WEBVTT

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If you're one of the very few
people in Southern Arizona who

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did not get a copy
of our schedule,

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I have a stack here on
the edge of the stage

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and also on the
refreshment table.

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And I hope you will stay for
refreshments after the reading.

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Also, we'll have books for
sale after the reading tonight.

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Our next reading is
two weeks from tonight

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in this auditorium.

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And it will be a
reading to honor

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the winners of the annual
student poetry contest.

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That's it 8:00
o'clock on February 8.

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Writers at Work will
have their first reading

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for the semester next Wednesday
night in this auditorium.

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And the readers are
Patricia Preciado Martin,

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the author of Days of
Plenty, Days of Want,

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and Peter Brandwold, an MFA
student here at the university.

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I'm not going to read you
the paragraph that I sent out

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in the news release
because it's there

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for you to read for
yourself, except to mention

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that, as you know, Carolyn
Kizer is the 1985 Pulitzer Prize

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winner for Yin.

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And one of her most recent
books is translations

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called Carrying Over.

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She's been everywhere,
and she's done everything.

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And she's won all
those nice prizes

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and stayed humble and modest
in spite of it all and kind.

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I have been working
at the Poetry Center

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since the fall of 1970.

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So I have had an opportunity
to meet many famous people.

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And most of them are kind
of kind, and most of them

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are very generous.

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But of all the poets who
visited for us over the years,

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as you know Carolyn is
here now on the faculty,

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but she has visited
for us in the past,

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Carolyn Kizer is the
most generous poet who

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has come to the Poetry Center.

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Shortly after her
first visit, she

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learned that my husband
was going to be out of town

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just before she was due to go
to a reading in New Mexico.

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And so she came and
stayed for a week

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and taught all of
his classes just as

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a gesture of friendship.

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And another time when
she came for a reading,

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our usual schedule is to ask
visitors to teach or meet

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with--

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to entertain
questions-- two classes

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and to meet with students for
individual conferences for two

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hours.

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And Miss Kizer was going to stay
over to the following Monday.

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So she met with her students on
Wednesday in their conferences

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and made them all come back on
Monday for another conference.

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And many of the
poets who come say

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I'll do anything but student
conferences, anything, anything

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but that.

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We had the pleasure of stopping
in her house last summer

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for breakfast.

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I admired the dress she had on.

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And she said, oh, I have
another one just like it, here.

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And gave it to me.

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So when I say that Carolyn
Kizer is a generous person,

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I really mean it, and kind.

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And it's a great pleasure
to introduce her to you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Well, as usual, when I'm
about to give a reading,

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I haven't the
faintest idea what I'm

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going to do, because it adds a
certain suspense to the evening

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and makes it more interesting
for me if not for you.

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So there may be brief
hesitations from time to time

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while I'm deciding what
I'm going to do next.

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But first of all, I
want to say that I

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want to dedicate this reading
to my husband whose birthday it

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will be beginning
midnight tonight.

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And he is a very
perfect, gentle knight.

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And I'm very--or
[?? Knechte ??]..

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I believe the [INAUDIBLE] say.

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So I'm going to begin by
reading a poem to him.

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It's called
"Afternoon Happiness."

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I was most annoyed
when the New York

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Times said this was a
piece of light verse.

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Actually, I don't see anything
wrong with light verse.

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And I'm always annoyed that
none of the anthologies

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ever include that genius Ogden
Nash in serious anthologies

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of poetry.

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If you're funny, forget it.

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You're supposed to come
and get your culture fix.

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And it's all very
serious and earnest,

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and nobody's supposed to
have a good time, right?

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Well, with this poem, I tried
to begin it with a light tone

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and have it get a little
heavier as it went along.

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In other words,
I was having fun.

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I don't go along
with Ogden's theory

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that poetry is a
game entirely, but I

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do feel that after you've
been at it for a while,

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you ought to you ought
to be able to get

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some pleasure from it too.

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And I got some pleasure from
it in writing it for this man

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that I love so much.

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Also, I invented the form.

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And I find in my old age,
I have a certain facility

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for goofy rhymes.

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And one of my favorites is in
this poem where I rhyme funny

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with Cyril Connolly.

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It takes years to do
that, years of practice

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to be able to do that.

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Right, OK?

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"Afternoon Happiness."

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At a party, I spy a handsome
psychiatrist and wish,

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as we all do, to get
her advice for free.

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Doctor, I'll say, I'm
supposed to be a poet.

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All life's awfulness
has been grist to me.

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We learn that happiness is
a Chinese meal, while sorrow

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is a nourishment forever.

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My new environment is
California dreamer.

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I'm fearful I'm
forgetting how to brood.

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And Doctor, another
thing has got me worried.

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I'm not drinking as
much as I should.

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At home, I want to write
a happy poem on love

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or a love poem of happiness,
but they won't do.

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The tensions of every day,
the rub the minor abrasions

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of any two who share
one space, ah, there's

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no substitute for tragedy.

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But in this chapter, tragedy
belongs to that other life,

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the old life before us.

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Here is my aphorism of
the day: happy people

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are monogamous
even in California.

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So how does the poem play
without the paraphernalia

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of betrayal and loss?

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I don't have a jealous eye
or fear and neither do you.

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In truth, I'm fond
of your ex-mate,

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whom I named my wife in law.

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My former husband, that old
disaster, is now just funny.

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So laugh we do in what
Cyril Connolly has called

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the endless nocturnal
conversation of marriage,

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which may be the best part.

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Darling, must I love
you in light verse

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without the tribute
of profoundest art?

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Of course, it won't last.

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You will break my heart
or I yours by dying.

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I could weep over
that, but now it

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seems forced here in these
heaven hills, the mourning

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doves mourning, the
squirrels mating,

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my old cat warm on my lap here
on our terrace, as from below

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comes a musical cursing as
you mend my favorite plate.

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Later, of course, I
could pick a fight.

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There is always
material in that.

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But we don't come from fighting
people, those who scream out

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red hot items in their hate.

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No, Love, the heavy
poems will have

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to come from temps
perdu, fertile with pain,

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or perhaps detonated by
terrors far beyond this place

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where the world rends itself,
and its tainted waters

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rise in the East to
erode our safety here.

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Much as I want to
gather a lifetime thrift

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and craft, my cunning skills
tied in a knot for you,

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there is only this
useless happiness as gift.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Please don't applaud
because if you

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applaud one more
than others, then I

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think that one you don't like.

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We get very upset
about things like that

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because we want you to
love everything we do.

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The next poem is
called "The Blessing."

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And I'm going to dedicate
it to my graduate workshop,

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and they're going to
know why when I read it.

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The occasion of this
poem was that when

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I was living in
Chapel Hill, my dear

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father who lived to be
100, was working on his 90s

00:09:47.740 --> 00:09:48.340 align:middle line:90%
at that point.

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And he was getting a little
vague around the edges.

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And I had my two
daughters with me.

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And he was calling us by
the names of his sister, who

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had been dead for 40 years,
and his first wife, who had

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been dead for longer than that.

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And I was being called
by my mother's name.

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And my girls were being called
by various other female names.

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And my 17-year-old, who
wasn't really terribly

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sure who she was, found
this extremely upsetting.

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But my 20-year-old said,
Mother, isn't it wonderful?

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We're all the same woman.

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So the poem is dedicated
to Ashley, my oldest child.

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Daughter, my mother, you
have observed my worst.

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Holding me together at your
expense has made you burn cool.

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So did I in childhood, nursed
her old hurts and doubts.

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Myself made cool to shallowness.

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She grew out as I grew in.

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At midpoint, our furies met.

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My mother's dust has rested
for 15 years in the front hall

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closet because we
couldn't bear to bury it.

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Her dust-lined, dust-coated
urn squats among the size 11

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overshoes.

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My father who never forgets his
overshoes has forgotten that.

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Hysterical-tongued daughter
of a dead marriage,

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you shed hot tears in the
bed of that benign old woman

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whose fierce joy you were.

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Tantrums in the closet,
taking upon yourself

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the guilt the split
parents never felt.

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Child and old woman
soothing each other,

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sharing the same face.

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In a span of 70 years,
the same mother wit.

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I must go home, says my
father, his mind straying.

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This is a hard time
for your mother,

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but she's been
dead this 15 years.

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Daughter and daughter,
we sit on either side.

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Who's which?

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He's not sure.

00:12:10.100 --> 00:12:17.240 align:middle line:84%
After a long silence,
don't press me, he says.

00:12:17.240 --> 00:12:22.220 align:middle line:84%
Mother hysterical tongued,
age and grace burned away

00:12:22.220 --> 00:12:25.790 align:middle line:84%
your excesses, left that
lavender sweet child who

00:12:25.790 --> 00:12:29.030 align:middle line:84%
turned up the thermostat
on her electric blanket,

00:12:29.030 --> 00:12:31.970 align:middle line:90%
folded her hands on her breast.

00:12:31.970 --> 00:12:35.660 align:middle line:84%
You had dreamed death
as a silver prince,

00:12:35.660 --> 00:12:39.770 align:middle line:90%
like marrying Nehru, you said.

00:12:39.770 --> 00:12:44.310 align:middle line:84%
Dearest, does your dust hum
in the front hall closet?

00:12:44.310 --> 00:12:49.970 align:middle line:84%
This is a hard time for me among
the umbrella points, the canes,

00:12:49.970 --> 00:12:53.430 align:middle line:84%
and overshoes of
that cold climate.

00:12:53.430 --> 00:12:56.750 align:middle line:84%
Each week, she denies
it, my blithe mother

00:12:56.750 --> 00:12:59.570 align:middle line:84%
in that green cloud
free landscape

00:12:59.570 --> 00:13:04.730 align:middle line:84%
where we whisper our dream
secrets to each other.

00:13:04.730 --> 00:13:07.700 align:middle line:84%
Daughter, you lived through
my difficult affairs

00:13:07.700 --> 00:13:11.390 align:middle line:84%
as I tried to console
your burnt out childhood.

00:13:11.390 --> 00:13:14.330 align:middle line:84%
We coped with our
fathers, compared

00:13:14.330 --> 00:13:18.320 align:middle line:84%
notes on the old one
and the cold one,

00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:20.750 align:middle line:90%
learned to moderate our hates.

00:13:20.750 --> 00:13:26.400 align:middle line:84%
Risible and suffering,
we grew up together.

00:13:26.400 --> 00:13:29.070 align:middle line:84%
Mother, my daughter,
I have been blessed

00:13:29.070 --> 00:13:31.050 align:middle line:90%
on both sides of my life.

