990 align:middle line:90% And it has no well enough-- 00:24:19.990 --> 00:24:25.640 align:middle line:84% but I tried to match up the formulae with life experiences 00:24:25.640 --> 00:24:27.610 align:middle line:84% which I thought the formula represented. 00:24:27.610 --> 00:24:31.150 align:middle line:84% So there is a relationship between the formulae 00:24:31.150 --> 00:24:32.500 align:middle line:90% and the story. 00:24:32.500 --> 00:24:34.000 align:middle line:90% You may not notice it but-- 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:36.070 align:middle line:90% "Niels Bohr and the Elephant." 00:24:36.070 --> 00:24:38.680 align:middle line:84% "It wasn't until I looked up, really looked up, 00:24:38.680 --> 00:24:42.010 align:middle line:84% that I saw the snow coming down over what had fallen 00:24:42.010 --> 00:24:43.420 align:middle line:90% three days before. 00:24:43.420 --> 00:24:45.490 align:middle line:84% And in the far corner of the garden, 00:24:45.490 --> 00:24:49.030 align:middle line:84% something like a dark wing fluttered periodically. 00:24:49.030 --> 00:24:52.510 align:middle line:84% A bird caught in a drift or Niels Bohr's small leather 00:24:52.510 --> 00:24:55.480 align:middle line:84% notebook in which he was always noting down significance 00:24:55.480 --> 00:24:57.190 align:middle line:90% as he roamed out of doors. 00:24:57.190 --> 00:25:00.610 align:middle line:84% For instance, in the second downward plunge 00:25:00.610 --> 00:25:04.600 align:middle line:84% of minuteness from a scale of 10 to the minus 8 to one of 10 00:25:04.600 --> 00:25:09.700 align:middle line:84% to the minus 13 centimeters, a contrast does not exist. 00:25:09.700 --> 00:25:13.030 align:middle line:84% In any case, if it was a bird, it couldn't survive for long. 00:25:13.030 --> 00:25:16.300 align:middle line:84% I watch carefully but did not make a move to help. 00:25:16.300 --> 00:25:20.110 align:middle line:84% Just as the night before standing by the door of a bar, 00:25:20.110 --> 00:25:22.720 align:middle line:84% I did not move while Albert E went up 00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:26.290 align:middle line:84% behind Petronius's chair, whispered something in his ear, 00:25:26.290 --> 00:25:28.030 align:middle line:90% and then flattened him. 00:25:28.030 --> 00:25:30.460 align:middle line:84% Petronius they called him Rocky." 00:25:30.460 --> 00:25:33.010 align:middle line:84% I wrote this before the Rocky one, two, three, 00:25:33.010 --> 00:25:35.110 align:middle line:90% four, and five movies. 00:25:35.110 --> 00:25:37.660 align:middle line:84% "Petronius, they called him Rocky, had his hand on me 00:25:37.660 --> 00:25:39.490 align:middle line:90% for no reason I could figure. 00:25:39.490 --> 00:25:42.500 align:middle line:84% Something resolute and dangerous in his face. 00:25:42.500 --> 00:25:44.470 align:middle line:90% He wasn't going to let go. 00:25:44.470 --> 00:25:47.650 align:middle line:84% Funny thing the way the other six of them, his buddies, 00:25:47.650 --> 00:25:50.720 align:middle line:84% never tried to warn him or slow him down. 00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:53.110 align:middle line:84% He put his empty plate on top of mind. 00:25:53.110 --> 00:25:55.630 align:middle line:90% He butt into our conversation. 00:25:55.630 --> 00:25:57.940 align:middle line:84% Why were we so serious he wanted to know. 00:25:57.940 --> 00:26:01.330 align:middle line:84% Didn't we have any fun he kept on, wedging himself back 00:26:01.330 --> 00:26:02.800 align:middle line:90% in every few minutes. 00:26:02.800 --> 00:26:04.930 align:middle line:84% Or holding up a candle inviting me 00:26:04.930 --> 00:26:07.300 align:middle line:84% to observe the landslide taking place 00:26:07.300 --> 00:26:09.580 align:middle line:90% inside the green-dotted glass. 00:26:09.580 --> 00:26:13.690 align:middle line:84% I never could resist looking at something I hadn't seen before. 00:26:13.690 --> 00:26:15.940 align:middle line:84% As I stared at the white, molten wax. 00:26:15.940 --> 00:26:18.160 align:middle line:84% I felt his hand on my waist again. 00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:22.060 align:middle line:84% Felt his finger slide down along my hip and stay put. 00:26:22.060 --> 00:26:25.690 align:middle line:84% I had to remind myself that I'd never laid eyes on him before. 