WEBVTT

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Thank you, Tyler.

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It is such a joy and
a dream manifested

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to have our communities of
Tucson lovers of literature

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and of poetry and
of our translators

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here in the same space.

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When you read great art
or great literature,

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it all looks easy, right?

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Everything on the page
is just, that's the way

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it must have been.

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And that is how I feel
about working with Tyler.

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Not many people say
art administration

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is much like art.

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But that's the way it
feels working with Tyler

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and that we all come and say,
Tyler, what if we bring Sawako,

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and she does a keynote,
and she does a reading

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as part of the series.

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And he just says, yeah,
great, let's do it.

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So you are the dream
that is manifested.

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Thank you for all
being here tonight.

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Sawako Nakayasu is a poet,
translator, and a thinker

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who I deeply admire.

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And I'm so very delighted
to be welcoming her

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to Tucson tonight.

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One reason that I am
always grateful to be

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in Sawako's presence is the
way that her thinking opens up

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space of inquiry, of
possibility, of curiosity,

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of unknowing, and
then breathes back

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into that space multiplicities.

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Her chapbook Say
Translation is Art

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is one I return to
again and again.

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A few lines of hers
that for some reason

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I've decided to read--

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"Say translation as open
art practice, as open

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as matter and antimatter.

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Say feral translation.

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Say translation
oceanic as desire."

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It is a beautiful chapbook,
a beautiful testament

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to the art that so many of
us here are here to celebrate

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and so many of us
enjoy as readers.

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Born in Japan and
raised in the US,

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Sawako Nakayasu is an artist
working with language,

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performance, and translation.

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In 2016, her translation of the
collected poems of Chika Sagawa

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won ALTA's Lucien Stryk
Asian Translation Prize.

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Mouth Eats Color: Sagawa
Chika Translations,

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Anti-translations,
and Originals is

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a multilingual
work that combines

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both original and
translated poetry.

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Her newest books
of poetry, which

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I'm sure you can buy tonight,
include Pink Waves, a finalist

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for the PEN/Voelcker
Award, and Some Girls

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Walk into the Country
They are From.

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Both of these books engage the
intersection between writing

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and translation.

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Sawako, welcome.

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[APPLAUSE]

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