00:13:31.050 --> 00:13:34.380 align:middle line:84%
Forgive me if sometimes,
like my fading father,

00:13:34.380 --> 00:13:36.900 align:middle line:90%
I see you as one.

00:13:36.900 --> 00:13:39.630 align:middle line:84%
Not that I confuse
your two identities

00:13:39.630 --> 00:13:43.830 align:middle line:84%
as he does, taking off or
putting on his overshoes,

00:13:43.830 --> 00:13:46.590 align:middle line:90%
but my own role.

00:13:46.590 --> 00:13:50.790 align:middle line:84%
I lean on the bosom of that
double mother, of the ghost

00:13:50.790 --> 00:13:54.300 align:middle line:90%
by night, the girl by day.

00:13:54.300 --> 00:14:00.270 align:middle line:84%
I between my two mild
furies, alone but comforted.

00:14:00.270 --> 00:14:03.420 align:middle line:84%
And I will whisper
blithely in your dreams

00:14:03.420 --> 00:14:08.680 align:middle line:84%
when you are as old as
I, my hard time over.

00:14:08.680 --> 00:14:14.430 align:middle line:84%
Meanwhile, keep warm your love,
your bed, and your wise heart

00:14:14.430 --> 00:14:17.200 align:middle line:90%
and head, my good daughter.

00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:21.450 align:middle line:90%


00:14:21.450 --> 00:14:23.550 align:middle line:84%
I have reached, as
one of my classes

00:14:23.550 --> 00:14:27.990 align:middle line:84%
knows perhaps too well,
the age of autobiography.

00:14:27.990 --> 00:14:31.050 align:middle line:84%
And I'm writing
a series of poems

00:14:31.050 --> 00:14:35.090 align:middle line:84%
about the women who have
been important in my life.

00:14:35.090 --> 00:14:40.310 align:middle line:84%
And I'm torn between reading
the one about my nurse, Gerda,

00:14:40.310 --> 00:14:43.130 align:middle line:84%
and the one about my
mother's hairdresser, Pearl.

00:14:43.130 --> 00:14:46.130 align:middle line:84%
I may read both, but for
now, I'll read Gerda.

00:14:46.130 --> 00:14:49.340 align:middle line:90%
Does anyone here speak Swedish?

00:14:49.340 --> 00:14:51.740 align:middle line:90%
Good.

00:14:51.740 --> 00:14:53.900 align:middle line:84%
I think my accent
is deteriorated

00:14:53.900 --> 00:14:55.550 align:middle line:90%
since the age of eight.

00:14:55.550 --> 00:14:59.480 align:middle line:84%
But at any rate, I
managed in Sweden.

00:14:59.480 --> 00:15:01.490 align:middle line:90%
And the epigraph is in Swedish.

00:15:01.490 --> 00:15:04.790 align:middle line:84%
It's from an old children's
prayer, and it goes like this.

00:15:04.790 --> 00:15:10.453 align:middle line:84%
Gud, som haver barnen kär,
Se till mig som liten är.

00:15:10.453 --> 00:15:16.260 align:middle line:84%
Vart jag mig i världen vänder
Star min lycka i Guds händer.

00:15:16.880 --> 00:15:21.140 align:middle line:84%
It means roughly God,
who takes particular care

00:15:21.140 --> 00:15:26.210 align:middle line:84%
of little children, hold
me in your hand tonight.

00:15:26.210 --> 00:15:29.053 align:middle line:84%
It's a great improvement on
if I should die before I wake,

00:15:29.053 --> 00:15:29.720 align:middle line:90%
don't you think?

00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:35.320 align:middle line:90%


00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:38.050 align:middle line:84%
What a terrifying thing to
learn when you're a little tot,

00:15:38.050 --> 00:15:39.020 align:middle line:90%
right?

00:15:39.020 --> 00:15:39.520 align:middle line:90%
All right.

00:15:39.520 --> 00:15:42.220 align:middle line:90%


00:15:42.220 --> 00:15:45.440 align:middle line:90%
This is "Gerda."

00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:47.900 align:middle line:84%
Down the long curving
walk, you trudge

00:15:47.900 --> 00:15:51.710 align:middle line:84%
to the street, stoop-shouldered
in defeat, a cardboard

00:15:51.710 --> 00:15:53.580 align:middle line:90%
suitcase in each hand.

00:15:53.580 --> 00:15:57.710 align:middle line:84%
Gerda, don't leave, the
child cries from the porch,

00:15:57.710 --> 00:15:59.360 align:middle line:90%
waving and weeping.

00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:03.980 align:middle line:84%
Her stony mother speaks again
of the raise in salary denied.

00:16:03.980 --> 00:16:08.390 align:middle line:84%
Gerda demands $10 more
than the 25 a month

00:16:08.390 --> 00:16:14.030 align:middle line:84%
she is being paid to sew, cook,
keep house, dress and undress

00:16:14.030 --> 00:16:18.380 align:middle line:84%
the child, bathe the child
with the rough scaly hands

00:16:18.380 --> 00:16:23.450 align:middle line:84%
she cleans in Clorox, sing
to the child in Swedish,

00:16:23.450 --> 00:16:26.900 align:middle line:84%
teach her to pray, to
count her toes in Swedish.

00:16:26.900 --> 00:16:30.080 align:middle line:84%
40 years on, the
child still knows how.

00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:34.160 align:middle line:84%
Is a great hit with children
under seven in Sweden,

00:16:34.160 --> 00:16:38.600 align:middle line:84%
singing a folk song,
praying, counting toes.

00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:45.020 align:middle line:84%
For $25 a month in 1933,
Gerda makes for the child

00:16:45.020 --> 00:16:48.840 align:middle line:84%
her favorite, fattingmand,
a mix of flour,

00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:51.920 align:middle line:84%
milk, and eggs you cut
in strips, then fry

00:16:51.920 --> 00:16:54.380 align:middle line:90%
in fat, then dust with sugar.

00:16:54.380 --> 00:16:58.370 align:middle line:84%
The child helps Gerda
cook, so she knows that.

00:16:58.370 --> 00:17:02.930 align:middle line:84%
In Stockholm, the child
will inquire of fattingmand,

00:17:02.930 --> 00:17:07.520 align:middle line:84%
but like lost Gerda,
it does not exist.

00:17:07.520 --> 00:17:09.440 align:middle line:84%
Deep in the
Depression, the child

00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:12.319 align:middle line:84%
fears for her as
Gerda trudges down

00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:14.630 align:middle line:84%
the walk, four
blocks to the bus,

00:17:14.630 --> 00:17:16.760 align:middle line:90%
then the train to Minneapolis.

00:17:16.760 --> 00:17:19.069 align:middle line:90%
What will she do?

00:17:19.069 --> 00:17:23.869 align:middle line:84%
Gerda, trained as a nurse, found
no work before she came to us.

00:17:23.869 --> 00:17:27.319 align:middle line:84%
$25 a month to sew a quilt
for the child, covered

00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:29.780 align:middle line:84%
with fabulous animals
feather-stitched

00:17:29.780 --> 00:17:31.350 align:middle line:90%
in blue and white.

00:17:31.350 --> 00:17:35.480 align:middle line:84%
Now after 50 years, it hangs
on the wall of the child's

00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:39.140 align:middle line:90%
grandchild in a Chicago house.

00:17:39.140 --> 00:17:42.650 align:middle line:84%
Then when the child
awoke, addled and drunk

00:17:42.650 --> 00:17:46.310 align:middle line:84%
with nightmare, she dragged
the quilt from her cot,

00:17:46.310 --> 00:17:49.250 align:middle line:84%
stumbled, sniffling,
into Gerda's room

00:17:49.250 --> 00:17:52.160 align:middle line:84%
to be taken into her
bed, soothed back

00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:55.550 align:middle line:84%
to sleep by the rough,
antiseptic hands.

00:17:55.550 --> 00:17:58.110 align:middle line:90%


00:17:58.110 --> 00:18:00.840 align:middle line:84%
The child wakes
up to naked light.

00:18:00.840 --> 00:18:05.040 align:middle line:84%
Ageless Gerda's steel-gray
bob shakes into place.

00:18:05.040 --> 00:18:07.020 align:middle line:90%
She owns no mirror.

00:18:07.020 --> 00:18:11.040 align:middle line:84%
Blind Gerda gropes for her
steel-rimmed spectacles

00:18:11.040 --> 00:18:13.350 align:middle line:84%
as the child sees
with fascinated

00:18:13.350 --> 00:18:18.300 align:middle line:84%
love the curd in the corner
of each of Gerda's eyes.

00:18:18.300 --> 00:18:21.240 align:middle line:84%
It is a magic
substance the child

00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:26.430 align:middle line:84%
has improvised on a favorite
tale; Hans Christian Andersen's

00:18:26.430 --> 00:18:27.810 align:middle line:90%
Snow Queen.

00:18:27.810 --> 00:18:30.780 align:middle line:84%
She thinks of it
as the good cream

00:18:30.780 --> 00:18:33.210 align:middle line:84%
curd, the reverse
of the splinter

00:18:33.210 --> 00:18:35.100 align:middle line:90%
in the eye of little Kay.

00:18:35.100 --> 00:18:39.090 align:middle line:84%
Everyone, like the brave
child in the story,

00:18:39.090 --> 00:18:42.810 align:middle line:90%
everyone like Gerda.

00:18:42.810 --> 00:18:45.870 align:middle line:84%
Modest Gerda dresses
in the closet.

00:18:45.870 --> 00:18:49.620 align:middle line:84%
Then the two on tiptoe
steal to the child's room,

00:18:49.620 --> 00:18:52.920 align:middle line:84%
so the stout, handsome
mother will not waken.

00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:57.870 align:middle line:84%
Then Gerda bathes the child,
scrubs her hard all over

00:18:57.870 --> 00:19:00.570 align:middle line:84%
with the loofah,
dries her carefully

00:19:00.570 --> 00:19:04.890 align:middle line:84%
on the big warm towel, pulls
on her panties of white cotton,

00:19:04.890 --> 00:19:08.730 align:middle line:84%
then the dress smelling
deliciously of Gerda's iron,

00:19:08.730 --> 00:19:13.350 align:middle line:84%
the dress Gerda smocked at
night while the household slept,

00:19:13.350 --> 00:19:17.010 align:middle line:84%
then the pastel sweater
Gerda knitted her.