00:26:25.690 --> 00:26:28.060 align:middle line:84% That what he was doing was provocative. 00:26:28.060 --> 00:26:32.020 align:middle line:84% Listen, Rocky, Albert E's voice came from far away. 00:26:32.020 --> 00:26:34.660 align:middle line:84% I listened for the way he addressed Rocky. 00:26:34.660 --> 00:26:38.710 align:middle line:84% The sound of that voice a challenge to Rocky's manhood. 00:26:38.710 --> 00:26:40.360 align:middle line:90% The rule of this game. 00:26:40.360 --> 00:26:42.700 align:middle line:84% The other one would be obliged to pick it up 00:26:42.700 --> 00:26:44.920 align:middle line:90% to return the challenge. 00:26:44.920 --> 00:26:47.230 align:middle line:84% Return the challenge, said Niels Bohr, 00:26:47.230 --> 00:26:50.900 align:middle line:84% that's like throwing an elephant in slow motion through the air. 00:26:50.900 --> 00:26:53.380 align:middle line:84% I think I'll compose a hunting story. 00:26:53.380 --> 00:26:55.720 align:middle line:84% This elephant has come to a watering spot 00:26:55.720 --> 00:26:58.810 align:middle line:84% on a river, when he encounters a large poster. 00:26:58.810 --> 00:27:02.410 align:middle line:84% In one short sentence the antiparticle is explained. 00:27:02.410 --> 00:27:04.780 align:middle line:84% Reading it, the elephant is enchanted. 00:27:04.780 --> 00:27:09.130 align:middle line:84% The hunters hiding in the bush slip out, tie his legs securely 00:27:09.130 --> 00:27:11.800 align:middle line:84% with heavy ropes, and ship him to the Hagenbeck 00:27:11.800 --> 00:27:13.930 align:middle line:90% Zoo in Hamburg. 00:27:13.930 --> 00:27:17.800 align:middle line:84% The hand, the same hand that a moment ago had rested securely 00:27:17.800 --> 00:27:20.470 align:middle line:84% on my thigh, was rising threateningly 00:27:20.470 --> 00:27:21.940 align:middle line:90% upward toward the table. 00:27:21.940 --> 00:27:24.070 align:middle line:84% It was making the finger, friends. 00:27:24.070 --> 00:27:25.480 align:middle line:90% Yes, the finger. 00:27:25.480 --> 00:27:28.480 align:middle line:84% Albert E caught it and came quickly to the boil. 00:27:28.480 --> 00:27:32.200 align:middle line:84% This was, after all, a first order challenge. 00:27:32.200 --> 00:27:34.530 align:middle line:90% One any man would rise to. 00:27:34.530 --> 00:27:37.000 align:middle line:84% How'd you like to be my roommate, baby? 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:40.630 align:middle line:84% Petronius is working both fronts at once this time. 00:27:40.630 --> 00:27:42.640 align:middle line:90% You've got the right image. 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:44.870 align:middle line:90% Which image is that, I say. 00:27:44.870 --> 00:27:48.460 align:middle line:84% Well, he begins thoughtfully, not the second wife image, 00:27:48.460 --> 00:27:51.640 align:middle line:84% not the first wife image, not the girlfriend image. 00:27:51.640 --> 00:27:53.410 align:middle line:90% Something else, he says. 00:27:53.410 --> 00:27:55.840 align:middle line:84% The anti-image I think to myself. 00:27:55.840 --> 00:27:57.880 align:middle line:90% Like antiparticles. 00:27:57.880 --> 00:28:02.020 align:middle line:84% Antiparticles, hums Niels Bohr, picking up on it right away. 00:28:02.020 --> 00:28:03.250 align:middle line:90% That's a good one. 00:28:03.250 --> 00:28:06.910 align:middle line:84% The electron into the bed of the proton, and the hydrogen atom 00:28:06.910 --> 00:28:09.400 align:middle line:84% is annihilated instantaneously in a burst 00:28:09.400 --> 00:28:11.410 align:middle line:90% of high-frequency radiation. 00:28:11.410 --> 00:28:14.560 align:middle line:84% A new principle, he said, his eye gleaming. 00:28:14.560 --> 00:28:16.960 align:middle line:84% According to which any theory suggested by 00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:18.850 align:middle line:84% a theoretician would become immediately 00:28:18.850 --> 00:28:20.470 align:middle line:90% applicable to his body. 00:28:20.470 --> 00:28:22.540 align:middle line:84% Thus you would be turned into gamma rays 00:28:22.540 --> 00:28:26.230 align:middle line:84% before you could tell anybody about your idea. 00:28:26.230 --> 00:28:27.850 align:middle line:90% Albert E is a big guy. 00:28:27.850 --> 00:28:29.950 align:middle line:84% The story is the big men have to guard 00:28:29.950 --> 00:28:31.720 align:middle line:84% against the full use of their strength 00:28:31.720 --> 00:28:34.750 align:middle line:84% because they could kill their opponent without intending to. 00:28:34.750 --> 00:28:37.210 align:middle line:84% At least that's what Albert E told me. 00:28:37.210 --> 00:28:39.040 align:middle line:84% I look at his large body which is 00:28:39.040 --> 00:28:42.370 align:middle line:84% about to be belted across the table by his smaller opponent, 00:28:42.370 --> 00:28:45.770 align:middle line:84% and wonder just where the extra strength is coming from. 00:28:45.770 --> 00:28:47.140 align:middle line:90% Is it in the haunches? 