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I'm going to read just one
more, part of one more.

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This is also the first
section of a longer poem.

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It's called "Liberty."

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It's another collage poem, but
a little bit less cacophonous

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than the previous
collage poem I read.

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The borrowed material
here comes principally

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from the poet Paul Éluard
and the philosopher Ludwig

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Wittgenstein.

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I should say also, that
in truncated form, that

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is reading simply
the first section,

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the fact that there
are five epigraphs

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will probably make the epigraphs
feel a little top heavy,

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but I need to read them anyway
or the poem won't make whatever

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kind of sense it does make.

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So "Liberty," the
first four epigraphs

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are from Wittgenstein,
Philosophical Investigations.

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I'll just pause a minute
between each section,

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rather than reading the
section numbers, right?

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And yet it is clear
that one can want

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to speak without
speaking, just as one can

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want to dance without dancing.

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And when we think
about this, we grasp

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at the image of dancing,
speaking, et cetera.

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But everyone who has
not become calloused

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by doing philosophy,
notices that there

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is something wrong here.

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The concept order would
have lost its purpose.

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Suppose it were asked, do I
know what I long for before I

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get it?

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If I have learned to
talk, then I do know.

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And the final epigraph is from
Rousseau, The Social Contract.

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Man is born free, and
everywhere he is in chains.

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The idea of liberty, the
idea of absolute liberty.

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Man is born free, and
everywhere he is in chains.

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The absolute idea of
absolute liberty, the monkey

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is dancing to the tune
and adjusting his red fez.

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You are not standing
on my eyelids,

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the idea of liberty adrift.

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The woman not only
admired the horse,

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but also fell in love with it.

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Paul Éluard said
you are standing

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on my eyelids,
something wrong here.

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And when we think about
this, we grasp at the image.

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The woman not only
admired the horse,

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but also fell in love with it.

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Or rather she admired
the horse so much,

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she fell in love with it.

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Or she fell in love with
it, and this feeling

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was compatible with the
feeling of admiration

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she felt for horses in
general, and for this horse

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in particular.

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And when we think
about this, we grasp

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at the image of dancing,
speaking, et cetera.

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Yet everyone who has not become
calloused by doing philosophy.

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The idea of you in
your hat, yet it

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is clear that one can want
to speak without speaking.

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Man is born free, and everywhere
he is in your hair or your hat.

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On Thursday, by the
breakwater without your hat,

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the concept order would
have lost its purpose.

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A few stars drifting like
bobbing corks on my eyelids,

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and your hair is in my hair.

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Then down by the water, and
in it up to your thighs.

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Then phosphorus on my
eyelids, and your hand.

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If I have learned to talk, you
are standing on my eyelids,

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said Paul Éluard, and
your hair is in my hair.

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Just as one can want to
dance without dancing.

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Not calloused, you look
up at the Big Dipper

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and talk in English.

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I look at you and talk
in my head in English,

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then not at all.

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And when we think
about this, we grasp

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at the image of speaking,
dancing, et cetera.

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Through phosphorus, your
hand slowly in water

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up to your thighs.

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On my eyelids, you are not
standing on my eyelids.

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Absolute liberty, man is born
free and everywhere leaves

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lie down in a [AUDIO OUT].

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We're standing in your hat.

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Now you were not
standing on my eyelids.

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The monkey is dancing
to the image of dancing,

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and your hair is in my hair
was an idea, an absolute idea.

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Take three giant steps.

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You in your hat, in your
eyes without your hat.

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Naming the countries
to find you among them.

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Each one is named in
English, my native language.

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May I?

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Yes, you may.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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