00:19:17.010 --> 00:19:19.500 align:middle line:84%
The child sits on
the edge of the bed

00:19:19.500 --> 00:19:23.430 align:middle line:84%
while Gerda brushes then
twists the child's fair hair

00:19:23.430 --> 00:19:27.870 align:middle line:84%
into two fat braids
secured with rubber bands.

00:19:27.870 --> 00:19:31.380 align:middle line:84%
The child, so much
fairer than her parents,

00:19:31.380 --> 00:19:35.370 align:middle line:84%
nearly believes she's
Swedish, is pleased then

00:19:35.370 --> 00:19:40.890 align:middle line:84%
and 40 years on to be taken
for Scandinavian; Gerda's own.

00:19:40.890 --> 00:19:45.480 align:middle line:84%
Now Gerda pulls up the white
anklets, fastens the sandals.

00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:49.740 align:middle line:84%
Down to the pantry, where the
child climbs into her chair,

00:19:49.740 --> 00:19:53.190 align:middle line:84%
Gerda sets three places;
one for the child,

00:19:53.190 --> 00:19:58.290 align:middle line:84%
one for the child's imaginary
playmate, one for her.

00:19:58.290 --> 00:20:04.910 align:middle line:84%
And they eat the lovely oatmeal
Gerda cooked the night before.

00:20:04.910 --> 00:20:07.880 align:middle line:84%
30 years on, her
father will remark,

00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:11.720 align:middle line:84%
your mother was jealous,
so we let her go.

00:20:11.720 --> 00:20:13.790 align:middle line:84%
Of course, I could
have raised her wages.

00:20:13.790 --> 00:20:15.770 align:middle line:90%
Gerda ran the house.

00:20:15.770 --> 00:20:18.920 align:middle line:84%
The child's throat
fills with bile.

00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:21.980 align:middle line:84%
As casually, he
continues, I always

00:20:21.980 --> 00:20:24.800 align:middle line:84%
let your mother
decide these matters.

00:20:24.800 --> 00:20:28.670 align:middle line:84%
Smug, he used the phrase
as if the abdication

00:20:28.670 --> 00:20:31.610 align:middle line:84%
of his parenthood
had been a sacrifice.

00:20:31.610 --> 00:20:35.570 align:middle line:84%
What did he know of the
child's needs or passions?

00:20:35.570 --> 00:20:38.840 align:middle line:84%
So Gerda left the house,
the yard, the garden,

00:20:38.840 --> 00:20:44.780 align:middle line:84%
the child's home long torn down,
a place that no longer exists.

00:20:44.780 --> 00:20:48.410 align:middle line:84%
35 years on, the child
stumbled among the weeds

00:20:48.410 --> 00:20:52.340 align:middle line:84%
in search of the path down which
her Gerda walked or a trace

00:20:52.340 --> 00:20:56.540 align:middle line:84%
of the porch where she
once stood, bereft.

00:20:56.540 --> 00:21:00.380 align:middle line:84%
The child's eighth year,
like Gerda, disappeared.

00:21:00.380 --> 00:21:03.980 align:middle line:84%
Hazy recall of illness;
asthma, the wheeze,

00:21:03.980 --> 00:21:07.100 align:middle line:84%
the struggle for breath, and
the louder rhythmic wheeze

00:21:07.100 --> 00:21:09.770 align:middle line:84%
of the oxygen, of
the weeks in bed,

00:21:09.770 --> 00:21:13.790 align:middle line:84%
lying inert, nothing
remains, only the pallid joys

00:21:13.790 --> 00:21:16.820 align:middle line:90%
of recovery, jello, and milk.

00:21:16.820 --> 00:21:21.470 align:middle line:84%
Ice cream three times a
day, was this a bribe?

00:21:21.470 --> 00:21:25.040 align:middle line:84%
Dreamily sucking a spoonful
of melting vanilla,

00:21:25.040 --> 00:21:30.080 align:middle line:84%
only these splinters
of a vanished year.

00:21:30.080 --> 00:21:32.300 align:middle line:84%
It must have been then
that the ice house

00:21:32.300 --> 00:21:38.180 align:middle line:84%
dream began, her first
and last recurring dream.

00:21:38.180 --> 00:21:41.030 align:middle line:84%
The child stands in
a little room of ice.

00:21:41.030 --> 00:21:45.050 align:middle line:84%
Outside, a song begins,
impossibly nostalgic,

00:21:45.050 --> 00:21:47.810 align:middle line:84%
played on a concertina
or harmonium.

00:21:47.810 --> 00:21:52.940 align:middle line:84%
As the dream goes on, slowly,
slowly, the walls move in,

00:21:52.940 --> 00:21:55.460 align:middle line:84%
the ceiling presses
down till she

00:21:55.460 --> 00:21:58.370 align:middle line:84%
is encased in a kind
of upright coffin

00:21:58.370 --> 00:22:02.410 align:middle line:90%
of milky, iridescent ice.

00:22:02.410 --> 00:22:04.990 align:middle line:84%
Entranced by a
vision of green hills

00:22:04.990 --> 00:22:10.450 align:middle line:84%
and pure blue skies without, she
conceives freedom and flight.

00:22:10.450 --> 00:22:13.960 align:middle line:84%
She must memorize the tune as
the ice moves in to touch her

00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:16.300 align:middle line:90%
on every side and on her head.

00:22:16.300 --> 00:22:20.110 align:middle line:84%
As the last haunting note is
played, the child wakes up.

00:22:20.110 --> 00:22:22.750 align:middle line:90%
Of course, the tune is gone.

00:22:22.750 --> 00:22:25.650 align:middle line:90%
It is always gone.

00:22:25.650 --> 00:22:28.890 align:middle line:84%
For 10 years, the child
nurtures a secret plan.

00:22:28.890 --> 00:22:31.740 align:middle line:84%
At last, she boards
a train for the East,

00:22:31.740 --> 00:22:33.870 align:middle line:84%
waits for the layover
in Minneapolis,

00:22:33.870 --> 00:22:38.220 align:middle line:84%
hurries to a payphone armed with
change, opens the directory,

00:22:38.220 --> 00:22:42.180 align:middle line:84%
faints to see four
columns, closely printed,

00:22:42.180 --> 00:22:45.480 align:middle line:90%
of Gerda Johnsons.

00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:48.360 align:middle line:84%
How could there
be more than one?

00:22:48.360 --> 00:22:50.910 align:middle line:84%
Ranging her nickels
on the metal counter,

00:22:50.910 --> 00:22:54.660 align:middle line:84%
she calls from the top as
the hands of the clock spin

00:22:54.660 --> 00:22:57.750 align:middle line:90%
round, Gerda, Gerda.

00:22:57.750 --> 00:23:02.940 align:middle line:84%
Half a page with answers none,
or ancient whispery Norse

00:23:02.940 --> 00:23:07.590 align:middle line:84%
voices down a tunnel of
years, and oceans crossed

00:23:07.590 --> 00:23:12.000 align:middle line:84%
and cold home villages
abandoned long ago.

00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:15.120 align:middle line:84%
Then she runs out
of change and time.

00:23:15.120 --> 00:23:16.800 align:middle line:90%
A train to catch.

00:23:16.800 --> 00:23:21.930 align:middle line:84%
She weeps at terminated
hope, nourished so long,

00:23:21.930 --> 00:23:25.860 align:middle line:90%
as the old filmstrip runs again.

00:23:25.860 --> 00:23:30.060 align:middle line:84%
Gerda, you trudge
down the walk forever.

00:23:30.060 --> 00:23:34.080 align:middle line:84%
The child, no matter
how she calls and cries,

00:23:34.080 --> 00:23:36.060 align:middle line:90%
cannot catch up.

00:23:36.060 --> 00:23:40.020 align:middle line:84%
Now from another life,
she summons you out

00:23:40.020 --> 00:23:42.420 align:middle line:90%
of the Earth or ether.

00:23:42.420 --> 00:23:46.560 align:middle line:84%
Wherever you are,
Gerda, come back

00:23:46.560 --> 00:23:49.160 align:middle line:90%
to nurse your desolate child.

00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:52.530 align:middle line:90%


00:23:52.530 --> 00:23:59.640 align:middle line:84%
After I read that in New York, a
terribly nice man came up to me

00:23:59.640 --> 00:24:02.070 align:middle line:84%
and said that he
was a genealogist.

00:24:02.070 --> 00:24:04.890 align:middle line:84%
And he said, I can
find her for you.

00:24:04.890 --> 00:24:07.680 align:middle line:90%


00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:10.560 align:middle line:84%
And I said, my dear sir, thank
you, but she would be 90,

00:24:10.560 --> 00:24:12.780 align:middle line:84%
and I don't think there's
a chance she'd still

00:24:12.780 --> 00:24:14.085 align:middle line:90%
be on this planet.

00:24:14.085 --> 00:24:18.200 align:middle line:90%


00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:22.547 align:middle line:84%
I've always been something
of a political poet,

00:24:22.547 --> 00:24:23.630 align:middle line:90%
and hope I always will be.

00:24:23.630 --> 00:24:27.560 align:middle line:84%
One of the nicest things
my husband ever said to me

00:24:27.560 --> 00:24:30.770 align:middle line:84%
or said to somebody about
me was when after a reading,

00:24:30.770 --> 00:24:33.590 align:middle line:84%
someone came up and said I
love that political poem,

00:24:33.590 --> 00:24:38.900 align:middle line:84%
and my husband said
they're all political.

00:24:38.900 --> 00:24:41.030 align:middle line:90%
And I hope that's true.

00:24:41.030 --> 00:24:43.710 align:middle line:90%
They're certainly meant to be.

00:24:43.710 --> 00:24:51.330 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to do a slightly
non-chronological thing here.

00:24:51.330 --> 00:24:54.840 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to read a poem about
the overthrow of the Allende

00:24:54.840 --> 00:24:59.280 align:middle line:84%
government in Chile, the
democratically-elected

00:24:59.280 --> 00:25:01.470 align:middle line:84%
government, which
we in our wisdom

00:25:01.470 --> 00:25:10.470 align:middle line:84%
and our CIA managed to destroy
with the results that are still

00:25:10.470 --> 00:25:15.900 align:middle line:84%
clear of torture, oppression,
fascism, et cetera.

00:25:15.900 --> 00:25:23.090 align:middle line:84%
Now this poem is one of
those poems that is a given.

00:25:23.090 --> 00:25:24.780 align:middle line:84%
It was almost like
taking dictation.