00:28:47.140 --> 00:28:49.630 align:middle line:90% The broad flat chest the arms? 00:28:49.630 --> 00:28:51.790 align:middle line:90% Next, I look the tables over. 00:28:51.790 --> 00:28:53.980 align:middle line:84% Albert E is flying through the air. 00:28:53.980 --> 00:28:55.960 align:middle line:84% The owners come out of the kitchen. 00:28:55.960 --> 00:28:57.750 align:middle line:90% This is serious business. 00:28:57.750 --> 00:29:00.570 align:middle line:84% By this time the place has quieted down. 00:29:00.570 --> 00:29:02.700 align:middle line:90% All attention is on the boxers. 00:29:02.700 --> 00:29:04.650 align:middle line:90% What's the big guy pissed about. 00:29:04.650 --> 00:29:06.300 align:middle line:90% Who's the little fella. 00:29:06.300 --> 00:29:07.410 align:middle line:90% I toward the door. 00:29:07.410 --> 00:29:09.960 align:middle line:84% The cause of it all making the grand escape. 00:29:09.960 --> 00:29:12.540 align:middle line:84% But Albert E is not my responsibility 00:29:12.540 --> 00:29:16.030 align:middle line:84% I say in my own defense to no one in particular. 00:29:16.030 --> 00:29:17.910 align:middle line:84% If I went up to stop them, I'd likely 00:29:17.910 --> 00:29:19.860 align:middle line:90% get belted in the crossfire. 00:29:19.860 --> 00:29:23.490 align:middle line:84% Soon, I see six guys holding Albert E. Six holding 00:29:23.490 --> 00:29:27.420 align:middle line:84% Petronius, their arms pinned back like wings behind them. 00:29:27.420 --> 00:29:30.300 align:middle line:84% The cautionary words rising like a hiss 00:29:30.300 --> 00:29:32.950 align:middle line:84% going out in layers across the room. 00:29:32.950 --> 00:29:34.950 align:middle line:84% This is some kind of a ritual which men 00:29:34.950 --> 00:29:36.930 align:middle line:90% understand better than I do. 00:29:36.930 --> 00:29:40.920 align:middle line:84% Half smile as the two men pass each other at the end hands 00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:44.460 align:middle line:84% out timidly to, shake to beat up on each other again? 00:29:44.460 --> 00:29:46.350 align:middle line:90% It isn't exactly clear. 00:29:46.350 --> 00:29:49.950 align:middle line:84% Albert E comes out into the freezing air dusting off 00:29:49.950 --> 00:29:50.790 align:middle line:90% his hands. 00:29:50.790 --> 00:29:53.100 align:middle line:90% I needed some exercise, he says. 00:29:53.100 --> 00:29:56.340 align:middle line:84% The blue veins visible under the skin of his fingers. 00:29:56.340 --> 00:29:58.410 align:middle line:84% The knuckles starting to swell up. 00:29:58.410 --> 00:30:00.810 align:middle line:84% No, nothing wrong, he says quietly, 00:30:00.810 --> 00:30:02.610 align:middle line:90% walking along beside me. 00:30:02.610 --> 00:30:05.970 align:middle line:84% Meanwhile, Niels Bohr is taking notes again. 00:30:05.970 --> 00:30:09.090 align:middle line:84% Jotting stuff down in his little leather notebook. 00:30:09.090 --> 00:30:11.100 align:middle line:90% When is excited, he begins. 00:30:11.100 --> 00:30:15.690 align:middle line:84% To the mth energy state em it can return to some lower energy 00:30:15.690 --> 00:30:20.520 align:middle line:84% state em times nm by liberating the balance of energy 00:30:20.520 --> 00:30:22.410 align:middle line:90% in the form of a light quantum. 00:30:22.410 --> 00:30:26.070 align:middle line:84% Thus he concludes, glancing happily at Albert E and me, 00:30:26.070 --> 00:30:31.590 align:middle line:84% we can write hvm times n equals em minus en 00:30:31.590 --> 00:30:37.190 align:middle line:84% or vmn equals em minus en over h." 00:30:37.190 --> 00:30:40.190 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:30:40.190 --> 00:30:45.840 align:middle line:90% 00:30:45.840 --> 00:30:48.390 align:middle line:90% A few more from the books. 