So yes.
I feel so many resonances between much
of what you presented to us here and in this poem
and in "Palace of Pearls."
As you're reading this to me, I think particularly
"in the moonlit plaza of your forehead,
I'm thinking of the emergency room of your eardrum."
And--
A little bit more contemporary.
Yeah.
I just wondered if you could speak to us more about how
"Palace of Pearls" is coming from all
of this that [INAUDIBLE].
Well, I thank you for making that comparison.
I accept that to the bottom of my being.
I've been reading Lorca on and off for years.
And I did get back into Lorca for preparations for a lecture
tour that I was on regarding him, of which this is a part.
And so what I was writing and thinking
was so heavily influenced by my submerging myself into his work
again.
And I suppose even the very title of "Palace of Pearls,"
which I took from a story he was told,
once I had that, it really got me going
and gave me permission to allow myself to be influenced.
That's a wonderful thing about art.
And once you give yourself permission to say,
listen to the wonderful music of a composer
from the early 20th century who's blinking the light now
because he's in the room.
I believe this wholeheartedly.
I know now that you are aware that I am a fool.
But I do believe that.
Once an artist of any kind allows influences in,
there's no telling you know what will happen.
And I think it would be a joy to know
that even a single person might be influenced
by something that I wrote.
So I mean I just think it's a big circle that can include
rather than exclude influence.
But thank you.
Are there any other questions?
Yeah.
I'm just curious about the line, "you'll waste any of the snow."
And wondered where that [INAUDIBLE] took you.
You know, I don't understand a word of his poetry.
So "Night in the Gardens of Spain," I promised you that.
It's getting darker by the minute.
You see how quickly time goes when you're having--
I don't understand his poetry.
And often don't understand my own.
I think that he's way out there beyond meaning, perhaps
into contradictory meanings and paradoxical meanings.
And his imagery seems to touch a kind of elemental place in us.
As with the word snow, which has elements of purity but also
of chill.
And so I think he's the consummate Catholic
so he's thinking bright and he's thinking dark almost
at every word.
No sooner does he say snow but he means something,
he combines it with the word enemy for example.
He means something quite opposite at the same time.
Yeah?
Could it be heat?
Like you waste the warmth of you.
Sure.
Is it [INAUDIBLE] the snow?
Yes.
That's definitely one level there for sure.
I mean this is a love poem.
Perhaps unrequited love or lost love
or love that will be brief.
And so there's a lot of pain in here
despite how beautiful some of the lines are.
Anybody else want to ask a question?
All right before you go, I just want
to pass around very loosely and haphazardly some photographs
that I have from the Lorca Foundation in Spain.
This a little booklet.
Maybe take a glance at it before you hit the contemporary world
again.
You can see what his world was like nearly 100 years ago.
He's quite relaxed in some of these pictures,
although as you might guess, usually wearing black.
Hence my outfit today in an effort
to resurrect some of that feeling.
Yeah?
Do you read Spanish?
You know, I read Spanish poorly.
But if you read Spanish, we'd love to hear some of it
in Spanish.
The difference is [INAUDIBLE] and it's
a problem with translation.
Yes it is.
Trying to translations that don't seem poetic
even when it changes--
Yes.
I wondered if when you were describing this poetry
[INAUDIBLE] language.
Yeah.
But maybe it is.
Oh.
It's not the original and that's a problem right away.
Even in the two translations you heard.
Yeah the word "womb", for example, showing up
and it sounds awfully wrong.
It's not exactly--
Yeah.
It's hard to [INAUDIBLE].
Yeah.
[INAUDIBLE]
Yeah.
And from what little I know of the Spanish language is poetry
is just extraordinarily more musical than even
in a very musical translation.
So even if you don't even think of the approximations
that meanings make, the music is off too in the translation.
But without translation we would have--
Yeah.
It's really--
It's a problem
It's a problem.
It's a big problem.
And of course some of the greatest poetry in the history
of the world is not in English.
With all due respect to the poets in the room.
Anybody else?
I'm going to play a little more music then as you saunter
around and perhaps take a look at the pictures
I brought before you go.
I think you'll enjoy them.
And thank you for being here.
Much appreciated.
[CLAPPING]