00:25:24.780 --> 00:25:25.830 align:middle line:90%
I just wrote it down.

00:25:25.830 --> 00:25:27.210 align:middle line:90%
Actually, it was a dream.

00:25:27.210 --> 00:25:30.330 align:middle line:84%
And I woke up, and I simply
started writing down the dream.

00:25:30.330 --> 00:25:33.720 align:middle line:84%
There is a character in the
poem, however, named Barbara.

00:25:33.720 --> 00:25:36.120 align:middle line:84%
Her real name is
Barbara Probst Solomon.

00:25:36.120 --> 00:25:40.290 align:middle line:84%
And everything that I say about
Barbara and her adventures

00:25:40.290 --> 00:25:41.970 align:middle line:90%
in Spain actually happened.

00:25:41.970 --> 00:25:44.460 align:middle line:84%
She and Norman Mailer's
kid sister, both of them

00:25:44.460 --> 00:25:50.040 align:middle line:84%
17 or 18 years old, managed to
rescue some loyalist soldiers

00:25:50.040 --> 00:25:51.270 align:middle line:90%
from a Spanish prison.

00:25:51.270 --> 00:25:54.300 align:middle line:84%
That is in the poem
as you will see.

00:25:54.300 --> 00:26:00.240 align:middle line:90%
"October 1973."

00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:02.280 align:middle line:84%
Last night, I dreamed I
ran through the streets

00:26:02.280 --> 00:26:05.730 align:middle line:84%
of New York looking for
help for you, Nicanor.

00:26:05.730 --> 00:26:09.210 align:middle line:84%
But my few friends who
are rich or influential

00:26:09.210 --> 00:26:12.660 align:middle line:84%
were temporarily absent from
their penthouses or hotel

00:26:12.660 --> 00:26:13.770 align:middle line:90%
suites.

00:26:13.770 --> 00:26:16.770 align:middle line:84%
They had gone to the opera
or flown for the weekend

00:26:16.770 --> 00:26:18.120 align:middle line:90%
to Bermuda.

00:26:18.120 --> 00:26:19.770 align:middle line:84%
At last, I found
one or two of them

00:26:19.770 --> 00:26:22.860 align:middle line:84%
at home preparing for
social engagements.

00:26:22.860 --> 00:26:26.460 align:middle line:84%
Absently smiling, they
tried on gown after gown

00:26:26.460 --> 00:26:28.800 align:middle line:84%
until heaps of rich
beautiful fabric

00:26:28.800 --> 00:26:32.250 align:middle line:84%
were strewn over the
chairs and sofas.

00:26:32.250 --> 00:26:36.480 align:middle line:84%
They posed before mirrors with
their diamonds and trinkets

00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:38.730 align:middle line:90%
and floor-length furs.

00:26:38.730 --> 00:26:43.470 align:middle line:84%
Smiling at me from the mirror,
they vaguely promised help.

00:26:43.470 --> 00:26:47.700 align:middle line:84%
They became distracted by
constantly ringing phones,

00:26:47.700 --> 00:26:50.400 align:middle line:84%
by obsequious
secretaries bustling in

00:26:50.400 --> 00:26:53.550 align:middle line:84%
with packages,
flowers, messages,

00:26:53.550 --> 00:26:57.810 align:middle line:84%
all the paraphernalia, all part
of the uninterruptible round

00:26:57.810 --> 00:27:01.710 align:middle line:84%
of the rich, the nice
rich, smiling soothingly

00:27:01.710 --> 00:27:04.620 align:middle line:84%
as they touched their hair
or picked up their phone

00:27:04.620 --> 00:27:05.790 align:middle line:90%
extensions.

00:27:05.790 --> 00:27:11.910 align:middle line:84%
Absently patting my arm, they
smiled, it will be all right.

00:27:11.910 --> 00:27:16.140 align:middle line:84%
Dusk fell in the city as I
ran weeping into the streets.

00:27:16.140 --> 00:27:20.310 align:middle line:84%
I ran to the home of Barbara,
my friend, who, as a young girl,

00:27:20.310 --> 00:27:24.150 align:middle line:84%
rescued four loyalist soldiers
from a Spanish prison.

00:27:24.150 --> 00:27:29.160 align:middle line:84%
In her teenage sweater set and
saddle shoes and knee socks,

00:27:29.160 --> 00:27:33.390 align:middle line:84%
she drove an old car sagging
with loyalist pamphlets

00:27:33.390 --> 00:27:38.340 align:middle line:84%
across the Pyrenees all the way
to Paris without being caught.

00:27:38.340 --> 00:27:42.390 align:middle line:84%
And not long ago, she
helped save a group of men

00:27:42.390 --> 00:27:45.900 align:middle line:90%
from Franco's sentence of death.

00:27:45.900 --> 00:27:49.620 align:middle line:84%
In my dream, Barbara
telephones Barcelona.

00:27:49.620 --> 00:27:52.050 align:middle line:84%
I realize this
isn't quite right,

00:27:52.050 --> 00:27:54.390 align:middle line:84%
but I just stand
there paralyzed,

00:27:54.390 --> 00:27:56.550 align:middle line:90%
as one does in dreams.

00:27:56.550 --> 00:28:00.060 align:middle line:84%
Then dimly, from the
other end of the line,

00:28:00.060 --> 00:28:02.790 align:middle line:84%
through the chatter of
international operators,

00:28:02.790 --> 00:28:08.160 align:middle line:84%
we hear artillery fire, the
faint tones of lost men,

00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:12.360 align:middle line:84%
cracked voices singing
"Los Cuatros Generales"

00:28:12.360 --> 00:28:16.380 align:middle line:84%
through the pulsation of
the great twisted cable

00:28:16.380 --> 00:28:18.930 align:middle line:90%
under the ocean.

00:28:18.930 --> 00:28:24.928 align:middle line:84%
Agonía, agonía, sueño,
fermento y sueño.

00:28:24.928 --> 00:28:31.200 align:middle line:84%
Éste es el mundo,
amigo, agonía, agonía.

00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:33.660 align:middle line:90%
No, Barbara, I scream.

00:28:33.660 --> 00:28:36.240 align:middle line:90%
We are not back there.

00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:38.340 align:middle line:90%
That's the old revolution.

00:28:38.340 --> 00:28:40.500 align:middle line:90%
Call up the new one.

00:28:40.500 --> 00:28:44.370 align:middle line:84%
Though I know that every
day your friends, Nicanor,

00:28:44.370 --> 00:28:48.420 align:middle line:84%
telephone Santiago, where
the number rings and rings

00:28:48.420 --> 00:28:50.640 align:middle line:90%
and rings with never an answer.

00:28:50.640 --> 00:28:53.220 align:middle line:84%
And now the rings are
turning into knells.

00:28:53.220 --> 00:28:57.780 align:middle line:84%
The church bells of Santiago
tolling the funeral of Neruda,

00:28:57.780 --> 00:29:01.320 align:middle line:84%
his books desecrated,
his poems looted,

00:29:01.320 --> 00:29:05.760 align:middle line:84%
his autobiography stolen
in his house on Isla Negra.

00:29:05.760 --> 00:29:09.570 align:middle line:84%
And among the smashed
glass, the broken furniture,

00:29:09.570 --> 00:29:14.040 align:middle line:84%
his desk overturned, the ruined
books strewn over the floor,

00:29:14.040 --> 00:29:18.000 align:middle line:84%
lie the great floral wreaths
from the Swedish Academy,

00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:23.310 align:middle line:84%
the wreaths from Paris, South
Asia, the whole world over.

00:29:23.310 --> 00:29:25.920 align:middle line:90%
And the bells toll on.

00:29:25.920 --> 00:29:28.920 align:middle line:84%
Then I tell Barbara
to hang up the phone.

00:29:28.920 --> 00:29:31.260 align:middle line:84%
She dials the number
again, then turns to me

00:29:31.260 --> 00:29:33.570 align:middle line:90%
smiling, smiling like an angel.

00:29:33.570 --> 00:29:34.950 align:middle line:90%
He is there.

00:29:34.950 --> 00:29:39.840 align:middle line:84%
Trembling, I take the phone
from her and hear your voice,

00:29:39.840 --> 00:29:46.470 align:middle line:84%
Nicanor, sad, humorous,
infinitely disillusioned,

00:29:46.470 --> 00:29:48.690 align:middle line:90%
infinitely consoling.

00:29:48.690 --> 00:29:50.670 align:middle line:90%
Dear Carolyn.

00:29:50.670 --> 00:29:53.790 align:middle line:90%
It is Nicanor.

00:29:53.790 --> 00:29:59.170 align:middle line:84%
And the connection is
broken because I wake up

00:29:59.170 --> 00:30:03.460 align:middle line:84%
in this white room,
in this white silence,

00:30:03.460 --> 00:30:09.070 align:middle line:84%
in this backwater of
silence on this Isla Blanca.

00:30:09.070 --> 00:30:14.370 align:middle line:84%
Nicanor, Nicanor,
are you too silent

00:30:14.370 --> 00:30:19.780 align:middle line:84%
under the Earth,
Brother, Brother?

00:30:19.780 --> 00:30:20.910 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:30:20.910 --> 00:30:25.890 align:middle line:84%
And now I'd like to talk
about the background a bit,

00:30:25.890 --> 00:30:28.020 align:middle line:90%
the background of Spain.

00:30:28.020 --> 00:30:29.387 align:middle line:90%
The poem is so self-explanatory.

00:30:29.387 --> 00:30:30.970 align:middle line:84%
I don't need to say
anything about it.

00:30:30.970 --> 00:30:32.850 align:middle line:84%
This is called the
"Valley of the Fallen."

00:30:32.850 --> 00:30:34.350 align:middle line:84%
And it has a number
of epigraphs.

00:30:34.350 --> 00:30:37.170 align:middle line:84%
The first one is
from Benjamin Welles.

00:30:37.170 --> 00:30:41.190 align:middle line:84%
It's curious too because he was
the son of Sumner Welles, who

00:30:41.190 --> 00:30:43.830 align:middle line:84%
was Secretary of State under
Franklin Roosevelt, who

00:30:43.830 --> 00:30:47.460 align:middle line:84%
said the most terrible
mistake that the Roosevelt

00:30:47.460 --> 00:30:49.800 align:middle line:84%
administration
made was to remain

00:30:49.800 --> 00:30:52.380 align:middle line:84%
neutral during the
Spanish Civil War

00:30:52.380 --> 00:30:54.480 align:middle line:84%
when the Germans
and the Italians

00:30:54.480 --> 00:30:57.960 align:middle line:84%
were providing arms
and men and planes

00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:02.040 align:middle line:84%
to Franco to overthrow
the loyalist government.