00:30:48.390 --> 00:31:03.470 align:middle line:90% 00:31:03.470 --> 00:31:05.810 align:middle line:84% In the world of literary criticism, 00:31:05.810 --> 00:31:09.680 align:middle line:84% some things have happened in recent years that 00:31:09.680 --> 00:31:13.130 align:middle line:90% are mostly mysterious to me. 00:31:13.130 --> 00:31:17.780 align:middle line:84% But I also feel a need to be rebellious about those things 00:31:17.780 --> 00:31:19.730 align:middle line:84% that have happened deconstruction, 00:31:19.730 --> 00:31:23.250 align:middle line:84% and hermeneutics, and semiotics, and all of that. 00:31:23.250 --> 00:31:25.640 align:middle line:84% So I'm making up my own linguistic system. 00:31:25.640 --> 00:31:29.810 align:middle line:84% And I've got one so far I call it speech warts. 00:31:29.810 --> 00:31:33.530 align:middle line:84% I have this feeling that there's a whole list out there, 00:31:33.530 --> 00:31:37.760 align:middle line:84% and I can instead of phonemes and all those things 00:31:37.760 --> 00:31:45.560 align:middle line:84% I can have all sorts of mushrooms and slimy slime molds 00:31:45.560 --> 00:31:50.350 align:middle line:84% and things that to do with speech. 00:31:50.350 --> 00:31:51.760 align:middle line:90% "Speech Warts. " 00:31:51.760 --> 00:31:56.290 align:middle line:84% "Fetch me a red flower from that meadow, says Ludwig. 00:31:56.290 --> 00:31:57.460 align:middle line:90% I look at him. 00:31:57.460 --> 00:31:59.050 align:middle line:90% Which shade of red? 00:31:59.050 --> 00:32:00.910 align:middle line:90% What species of flower? 00:32:00.910 --> 00:32:03.130 align:middle line:90% And on what green stalk? 00:32:03.130 --> 00:32:05.260 align:middle line:90% He stares back at me. 00:32:05.260 --> 00:32:08.320 align:middle line:84% And above all, I say to him, which meadow? 00:32:08.320 --> 00:32:09.610 align:middle line:90% He is silent. 00:32:09.610 --> 00:32:13.060 align:middle line:84% How shall I get there without losing the flower the one 00:32:13.060 --> 00:32:14.530 align:middle line:90% he has imagined. 00:32:14.530 --> 00:32:16.240 align:middle line:84% I take a sheet from my left pocket 00:32:16.240 --> 00:32:20.050 align:middle line:84% which contains the shapes of all English and American flowers. 00:32:20.050 --> 00:32:23.590 align:middle line:84% I take a glass prism from my right pocket. 00:32:23.590 --> 00:32:27.400 align:middle line:84% Now, I March up to the nearest meadow and compare real flowers 00:32:27.400 --> 00:32:29.800 align:middle line:90% with my chart of flower shapes. 00:32:29.800 --> 00:32:32.770 align:middle line:84% I pass a ray of sunlight through my prism, 00:32:32.770 --> 00:32:34.960 align:middle line:84% and produce a color band which I compare 00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:36.940 align:middle line:90% with the colors of flowers. 00:32:36.940 --> 00:32:40.357 align:middle line:84% But the flowers in the meadow are in foreign languages 00:32:40.357 --> 00:32:40.940 align:middle line:90% Sprechenvorts! 00:32:40.940 --> 00:32:43.420 align:middle line:90% Gehimmelhymen optera! 00:32:43.420 --> 00:32:44.560 align:middle line:90% they shout at me. 00:32:44.560 --> 00:32:46.960 align:middle line:84% [SPEAKING GREEK] they continued to berate me. 00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:48.160 align:middle line:90% This time in Greek. 00:32:48.160 --> 00:32:49.810 align:middle line:90% Mocking My shape grilles. 00:32:49.810 --> 00:32:51.190 align:middle line:90% My color bands. 00:32:51.190 --> 00:32:53.020 align:middle line:90% What next, I ask him. 00:32:53.020 --> 00:32:54.970 align:middle line:90% Fetch me the meadow, he says. 00:32:54.970 --> 00:32:56.320 align:middle line:90% Be quick about it. 00:32:56.320 --> 00:32:58.480 align:middle line:90% I come back my arms full. 00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:02.440 align:middle line:84% I can barely walk under the weight of sumac, wild barley, 00:33:02.440 --> 00:33:05.950 align:middle line:84% their names heavy in Russian Serbo-Croatian, 00:33:05.950 --> 00:33:08.440 align:middle line:90% various Indo-European tongues. 00:33:08.440 --> 00:33:11.470 align:middle line:84% My face is a sheath of red flowers. 00:33:11.470 --> 00:33:14.110 align:middle line:84% Not the one I had imagined, he tells me. 00:33:14.110 --> 00:33:16.000 align:middle line:90% Not that one, he repeats. 