00:31:02.040 --> 00:31:04.650 align:middle line:84%
As you will see from
this, Benjamin Welles

00:31:04.650 --> 00:31:07.950 align:middle line:90%
was rather different.

00:31:07.950 --> 00:31:12.060 align:middle line:84%
In this Valley of the Fallen,
one finds the soul of Spain

00:31:12.060 --> 00:31:14.850 align:middle line:90%
beautiful and severe.

00:31:14.850 --> 00:31:18.450 align:middle line:84%
When the great bronze
doors, 11 tons each,

00:31:18.450 --> 00:31:22.770 align:middle line:84%
swing open for state
ceremonies, 10,000 worshippers

00:31:22.770 --> 00:31:24.840 align:middle line:90%
can assemble there at a time.

00:31:24.840 --> 00:31:28.170 align:middle line:84%
Only Franco and his
intimates know the cost

00:31:28.170 --> 00:31:32.310 align:middle line:84%
of this monument with its
adjacent Benedictine monastery

00:31:32.310 --> 00:31:37.920 align:middle line:84%
and its lavishly fitted
center for social studies.

00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:39.390 align:middle line:90%
1.

00:31:39.390 --> 00:31:43.140 align:middle line:84%
My new friend Maisie,
who works where I work,

00:31:43.140 --> 00:31:47.580 align:middle line:84%
a big, pleasant woman, all
elbows and peasant skirts,

00:31:47.580 --> 00:31:52.140 align:middle line:84%
has a young child and debts
and struggles on her own.

00:31:52.140 --> 00:31:55.200 align:middle line:90%
Not 21, I am her confidante.

00:31:55.200 --> 00:31:58.590 align:middle line:84%
Gallant, intrepid,
she soldiers on.

00:31:58.590 --> 00:32:02.340 align:middle line:84%
But in the ladies restroom or
when we munch our sandwiches

00:32:02.340 --> 00:32:05.910 align:middle line:84%
at our adjoining desks,
her bitterness erupts,

00:32:05.910 --> 00:32:11.160 align:middle line:84%
the bum, the bum, who, when she
was pregnant, knocked her down,

00:32:11.160 --> 00:32:14.430 align:middle line:84%
stole money from her
purse to spend on drink,

00:32:14.430 --> 00:32:19.200 align:middle line:84%
and still harasses her
with drunken calls in 1946.

00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:23.820 align:middle line:84%
One day, I have to ask, Maisie,
why did you ever marry him?

00:32:23.820 --> 00:32:27.630 align:middle line:84%
Gazing into her large,
pale, blue eyes that

00:32:27.630 --> 00:32:33.210 align:middle line:84%
brim with rue, well, you see he
fought in the Abraham Lincoln

00:32:33.210 --> 00:32:34.860 align:middle line:90%
Brigade.

00:32:34.860 --> 00:32:37.020 align:middle line:90%
Oh, I say.

00:32:37.020 --> 00:32:38.490 align:middle line:90%
I would have done it too.

00:32:38.490 --> 00:32:41.580 align:middle line:90%


00:32:41.580 --> 00:32:42.750 align:middle line:90%
Part 2.

00:32:42.750 --> 00:32:45.750 align:middle line:84%
When I say I wouldn't go
to Spain till Franco died,

00:32:45.750 --> 00:32:49.680 align:middle line:84%
I've told a whole biography;
my age, my politics, my Red

00:32:49.680 --> 00:32:52.860 align:middle line:84%
and red haired mother
whose green eyes barked

00:32:52.860 --> 00:32:55.350 align:middle line:84%
at the sins of
tyrants everywhere.

00:32:55.350 --> 00:32:58.950 align:middle line:84%
My father who was consul
for the poor and radical

00:32:58.950 --> 00:33:02.580 align:middle line:84%
against the bigots and the
hater burnt up the courtroom

00:33:02.580 --> 00:33:04.380 align:middle line:90%
with his tongue of flame.

00:33:04.380 --> 00:33:08.140 align:middle line:84%
McCarthy got around
to us much later.

00:33:08.140 --> 00:33:10.230 align:middle line:84%
So Spain burst in
while I was still

00:33:10.230 --> 00:33:14.460 align:middle line:84%
a child, my introduction
to the world.

00:33:14.460 --> 00:33:18.930 align:middle line:84%
At 17, my first
love, Frank, gave me

00:33:18.930 --> 00:33:23.670 align:middle line:84%
some records, battered
'78s, the off key songs

00:33:23.670 --> 00:33:25.770 align:middle line:90%
of the international brigade.

00:33:25.770 --> 00:33:28.920 align:middle line:84%
I still sing them,
remember all the words

00:33:28.920 --> 00:33:31.290 align:middle line:90%
in Spanish, French, and German.

00:33:31.290 --> 00:33:35.040 align:middle line:84%
The Peat Bog Soldiers
accompanied by harmonica

00:33:35.040 --> 00:33:37.110 align:middle line:90%
in a Barcelona basement.

00:33:37.110 --> 00:33:41.010 align:middle line:90%
Freiheit, we sing to a guitar.

00:33:41.010 --> 00:33:44.460 align:middle line:84%
You can still hear the
thuds of the bombardment.

00:33:44.460 --> 00:33:48.270 align:middle line:84%
I sing and listen till
the tears run down.

00:33:48.270 --> 00:33:52.620 align:middle line:90%
That's 40 years of tears.

00:33:52.620 --> 00:33:57.690 align:middle line:84%
700 men worked every day for
10 years to dig this place,

00:33:57.690 --> 00:34:01.170 align:middle line:84%
and many of them were political
prisoners of the regime.

00:34:01.170 --> 00:34:05.010 align:middle line:84%
Franco lies now in a tomb
before the high altar.

00:34:05.010 --> 00:34:09.270 align:middle line:84%
And all day long, the monks,
the nuns, and the soldiers

00:34:09.270 --> 00:34:11.159 align:middle line:90%
file through.

00:34:11.159 --> 00:34:14.699 align:middle line:90%
Jan Morris, 1979.

00:34:14.699 --> 00:34:16.080 align:middle line:90%
Part 3.

00:34:16.080 --> 00:34:18.659 align:middle line:84%
My husband and I
shudder a bit and smile.

00:34:18.659 --> 00:34:21.780 align:middle line:84%
He's an architect,
has seen photographs

00:34:21.780 --> 00:34:25.980 align:middle line:84%
of Franco's grandiose memorial,
the Valley of the Fallen.

00:34:25.980 --> 00:34:28.620 align:middle line:84%
At first, the thought
appalled, but we've

00:34:28.620 --> 00:34:31.440 align:middle line:84%
decided it's part of
architecture, part of history

00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:32.070 align:middle line:90%
too.

00:34:32.070 --> 00:34:34.770 align:middle line:84%
So we drive the road
from the Escorial,

00:34:34.770 --> 00:34:40.110 align:middle line:84%
climb tiers and tiers of
stairs, take in the view.

00:34:40.110 --> 00:34:43.590 align:middle line:84%
The whole vast place
is virtually empty,

00:34:43.590 --> 00:34:46.860 align:middle line:84%
save for a handful of
tourists like ourselves.

00:34:46.860 --> 00:34:50.670 align:middle line:84%
Down the long gloomy hall, not
as grotesque as we expected,

00:34:50.670 --> 00:34:53.489 align:middle line:84%
muted lights, chisels
score the vault

00:34:53.489 --> 00:34:57.030 align:middle line:84%
so that we'll know they tunnel
through the mountain, Franco's

00:34:57.030 --> 00:35:00.720 align:middle line:84%
slave labor, some, the
very men who fought him.

00:35:00.720 --> 00:35:04.320 align:middle line:90%
But at least they buried him.

00:35:04.320 --> 00:35:07.080 align:middle line:84%
We reached the circular
altar with its flame.

00:35:07.080 --> 00:35:11.010 align:middle line:84%
First, the grave of José
Antonio Primo de Rivera,

00:35:11.010 --> 00:35:13.230 align:middle line:90%
who fathered the Falange.

00:35:13.230 --> 00:35:18.750 align:middle line:84%
On it, a huge, ugly wreath
from the Italian Fascisti.

00:35:18.750 --> 00:35:22.590 align:middle line:84%
I wouldn't be surprised
if asps crawled out

00:35:22.590 --> 00:35:28.500 align:middle line:84%
beneath its leaves of artificial
bronze, but still, at my age,

00:35:28.500 --> 00:35:33.540 align:middle line:84%
I'm surprised that
the old evil lives.

00:35:33.540 --> 00:35:37.170 align:middle line:84%
Behind this, the
Caudillo's stone.

00:35:37.170 --> 00:35:42.360 align:middle line:84%
I say, I'm going to
spit upon his grave.

00:35:42.360 --> 00:35:47.160 align:middle line:84%
John tilts his head towards
the honor guard, impassive,

00:35:47.160 --> 00:35:49.980 align:middle line:90%
armed, white gloved.

00:35:49.980 --> 00:35:53.940 align:middle line:84%
He knows me well enough to
know I just might do it.

00:35:53.940 --> 00:35:58.125 align:middle line:84%
But instead, I speak this curse:
Franco, I spit upon your grave.

00:35:58.125 --> 00:36:00.690 align:middle line:90%


00:36:00.690 --> 00:36:03.900 align:middle line:84%
On the way out, we use the
men's room and the ladies' room,

00:36:03.900 --> 00:36:07.830 align:middle line:84%
try to buy postcards,
but it's closing time.

00:36:07.830 --> 00:36:11.340 align:middle line:84%
Then drive back to
Madrid where I read poems

00:36:11.340 --> 00:36:14.790 align:middle line:84%
to the kids at the university
in a classroom scarred

00:36:14.790 --> 00:36:17.970 align:middle line:84%
with revolutionary
slogans four years old

00:36:17.970 --> 00:36:20.580 align:middle line:90%
that no one's bothered to erase.

00:36:20.580 --> 00:36:29.070 align:middle line:84%
I sing of Lorca, Chile, and
Neruda, and the wars we lose.

00:36:29.070 --> 00:36:34.260 align:middle line:84%
The Valle de los Caidos can
be included in your trip

00:36:34.260 --> 00:36:36.330 align:middle line:90%
to the Escorial.