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:19.420 align:middle line:84% Nowhere to be found in the vast you have brought me. 00:33:19.420 --> 00:33:21.820 align:middle line:84% I set down the meadow before him. 00:33:21.820 --> 00:33:24.700 align:middle line:84% I take a sheet of paper from my hip pocket. 00:33:24.700 --> 00:33:28.570 align:middle line:84% I write on it, a red flower from that meadow. 00:33:28.570 --> 00:33:32.320 align:middle line:84% And I attach it to a stick, which I set upright waving 00:33:32.320 --> 00:33:34.060 align:middle line:90% in the center of the meadow. 00:33:34.060 --> 00:33:37.960 align:middle line:84% That one, Ludwig whispers gratefully, that is the one." 00:33:37.960 --> 00:33:46.320 align:middle line:90% 00:33:46.320 --> 00:33:51.120 align:middle line:84% It also was something about how we transfer information, which 00:33:51.120 --> 00:33:54.930 align:middle line:90% I think is very mysterious. 00:33:54.930 --> 00:33:56.850 align:middle line:84% "How Metaphor Can Save Your Life." 00:33:56.850 --> 00:33:59.450 align:middle line:90% 00:33:59.450 --> 00:34:00.590 align:middle line:90% "You are drowning. 00:34:00.590 --> 00:34:03.470 align:middle line:84% Someone throws you an inflatable sunset, 00:34:03.470 --> 00:34:06.320 align:middle line:84% which momentarily distracts you from the sinking 00:34:06.320 --> 00:34:10.520 align:middle line:84% ship, the cramp in your left leg, the Barracuda who was just 00:34:10.520 --> 00:34:12.260 align:middle line:90% sidled up next to you. 00:34:12.260 --> 00:34:15.320 align:middle line:84% You forget that you do not know how to swim. 00:34:15.320 --> 00:34:16.850 align:middle line:90% You're thrashing about. 00:34:16.850 --> 00:34:20.810 align:middle line:84% Your simulated swimming strokes bring out the Coast Guard. 00:34:20.810 --> 00:34:23.900 align:middle line:84% Find a small tumor behind your left ear lobe. 00:34:23.900 --> 00:34:26.449 align:middle line:84% The dark cloud of cancer descends 00:34:26.449 --> 00:34:29.840 align:middle line:84% just as the doctor tells you you have Dutch Elm disease, 00:34:29.840 --> 00:34:33.710 align:middle line:84% and need to wash more frequently behind your ears. 00:34:33.710 --> 00:34:35.060 align:middle line:90% You have lost your job. 00:34:35.060 --> 00:34:36.889 align:middle line:90% You have no money in the bank. 00:34:36.889 --> 00:34:39.620 align:middle line:84% Eat love, someone has written on the bulletin board 00:34:39.620 --> 00:34:41.540 align:middle line:90% at the unemployment office. 00:34:41.540 --> 00:34:44.030 align:middle line:84% A man proposes on the hard bench. 00:34:44.030 --> 00:34:47.480 align:middle line:84% You accept and live happily ever afterward. 00:34:47.480 --> 00:34:49.190 align:middle line:90% You are on an airplane. 00:34:49.190 --> 00:34:52.400 align:middle line:84% Suddenly, it hits an air pocket and drops 1,000 feet 00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:53.719 align:middle line:90% into a cloud bank. 00:34:53.719 --> 00:34:55.610 align:middle line:90% You climb out of the window. 00:34:55.610 --> 00:34:58.220 align:middle line:84% You have always wanted to touch a cloud. 00:34:58.220 --> 00:35:00.980 align:middle line:84% You hold yourself aloft by doing yoga. 00:35:00.980 --> 00:35:03.020 align:middle line:90% Soon your parachute opens. 00:35:03.020 --> 00:35:06.380 align:middle line:84% You sail safely through a grove of Redwood trees, 00:35:06.380 --> 00:35:10.370 align:middle line:84% your arms full of cumulonimbus towers from the cloud bank. 00:35:10.370 --> 00:35:14.228 align:middle line:84% You learn that the Dow Jones is up. 00:35:14.228 --> 00:35:17.700 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:35:17.700 --> 00:35:25.140 align:middle line:90% 00:35:25.140 --> 00:35:29.020 align:middle line:90% I'm not sure what to do. 00:35:29.020 --> 00:35:35.120 align:middle line:84% I have some poems that I wrote and maybe I'll end with those. 00:35:35.120 --> 00:35:38.690 align:middle line:84% There was a tradition of medieval wanderers somewhat 00:35:38.690 --> 00:35:39.635 align:middle line:90% like Marco Polo. 00:35:39.635 --> 00:35:43.660 align:middle line:90% 00:35:43.660 --> 00:35:45.130 align:middle line:84% And the tradition sort of comes up 00:35:45.130 --> 00:35:52.690 align:middle line:84% to the present getting less adventuresome or the travelers 00:35:52.690 --> 00:35:55.030 align:middle line:84% and the explorers take less risks 00:35:55.030 --> 00:35:58.900 align:middle line:84% as it gets closer to our time in this tradition. 00:35:58.900 --> 00:36:03.130 align:middle line:84% And in the 19th century, this kind of wanderer 00:36:03.130 --> 00:36:06.760 align:middle line:84% would head out of his house and end up going in a circle 00:36:06.760 --> 00:36:10.330 align:middle line:84% and come back into his house again. 00:36:10.330 --> 00:36:12.790 align:middle line:84% I decided there had never been a woman in this tradition 00:36:12.790 --> 00:36:15.640 align:middle line:90% so I decided to make a woman. 00:36:15.640 --> 00:36:18.050 align:middle line:84% But she never actually leaves her house at all. 00:36:18.050 --> 00:36:21.670 align:middle line:84% So her entire wanderings take place in her own rooms. 00:36:21.670 --> 00:36:25.570 align:middle line:84% Maybe I'll just read you a few of those. 00:36:25.570 --> 00:36:27.970 align:middle line:84% "Introduction, thus she explains. 00:36:27.970 --> 00:36:31.300 align:middle line:84% In these entries I take my place among the wanderers 00:36:31.300 --> 00:36:32.680 align:middle line:90% of the Middle Ages. 00:36:32.680 --> 00:36:36.970 align:middle line:84% Those who like Marco Polo sought to know for themselves 00:36:36.970 --> 00:36:40.390 align:middle line:84% the diversity of kingdoms and provinces of Persian 00:36:40.390 --> 00:36:41.920 align:middle line:90% and Tartar. 00:36:41.920 --> 00:36:43.660 align:middle line:90% Her travels. 00:36:43.660 --> 00:36:46.600 align:middle line:84% I was never able to leave the town of my birth 00:36:46.600 --> 00:36:50.830 align:middle line:84% though I set out on various occasions wearing disguises. 00:36:50.830 --> 00:36:54.170 align:middle line:84% At first I could not overcome a certain inertia, 00:36:54.170 --> 00:36:56.860 align:middle line:84% which had traveled with me from childhood. 00:36:56.860 --> 00:36:59.440 align:middle line:90% Later it seemed a genuine fear. 00:36:59.440 --> 00:37:01.570 align:middle line:84% Often I would trace out the perimeter 00:37:01.570 --> 00:37:04.690 align:middle line:84% of the new country on the palm of my hand 00:37:04.690 --> 00:37:06.550 align:middle line:84% as though I could test beforehand 00:37:06.550 --> 00:37:09.070 align:middle line:90% the dangers I would encounter. 00:37:09.070 --> 00:37:11.020 align:middle line:90% I thought it would ease the way. 00:37:11.020 --> 00:37:14.470 align:middle line:84% To this day, I navigate these familiar rooms 00:37:14.470 --> 00:37:17.650 align:middle line:84% whose exposed objects rise dangerous as shoals." 00:37:17.650 --> 00:37:21.190 align:middle line:90% 00:37:21.190 --> 00:37:23.050 align:middle line:90% "Freida and the Novel." 00:37:23.050 --> 00:37:25.930 align:middle line:84% "For years, Freida had been very dutiful. 00:37:25.930 --> 00:37:28.600 align:middle line:84% She would open a novel to the first page 00:37:28.600 --> 00:37:30.580 align:middle line:90% and read through to the last. 00:37:30.580 --> 00:37:33.130 align:middle line:84% Then one day, she gave herself permission 00:37:33.130 --> 00:37:35.200 align:middle line:90% not to finish a book. 00:37:35.200 --> 00:37:37.780 align:middle line:84% After that, she would open a book in the middle, 00:37:37.780 --> 00:37:40.330 align:middle line:90% read a line here, a line there. 00:37:40.330 --> 00:37:42.250 align:middle line:84% Sometimes she would find one word 00:37:42.250 --> 00:37:45.880 align:middle line:84% she liked, and just write it down in a little book she kept. 00:37:45.880 --> 00:37:48.160 align:middle line:90% Words only, the book said. 00:37:48.160 --> 00:37:50.740 align:middle line:84% She became confused when someone would ask her 00:37:50.740 --> 00:37:53.500 align:middle line:84% what she was reading, or who the author was, 00:37:53.500 --> 00:37:55.690 align:middle line:90% or how she liked a certain book. 00:37:55.690 --> 00:37:57.820 align:middle line:90% Antigone, she would utter. 00:37:57.820 --> 00:38:00.310 align:middle line:84% Or in the midst of his preparatory 00:38:00.310 --> 00:38:06.550 align:middle line:84% caresses was seized by, or enveloped by her in a web, 00:38:06.550 --> 00:38:12.790 align:middle line:84% or a diminutive race of males, or compatible with the exercise 00:38:12.790 --> 00:38:15.670 align:middle line:90% of their generative functions. 