00:36:36.330 --> 00:36:38.400 align:middle line:84%
Like a modern day
Valhalla, the crypt

00:36:38.400 --> 00:36:41.490 align:middle line:84%
is cut through 853
feet of living rock

00:36:41.490 --> 00:36:45.840 align:middle line:84%
and surmounted by a 492-foot
cross of reinforced concrete

00:36:45.840 --> 00:36:48.450 align:middle line:90%
with an elevator to the top.

00:36:48.450 --> 00:36:52.620 align:middle line:84%
Admission, 75 pesetas
with two in a car,

00:36:52.620 --> 00:36:54.510 align:middle line:90%
100 pesetas for more than two.

00:36:54.510 --> 00:36:57.396 align:middle line:90%
Open 9:00 to 7:30.

00:36:57.396 --> 00:37:03.550 align:middle line:90%
Fodor's Spain, 1987.

00:37:03.550 --> 00:37:05.670 align:middle line:84%
And this one is
called "Ingathering."

00:37:05.670 --> 00:37:07.740 align:middle line:84%
It's dedicated to
Spain, but it might well

00:37:07.740 --> 00:37:09.495 align:middle line:84%
be dedicated to
Portugal and to Greece.

00:37:09.495 --> 00:37:12.750 align:middle line:90%


00:37:12.750 --> 00:37:17.310 align:middle line:84%
The poets are going home now,
after the years of exile,

00:37:17.310 --> 00:37:19.500 align:middle line:84%
after the northern
climates where they worked,

00:37:19.500 --> 00:37:22.980 align:middle line:84%
lectured, remembered, where
they shivered at night

00:37:22.980 --> 00:37:24.870 align:middle line:90%
in an indifferent world.

00:37:24.870 --> 00:37:27.420 align:middle line:84%
Where God was the
God of business,

00:37:27.420 --> 00:37:30.000 align:middle line:84%
and men would violate
the poet's moon,

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:33.750 align:middle line:84%
and even the heavens
become zones of war.

00:37:33.750 --> 00:37:37.500 align:middle line:84%
The poets are going home to
the blood-haunted villages,

00:37:37.500 --> 00:37:41.100 align:middle line:84%
to the crumbling walls still
pocked with a spray of bullets,

00:37:41.100 --> 00:37:45.210 align:middle line:84%
to the ravine marked with a new
cross where their brother died.

00:37:45.210 --> 00:37:48.960 align:middle line:84%
No one knows the precise
spot where they buried him,

00:37:48.960 --> 00:37:53.130 align:middle line:84%
but there is a place now
to gather, to lay wreaths.

00:37:53.130 --> 00:37:56.780 align:middle line:90%
The poets will bring flowers.

00:37:56.780 --> 00:37:58.940 align:middle line:84%
The poets are coming
home to the cafes,

00:37:58.940 --> 00:38:01.160 align:middle line:84%
to the life of the
streets at twilight,

00:38:01.160 --> 00:38:04.040 align:middle line:84%
to slip among the crowds
and greet their friends.

00:38:04.040 --> 00:38:07.760 align:middle line:84%
These young poets,
old now, limping,

00:38:07.760 --> 00:38:11.780 align:middle line:84%
leaning on canes, or
the arm of a grandchild,

00:38:11.780 --> 00:38:15.590 align:middle line:84%
peer with opaque eyes at the
frightening city, the steel

00:38:15.590 --> 00:38:19.130 align:middle line:84%
and concrete towers sprung
up in their absence.

00:38:19.130 --> 00:38:24.260 align:middle line:84%
Yet from the open doorways comes
the odor of grapes fermented,

00:38:24.260 --> 00:38:28.850 align:middle line:90%
of fish, of oil, of pimiento.

00:38:28.850 --> 00:38:32.300 align:middle line:84%
The poets have come home to
the melodious language that

00:38:32.300 --> 00:38:36.530 align:middle line:84%
settles in their heads like
moths alighting, this language

00:38:36.530 --> 00:38:39.110 align:middle line:84%
for which they starved
in a world of gutturals,

00:38:39.110 --> 00:38:42.470 align:middle line:84%
crude monosyllables
barked by strangers.

00:38:42.470 --> 00:38:46.550 align:middle line:84%
Now their own language enfolds
them with its warm vocables.

00:38:46.550 --> 00:38:48.920 align:middle line:90%
The poets are home.

00:38:48.920 --> 00:38:52.310 align:middle line:84%
Yes, they have come
back to look up

00:38:52.310 --> 00:38:55.550 align:middle line:84%
at the yellow moon,
cousin of that cold orb

00:38:55.550 --> 00:38:58.340 align:middle line:84%
that only reflected
their isolation.

00:38:58.340 --> 00:39:01.280 align:middle line:84%
They've returned to
the olives, the light,

00:39:01.280 --> 00:39:05.180 align:middle line:84%
the sage-scented meadows,
the whitewashed steps,

00:39:05.180 --> 00:39:07.910 align:middle line:84%
the tubs of geranium,
the sere plains,

00:39:07.910 --> 00:39:10.220 align:middle line:84%
the riverbanks
spread with laundry,

00:39:10.220 --> 00:39:15.140 align:middle line:84%
the poppies, the vineyards,
the bones of mountains.

00:39:15.140 --> 00:39:20.570 align:middle line:84%
Yes, poets, welcome home
to your small country riven

00:39:20.570 --> 00:39:23.450 align:middle line:84%
by its little war,
as the world measures

00:39:23.450 --> 00:39:26.420 align:middle line:84%
these events, a
country that remembers

00:39:26.420 --> 00:39:29.540 align:middle line:84%
heroes and tears,
where in your absence,

00:39:29.540 --> 00:39:33.950 align:middle line:84%
souls kept themselves alive
by whispering your words.

00:39:33.950 --> 00:39:40.100 align:middle line:84%
Now you smile at everything,
even the priests, the militia,

00:39:40.100 --> 00:39:45.960 align:middle line:84%
the patient Earth that is
waiting to receive you.

00:39:45.960 --> 00:39:47.700 align:middle line:90%
Now I think we'll be funny.

00:39:47.700 --> 00:39:50.520 align:middle line:90%


00:39:50.520 --> 00:39:54.180 align:middle line:84%
Some friends of mine
were doing an anthology

00:39:54.180 --> 00:39:59.003 align:middle line:84%
on food and cooking
and kitchen and so on.

00:39:59.003 --> 00:40:00.420 align:middle line:84%
And they said, oh,
Carolyn, you're

00:40:00.420 --> 00:40:01.620 align:middle line:90%
so sensuous and wonderful.

00:40:01.620 --> 00:40:04.200 align:middle line:84%
And you must have a
terrific poem about food.

00:40:04.200 --> 00:40:06.450 align:middle line:90%
Yum, yum, gulp, gulp.

00:40:06.450 --> 00:40:08.130 align:middle line:90%
Well, I didn't.

00:40:08.130 --> 00:40:10.050 align:middle line:84%
And I looked at the
poems they had collected,

00:40:10.050 --> 00:40:13.050 align:middle line:84%
and they were all
wonderful and accomplished.

00:40:13.050 --> 00:40:17.010 align:middle line:84%
Every lady poet
was a great cook.

00:40:17.010 --> 00:40:19.125 align:middle line:84%
So I decided to write
a poem about failure.

00:40:19.125 --> 00:40:21.840 align:middle line:90%


00:40:21.840 --> 00:40:23.100 align:middle line:90%
And this is it.

00:40:23.100 --> 00:40:24.135 align:middle line:90%
It's called "Mud Soup."

00:40:24.135 --> 00:40:28.350 align:middle line:90%


00:40:28.350 --> 00:40:30.345 align:middle line:84%
It is written in the
meter of Hiawatha.

00:40:30.345 --> 00:40:34.510 align:middle line:90%


00:40:34.510 --> 00:40:38.740 align:middle line:84%
And this is sort of
like eating peanuts.

00:40:38.740 --> 00:40:42.130 align:middle line:84%
It's very hard to quit
once you get into it.

00:40:42.130 --> 00:40:43.240 align:middle line:90%
I will never do it again.

00:40:43.240 --> 00:40:45.610 align:middle line:84%
And I certainly had
never done it before.

00:40:45.610 --> 00:40:46.570 align:middle line:90%
"Mud Soup."

00:40:46.570 --> 00:40:49.840 align:middle line:84%
Had the ham bone, had the
lentils, got to meat store

00:40:49.840 --> 00:40:52.840 align:middle line:84%
for the salt pork, got to
grocery for the celery.

00:40:52.840 --> 00:40:55.780 align:middle line:84%
Had the onions, had the
garlic, borrowed carrots

00:40:55.780 --> 00:40:56.710 align:middle line:90%
from the neighbor.

00:40:56.710 --> 00:40:58.690 align:middle line:90%
Had the spices, had the parsley.

00:40:58.690 --> 00:41:02.290 align:middle line:84%
One big kettle I had not
got; borrowed pot and lid

00:41:02.290 --> 00:41:04.120 align:middle line:90%
from landlord.

00:41:04.120 --> 00:41:07.450 align:middle line:84%
Dice the pork and chop the
celery, chop the onions,

00:41:07.450 --> 00:41:12.760 align:middle line:84%
chop the carrots, chop
the tender index finger.

00:41:12.760 --> 00:41:15.490 align:middle line:84%
Put the kettle on the
burner, drop the lentils

00:41:15.490 --> 00:41:18.100 align:middle line:84%
into kettle; 2 quarts
water, 2 cups lentils.

00:41:18.100 --> 00:41:20.320 align:middle line:90%
Afternoon is wearing on.

00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:22.370 align:middle line:90%
Saute pork and add the veggies.

00:41:22.370 --> 00:41:23.980 align:middle line:90%
Add the garlic, cook 10 minutes.

00:41:23.980 --> 00:41:27.370 align:middle line:84%
Add to lentils, add two
ham bone, add the bayleaf,

00:41:27.370 --> 00:41:30.100 align:middle line:84%
cloves in cheesecloth,
add the cayenne.

00:41:30.100 --> 00:41:31.630 align:middle line:90%
Got no cayenne.

00:41:31.630 --> 00:41:34.000 align:middle line:90%
Got paprika, salt, and pepper.

00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:36.400 align:middle line:84%
Bring to boil,
reduce heat, simmer.

00:41:36.400 --> 00:41:39.070 align:middle line:90%
Did I say that this is summer?

00:41:39.070 --> 00:41:41.260 align:middle line:90%
Simmer, summer, summer, simmer.