00:38:15.670 --> 00:38:17.680 align:middle line:84% After a while, it was hard for Freida 00:38:17.680 --> 00:38:19.450 align:middle line:90% to finish a whole thought. 00:38:19.450 --> 00:38:22.608 align:middle line:84% That was when she decided to be a poet." 00:38:22.608 --> 00:38:28.600 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:38:28.600 --> 00:38:29.980 align:middle line:90% A couple of more of these. 00:38:29.980 --> 00:38:32.840 align:middle line:90% "Freida considers her navel. 00:38:32.840 --> 00:38:35.440 align:middle line:84% It's not a bad navel sitting here 00:38:35.440 --> 00:38:38.380 align:middle line:84% on the center of my belly like an inner tube on a lake, 00:38:38.380 --> 00:38:40.240 align:middle line:90% Freida thought to herself. 00:38:40.240 --> 00:38:42.640 align:middle line:84% Sometimes it got clogged and Freida 00:38:42.640 --> 00:38:45.250 align:middle line:84% would give it a swirl with the feather duster. 00:38:45.250 --> 00:38:49.060 align:middle line:84% She considered exploring the metaphysics of the omphalos 00:38:49.060 --> 00:38:51.580 align:middle line:84% for she had never understood why some 00:38:51.580 --> 00:38:55.030 align:middle line:84% equated the center of the belly with the center of the Earth. 00:38:55.030 --> 00:38:58.030 align:middle line:84% She wondered if you could tell a person's fortune by reading 00:38:58.030 --> 00:39:00.190 align:middle line:90% the configuration of his navel. 00:39:00.190 --> 00:39:02.350 align:middle line:84% Send me an imprint of your belly button, 00:39:02.350 --> 00:39:04.690 align:middle line:84% she would advertise, and get your fortune 00:39:04.690 --> 00:39:06.430 align:middle line:90% read by return mail. 00:39:06.430 --> 00:39:08.860 align:middle line:84% Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope, 00:39:08.860 --> 00:39:10.870 align:middle line:84% or we won't be able to consider your navel." 00:39:10.870 --> 00:39:17.160 align:middle line:90% 00:39:17.160 --> 00:39:19.860 align:middle line:90% "Freida sharpens the pencils. 00:39:19.860 --> 00:39:22.680 align:middle line:84% Freida has a blister on the inside of her right index 00:39:22.680 --> 00:39:23.370 align:middle line:90% finger. 00:39:23.370 --> 00:39:27.240 align:middle line:84% She has been sharpening pencils since morning in preparation 00:39:27.240 --> 00:39:30.510 align:middle line:84% for the writing of her epic poem tentatively entitled, 00:39:30.510 --> 00:39:34.050 align:middle line:84% concerning the capture and death of the Caliph of Baldach 00:39:34.050 --> 00:39:36.390 align:middle line:84% and the miraculous will of a mountain. 00:39:36.390 --> 00:39:39.960 align:middle line:84% Now she is caught up in the art of sharpening the pencil having 00:39:39.960 --> 00:39:42.450 align:middle line:84% just discovered that if you push the end of the pencil 00:39:42.450 --> 00:39:44.550 align:middle line:84% as you turn the handle of the sharpener 00:39:44.550 --> 00:39:46.275 align:middle line:90% the pencil gets sharper faster." 00:39:46.275 --> 00:39:50.040 align:middle line:90% 00:39:50.040 --> 00:39:52.830 align:middle line:90% "Freida and the Telephone." 00:39:52.830 --> 00:39:54.720 align:middle line:84% "This is the world speaking, Freida, 00:39:54.720 --> 00:39:57.480 align:middle line:84% we've been trying to reach you since Sunday. 00:39:57.480 --> 00:40:00.390 align:middle line:84% I know, she whispers hoarsely into the receiver, 00:40:00.390 --> 00:40:01.920 align:middle line:90% But I couldn't answer. 00:40:01.920 --> 00:40:03.900 align:middle line:84% I've been trying to think of the right word 00:40:03.900 --> 00:40:07.230 align:middle line:84% to go between goalie and cacciatore. 00:40:07.230 --> 00:40:10.230 align:middle line:84% This is the gross national product speaking, Freida. 00:40:10.230 --> 00:40:12.180 align:middle line:84% This is corruption in government. 00:40:12.180 --> 00:40:15.540 align:middle line:84% This is leukemia speaking to you from Utah, Freida. 00:40:15.540 --> 00:40:17.460 align:middle line:84% This is the health plan principle, 00:40:17.460 --> 00:40:18.930 align:middle line:90% the vote on Rhodesia. 00:40:18.930 --> 00:40:21.210 align:middle line:84% This is your car dealer dealer, Freida, 00:40:21.210 --> 00:40:23.340 align:middle line:90% your car is beyond repair. 