00:41:41.260 --> 00:41:43.360 align:middle line:84%
Mop the floor and
suck the finger.

00:41:43.360 --> 00:41:46.660 align:middle line:90%
Mop the brow with old potholder.

00:41:46.660 --> 00:41:47.650 align:middle line:90%
Time is up.

00:41:47.650 --> 00:41:49.270 align:middle line:90%
Discard the cheesecloth.

00:41:49.270 --> 00:41:52.180 align:middle line:84%
Force the mixture through
the foodmill, having

00:41:52.180 --> 00:41:54.280 align:middle line:90%
first discarded ham bone.

00:41:54.280 --> 00:41:56.680 align:middle line:84%
Add the lean meat
from the ham bone.

00:41:56.680 --> 00:41:59.200 align:middle line:84%
Reheat soup and
chop the parsley.

00:41:59.200 --> 00:42:01.510 align:middle line:84%
Now that sweating
night has fallen,

00:42:01.510 --> 00:42:05.830 align:middle line:84%
try at last the
finished product.

00:42:05.830 --> 00:42:09.460 align:middle line:84%
Tastes like mud, the
finished product.

00:42:09.460 --> 00:42:12.580 align:middle line:84%
Looks like mud, the
finished product.

00:42:12.580 --> 00:42:14.920 align:middle line:90%
Consistency of mud for dinner.

00:42:14.920 --> 00:42:19.090 align:middle line:90%
Was it lentils, Claiborne, me?

00:42:19.090 --> 00:42:22.090 align:middle line:90%
Flush the dinner down disposal.

00:42:22.090 --> 00:42:25.300 align:middle line:84%
Say to hell with ham bone,
lentils, New York Times's

00:42:25.300 --> 00:42:26.410 align:middle line:90%
recipe.

00:42:26.410 --> 00:42:27.820 align:middle line:90%
Purchase Campbell's.

00:42:27.820 --> 00:42:30.370 align:middle line:90%
Just add water.

00:42:30.370 --> 00:42:32.170 align:middle line:90%
Concentrate on poetry.

00:42:32.170 --> 00:42:34.060 align:middle line:84%
By the shores of
Gitche Gumee, you

00:42:34.060 --> 00:42:37.330 align:middle line:84%
can bet the banks were muddy,
not like Isle of Innisfree.

00:42:37.330 --> 00:42:44.620 align:middle line:90%


00:42:44.620 --> 00:42:47.045 align:middle line:84%
In my copy of the New
York Times Cookbook,

00:42:47.045 --> 00:42:48.670 align:middle line:84%
that recipe is crossed
out, and there's

00:42:48.670 --> 00:42:51.820 align:middle line:90%
a skull and crossbones over it.

00:42:51.820 --> 00:42:55.060 align:middle line:84%
I sent a copy of the
poem to Craig Claiborne.

00:42:55.060 --> 00:42:58.670 align:middle line:84%
He didn't seem to think
it was terribly funny.

00:42:58.670 --> 00:43:02.880 align:middle line:84%
Well, you can't win
them all, right?

00:43:02.880 --> 00:43:04.910 align:middle line:84%
I suppose I should
do a little something

00:43:04.910 --> 00:43:08.180 align:middle line:84%
with this new book of mine,
which is terribly pretty.

00:43:08.180 --> 00:43:14.930 align:middle line:84%
And I would like people to buy
it if only to admire the cover,

00:43:14.930 --> 00:43:18.470 align:middle line:84%
but perhaps there're one or
two things in it that you

00:43:18.470 --> 00:43:19.700 align:middle line:90%
might find interesting.

00:43:19.700 --> 00:43:23.470 align:middle line:90%


00:43:23.470 --> 00:43:26.560 align:middle line:84%
It's a curious
melange of languages.

00:43:26.560 --> 00:43:29.200 align:middle line:90%


00:43:29.200 --> 00:43:31.720 align:middle line:84%
The people to whom
this book is dedicated

00:43:31.720 --> 00:43:35.050 align:middle line:84%
are Edmund Keeley, who
was the great translator

00:43:35.050 --> 00:43:38.800 align:middle line:84%
of modern Greek, Donald
Keene, who was the peerless

00:43:38.800 --> 00:43:42.130 align:middle line:84%
translator of Japanese,
and William Merwin, who

00:43:42.130 --> 00:43:45.790 align:middle line:84%
was the exquisite translator
of French and Spanish.

00:43:45.790 --> 00:43:51.430 align:middle line:84%
Now I translate
Macedonian, Urdu, Yiddish,

00:43:51.430 --> 00:43:52.630 align:middle line:90%
and French African.

00:43:52.630 --> 00:43:54.490 align:middle line:90%
Oh, yeah, some Chinese too.

00:43:54.490 --> 00:43:58.090 align:middle line:84%
Chinese really is my
strongest suit here.

00:43:58.090 --> 00:44:04.840 align:middle line:84%
But various people
including the dedicatees

00:44:04.840 --> 00:44:06.460 align:middle line:84%
suggested that they
would like to see

00:44:06.460 --> 00:44:08.450 align:middle line:84%
all of these translations
gathered together.

00:44:08.450 --> 00:44:13.360 align:middle line:84%
So it does make this rather
strange, strange book here.

00:44:13.360 --> 00:44:18.130 align:middle line:84%
Macedonian is the language
of the Macedonian Republic

00:44:18.130 --> 00:44:21.013 align:middle line:90%
of Yugoslavia.

00:44:21.013 --> 00:44:23.680 align:middle line:84%
Of course, there are Macedonians
on the other side of the border

00:44:23.680 --> 00:44:25.660 align:middle line:90%
too, in Greece.

00:44:25.660 --> 00:44:35.740 align:middle line:84%
But I spent several happy visits
at Lake Ohrid in Yugoslavia

00:44:35.740 --> 00:44:37.840 align:middle line:90%
at the Struga Poetry Festival.

00:44:37.840 --> 00:44:42.280 align:middle line:84%
And I became a close friend of
a poet named Bogomil Gjuzel.

00:44:42.280 --> 00:44:45.040 align:middle line:84%
I've always wanted to work
the name Bogomil in a poem,

00:44:45.040 --> 00:44:48.340 align:middle line:90%
and I will yet.

00:44:48.340 --> 00:44:52.120 align:middle line:84%
You all know, of course, about
the Bogomilian heresy, right?

00:44:52.120 --> 00:44:53.470 align:middle line:90%
I looked it up.

00:44:53.470 --> 00:44:59.700 align:middle line:84%
Anyway, of course, I
don't speak Macedonian

00:44:59.700 --> 00:45:03.960 align:middle line:84%
except to order plum
brandy, but Bogomil and I

00:45:03.960 --> 00:45:09.080 align:middle line:84%
translated his poetry together
and translated some other poets

00:45:09.080 --> 00:45:11.660 align:middle line:90%
who write in Macedonian.

00:45:11.660 --> 00:45:16.160 align:middle line:84%
I was intelligent enough
to make a tape of Bogomil

00:45:16.160 --> 00:45:19.940 align:middle line:90%
and me translating his poetry.

00:45:19.940 --> 00:45:24.700 align:middle line:84%
And this is a direct
quote from the tape.

00:45:24.700 --> 00:45:28.690 align:middle line:84%
Bogomil: do you
understand what I mean

00:45:28.690 --> 00:45:31.840 align:middle line:90%
by erection, upright penis?

00:45:31.840 --> 00:45:37.120 align:middle line:84%
Me: upright pennies, you mean
like when we were children

00:45:37.120 --> 00:45:38.680 align:middle line:84%
and put them on
the railroad tracks

00:45:38.680 --> 00:45:40.090 align:middle line:90%
so the train would flatten them?

00:45:40.090 --> 00:45:44.136 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:45:44.136 --> 00:45:46.800 align:middle line:90%
Bogomil: total consternation.

00:45:46.800 --> 00:45:49.020 align:middle line:90%
Me: total lack of communication.

00:45:49.020 --> 00:45:52.350 align:middle line:90%
Bogomil, no, full penis, cock.

00:45:52.350 --> 00:45:58.880 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:03.320 align:middle line:84%
So some of you, including my
current landlady, Jane Miller,

00:46:03.320 --> 00:46:05.870 align:middle line:84%
escaped from the Iowa
Writers' Workshop

00:46:05.870 --> 00:46:07.610 align:middle line:84%
although this, of
course, took place

00:46:07.610 --> 00:46:10.070 align:middle line:84%
in the International Writers'
Workshop, this poem, which

00:46:10.070 --> 00:46:14.420 align:middle line:84%
is called "Flood at the
International Writers'

00:46:14.420 --> 00:46:15.020 align:middle line:90%
Workshop."

00:46:15.020 --> 00:46:20.160 align:middle line:90%


00:46:20.160 --> 00:46:22.020 align:middle line:90%
Bogomil was born in 1934.

00:46:22.020 --> 00:46:26.263 align:middle line:84%
He is an eminent playwright
as well as poet in Yugoslavia.

00:46:26.263 --> 00:46:27.930 align:middle line:84%
One of my favorite
stories about Bogomil

00:46:27.930 --> 00:46:31.740 align:middle line:84%
is that he won the national
playwriting competition at one

00:46:31.740 --> 00:46:36.090 align:middle line:90%
point when Tito was in power.

00:46:36.090 --> 00:46:38.610 align:middle line:84%
And Bogomil told me
in great indignation

00:46:38.610 --> 00:46:41.070 align:middle line:84%
that they canceled the
production of his play.

00:46:41.070 --> 00:46:42.940 align:middle line:84%
And I said, well, what's
it about, Bogomil?

00:46:42.940 --> 00:46:44.398 align:middle line:84%
He said, well, the
curtain goes up,

00:46:44.398 --> 00:46:46.470 align:middle line:84%
and it's a setting like
the Garden of Eden.

00:46:46.470 --> 00:46:50.790 align:middle line:84%
And there is God who is naked,
who's sitting on a chamber pot

00:46:50.790 --> 00:46:52.050 align:middle line:90%
wearing a Tito mask.

00:46:52.050 --> 00:46:52.940 align:middle line:90%
And I said, oh--

00:46:52.940 --> 00:46:57.090 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:46:57.090 --> 00:47:02.010 align:middle line:84%
How incomprehensible of them
to cancel the performance.

00:47:02.010 --> 00:47:05.050 align:middle line:84%
But he couldn't see why they
didn't go ahead with it.