00:40:23.340 --> 00:40:26.130 align:middle line:84% I know, says Freida, goodbye world, 00:40:26.130 --> 00:40:28.170 align:middle line:84% says Freida shaking the abandoned 00:40:28.170 --> 00:40:31.560 align:middle line:84% houses of her childhood, all the deserted towns 00:40:31.560 --> 00:40:34.200 align:middle line:84% as she moves her head from side to side 00:40:34.200 --> 00:40:37.080 align:middle line:84% as she places the receiver back in its cradle." 00:40:37.080 --> 00:40:42.200 align:middle line:90% 00:40:42.200 --> 00:40:44.090 align:middle line:90% Maybe two more of these. 00:40:44.090 --> 00:40:46.790 align:middle line:84% "Freida becomes her own [INAUDIBLE].. 00:40:46.790 --> 00:40:48.590 align:middle line:90% Freida was her own censor. 00:40:48.590 --> 00:40:51.350 align:middle line:84% She didn't need any help from her critics. 00:40:51.350 --> 00:40:53.570 align:middle line:90% She was one step ahead of them. 00:40:53.570 --> 00:40:56.750 align:middle line:84% On her long work on the city of Gonglu, 00:40:56.750 --> 00:40:59.270 align:middle line:84% whose inhabitants worship idols and burn 00:40:59.270 --> 00:41:01.250 align:middle line:84% the bodies of their dead, there are 00:41:01.250 --> 00:41:03.800 align:middle line:84% profound and frequent craters gouged 00:41:03.800 --> 00:41:08.240 align:middle line:84% into the pages in some cases obliterating years of work. 00:41:08.240 --> 00:41:11.210 align:middle line:84% Some say it is to her great credit sparing 00:41:11.210 --> 00:41:13.580 align:middle line:90% the public unnecessary reading. 00:41:13.580 --> 00:41:17.210 align:middle line:84% Others strain to discover what she might have been thinking. 00:41:17.210 --> 00:41:19.430 align:middle line:84% Still others make of the gouge marks 00:41:19.430 --> 00:41:21.470 align:middle line:84% a new language, which they believe 00:41:21.470 --> 00:41:26.060 align:middle line:84% can be deciphered if dropped to minus 487 degrees Fahrenheit 00:41:26.060 --> 00:41:28.790 align:middle line:84% and broadcast on the radio telescopes." 00:41:28.790 --> 00:41:45.540 align:middle line:90% 00:41:45.540 --> 00:41:51.240 align:middle line:84% It ends with Frieda taking a shower. 00:41:51.240 --> 00:41:54.090 align:middle line:90% "Freida and the Ritual Bath." 00:41:54.090 --> 00:41:55.560 align:middle line:90% "Freida loved water. 00:41:55.560 --> 00:41:59.010 align:middle line:84% But the river Sambatien was too far away 00:41:59.010 --> 00:42:03.000 align:middle line:84% and there was no ritual bath within the walls of her house. 00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:06.780 align:middle line:84% So she settled for the shower, spending longer and longer 00:42:06.780 --> 00:42:09.570 align:middle line:84% periods observing the sprays of water 00:42:09.570 --> 00:42:12.660 align:middle line:84% as they left the star shapes of the showerhead. 00:42:12.660 --> 00:42:14.820 align:middle line:84% She considered the nature of water 00:42:14.820 --> 00:42:18.750 align:middle line:84% as the hours went by, as the water cooled and finally grew 00:42:18.750 --> 00:42:19.620 align:middle line:90% icy. 00:42:19.620 --> 00:42:23.220 align:middle line:84% Somehow, she failed to notice, so absorbed 00:42:23.220 --> 00:42:26.730 align:middle line:84% was she in the way the droplets grew on the metal handles 00:42:26.730 --> 00:42:28.710 align:middle line:90% and knobs in the stall. 00:42:28.710 --> 00:42:30.660 align:middle line:84% It was always with the deepest regret 00:42:30.660 --> 00:42:32.490 align:middle line:84% that she pulled the curtain open, 00:42:32.490 --> 00:42:35.100 align:middle line:84% turned the faucets clockwise, and saw 00:42:35.100 --> 00:42:38.130 align:middle line:84% the last of water descend into that nether region 00:42:38.130 --> 00:42:39.540 align:middle line:90% beneath the house. 00:42:39.540 --> 00:42:41.880 align:middle line:84% Perhaps, Freida thought to herself, 00:42:41.880 --> 00:42:44.040 align:middle line:90% it travels [AUDIO OUT]. 00:42:44.040 --> 00:42:47.370 align:middle line:84% Perhaps the cells of my body sloughed off 00:42:47.370 --> 00:42:51.780 align:middle line:84% in this rain of water have begun a journey from this house. 00:42:51.780 --> 00:42:56.730 align:middle line:84% In this way, Freida commenced her entry into the world." 00:42:56.730 --> 00:42:58.300 align:middle line:90% I think I'll stop there. 00:42:58.300 --> 00:42:58.800 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:42:58.800 --> 00:43:01.850 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:43:01.850 --> 00:43:04.000 align:middle line:90%