00:47:05.050 --> 00:47:06.780 align:middle line:90%
But anyway, they didn't.

00:47:06.780 --> 00:47:11.010 align:middle line:84%
"Flood at the International
Writers' Workshop."

00:47:11.010 --> 00:47:14.670 align:middle line:84%
I haven't been out of doors
for 31 days since the sky

00:47:14.670 --> 00:47:15.495 align:middle line:90%
started crying--

00:47:15.495 --> 00:47:22.480 align:middle line:84%
[AUDIO OUT] playwriting
competition at one

00:47:22.480 --> 00:47:26.770 align:middle line:90%
point when Tito was in power.

00:47:26.770 --> 00:47:29.230 align:middle line:84%
And Bogomil told me
in great indignation

00:47:29.230 --> 00:47:31.660 align:middle line:84%
that they canceled the
production of his play.

00:47:31.660 --> 00:47:33.500 align:middle line:84%
And I said, well, what's
it about, Bogomil?

00:47:33.500 --> 00:47:34.958 align:middle line:84%
He said, well, the
curtain goes up,

00:47:34.958 --> 00:47:36.970 align:middle line:84%
and it's a setting like
the Garden of Eden.

00:47:36.970 --> 00:47:41.200 align:middle line:84%
And there is God who is naked,
who's sitting on a chamber pot

00:47:41.200 --> 00:47:42.440 align:middle line:90%
wearing a Tito mask.

00:47:42.440 --> 00:47:43.300 align:middle line:90%
And I said, oh--

00:47:43.300 --> 00:47:47.410 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:47:47.410 --> 00:47:52.270 align:middle line:84%
How incomprehensible of them
to cancel the performance.

00:47:52.270 --> 00:47:55.250 align:middle line:84%
But he couldn't see why they
didn't go ahead with it.

00:47:55.250 --> 00:47:56.920 align:middle line:90%
But anyway, they didn't.

00:47:56.920 --> 00:48:01.090 align:middle line:84%
"Flood at the International
Writers' Workshop."

00:48:01.090 --> 00:48:04.720 align:middle line:84%
I haven't been out of doors
for 31 days since the sky

00:48:04.720 --> 00:48:06.070 align:middle line:90%
started crying.

00:48:06.070 --> 00:48:08.650 align:middle line:84%
By now, the Earth must
be a pair of pliers

00:48:08.650 --> 00:48:12.100 align:middle line:84%
with tatters of human
flesh stuck to its jaws.

00:48:12.100 --> 00:48:15.280 align:middle line:84%
I imagine myself on a
seesaw, balanced so lightly

00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:18.280 align:middle line:84%
that if even an atom fell
on it, let alone a bomb,

00:48:18.280 --> 00:48:22.210 align:middle line:84%
I would be hurled like a stone
from a catapult straight back

00:48:22.210 --> 00:48:25.210 align:middle line:90%
into the trap of Macedonia.

00:48:25.210 --> 00:48:28.450 align:middle line:84%
My people, are we
God's voracious eye

00:48:28.450 --> 00:48:31.120 align:middle line:84%
suspended in the air
like a traffic light,

00:48:31.120 --> 00:48:34.900 align:middle line:84%
which, as it blinks,
directs the flow of nations?

00:48:34.900 --> 00:48:37.870 align:middle line:84%
Right now, I'm only that
greedy eye of legend

00:48:37.870 --> 00:48:41.890 align:middle line:84%
which, on my side of the
scale, outweighs the world.

00:48:41.890 --> 00:48:45.250 align:middle line:84%
In the ark, our elevators
work erratically.

00:48:45.250 --> 00:48:48.340 align:middle line:84%
Every deck is bursting
with trapped livestock.

00:48:48.340 --> 00:48:51.760 align:middle line:84%
On the first floor, insects
have turned into neurons

00:48:51.760 --> 00:48:53.140 align:middle line:90%
without any owners.

00:48:53.140 --> 00:48:56.380 align:middle line:84%
On the second, saurians
form a mythic chain

00:48:56.380 --> 00:49:00.160 align:middle line:84%
to swallow each other, so they
will all disappear, but too

00:49:00.160 --> 00:49:02.590 align:middle line:84%
feeble to achieve
total consummation.

00:49:02.590 --> 00:49:07.000 align:middle line:84%
On the third floor, the mad
vegetarians roaring with hunger

00:49:07.000 --> 00:49:09.250 align:middle line:90%
lay waste the frigid airs.

00:49:09.250 --> 00:49:11.980 align:middle line:84%
On the fourth, the
carnivorous flowers

00:49:11.980 --> 00:49:14.500 align:middle line:90%
make plans to devour God.

00:49:14.500 --> 00:49:17.290 align:middle line:84%
On the fifth floor,
this lone Macedonian

00:49:17.290 --> 00:49:21.190 align:middle line:84%
mangled their language,
recreating Babel.

00:49:21.190 --> 00:49:23.440 align:middle line:84%
And every line that
occurs to me sinks

00:49:23.440 --> 00:49:27.580 align:middle line:84%
like a plummet when it should
splash about like a happy dog

00:49:27.580 --> 00:49:31.270 align:middle line:84%
and, like a dolphin, jump
through its trainer's hoop.

00:49:31.270 --> 00:49:34.630 align:middle line:84%
But I'm dense when it comes
to featherweight words.

00:49:34.630 --> 00:49:38.080 align:middle line:84%
The verb should be in a
state of constant erection,

00:49:38.080 --> 00:49:41.140 align:middle line:84%
in equal readiness
to strike or stroke.

00:49:41.140 --> 00:49:45.160 align:middle line:84%
The adjective stick to the noun
like a lizard catching flies.

00:49:45.160 --> 00:49:48.580 align:middle line:84%
And the noun should
swing both ways,

00:49:48.580 --> 00:49:52.270 align:middle line:84%
while the conjunctive
is a universal passkey.

00:49:52.270 --> 00:49:56.560 align:middle line:84%
So the sky sobs on like
an hysterical child,

00:49:56.560 --> 00:49:59.050 align:middle line:84%
like the she-dragons
of my legends.

00:49:59.050 --> 00:50:01.480 align:middle line:90%
The gutters gurgle and gargle.

00:50:01.480 --> 00:50:04.750 align:middle line:84%
The drain pipes are
subterranean Mississippis.

00:50:04.750 --> 00:50:08.860 align:middle line:84%
The words refuse to swallow us
any longer now we have set them

00:50:08.860 --> 00:50:10.810 align:middle line:90%
to quarreling among ourselves.

00:50:10.810 --> 00:50:14.080 align:middle line:84%
Trying to strangle each other,
they bite off their tongues.

00:50:14.080 --> 00:50:16.630 align:middle line:84%
They have burned to tell
us everything they know,

00:50:16.630 --> 00:50:21.650 align:middle line:84%
but being dumb now, drooling
idiots, speechlessly,

00:50:21.650 --> 00:50:25.510 align:middle line:90%
they copulate with rainbows.

00:50:25.510 --> 00:50:27.130 align:middle line:84%
I'll read one more
of Bogomil's poems.

00:50:27.130 --> 00:50:29.260 align:middle line:84%
This one is called
"My Sister's Letter."

00:50:29.260 --> 00:50:32.920 align:middle line:84%
When it was published, I had
to publish it under my name

00:50:32.920 --> 00:50:34.570 align:middle line:84%
saying that it was
after Bogomil Gjuzel

00:50:34.570 --> 00:50:37.780 align:middle line:84%
because it could have gotten
him into a great deal of trouble

00:50:37.780 --> 00:50:39.640 align:middle line:90%
at the time it was written.

00:50:39.640 --> 00:50:43.990 align:middle line:84%
But now, I can give it
its correct attribution.

00:50:43.990 --> 00:50:47.020 align:middle line:84%
It's called "My
Sister's Letter."

00:50:47.020 --> 00:50:49.120 align:middle line:90%
Your letter wrecked my day.

00:50:49.120 --> 00:50:52.720 align:middle line:84%
I read and reread it till the
words blurred into gibberish.

00:50:52.720 --> 00:50:54.730 align:middle line:84%
How can I be expected
to go on writing

00:50:54.730 --> 00:50:57.700 align:middle line:84%
when you refuse to explain
what happens at home?

00:50:57.700 --> 00:51:01.450 align:middle line:84%
We are separated by thousands
of miles of silence, hereto,

00:51:01.450 --> 00:51:03.610 align:middle line:90%
I'm imprisoned in ignorance.

00:51:03.610 --> 00:51:06.160 align:middle line:84%
I'm expected to put my
ear to this alien Earth

00:51:06.160 --> 00:51:07.960 align:middle line:84%
as we used to do as
children listening

00:51:07.960 --> 00:51:10.300 align:middle line:90%
for the tremor of unseen trains.

00:51:10.300 --> 00:51:13.360 align:middle line:84%
Haven't you learned by
now that even the ground

00:51:13.360 --> 00:51:15.490 align:middle line:90%
has learned how to dissemble?

00:51:15.490 --> 00:51:17.440 align:middle line:90%
No train arrives.

00:51:17.440 --> 00:51:19.690 align:middle line:90%
Only a false vibration.

00:51:19.690 --> 00:51:24.790 align:middle line:84%
The land has learned to
hold its breath, play dead.

00:51:24.790 --> 00:51:27.520 align:middle line:84%
Thanks very much
for your silence.

00:51:27.520 --> 00:51:29.620 align:middle line:90%
Now I'm utterly dismayed.

00:51:29.620 --> 00:51:32.710 align:middle line:84%
You go on spinning
sentences out of emptiness.

00:51:32.710 --> 00:51:35.950 align:middle line:84%
Are you trying to be
the poet instead of me?

00:51:35.950 --> 00:51:39.040 align:middle line:84%
Somehow, I managed
to survive the day.

00:51:39.040 --> 00:51:41.740 align:middle line:90%
I've had practice staying alive.

00:51:41.740 --> 00:51:43.750 align:middle line:90%
What choice do we have?

00:51:43.750 --> 00:51:47.500 align:middle line:84%
Deep into sleep, swamped
by a sea of nightmares.

00:51:47.500 --> 00:51:50.200 align:middle line:84%
A voice I thought was yours
awakened me screaming, help,

00:51:50.200 --> 00:51:51.370 align:middle line:90%
help.

00:51:51.370 --> 00:51:53.590 align:middle line:84%
Having fallen on the
bed without undressing,

00:51:53.590 --> 00:51:56.800 align:middle line:84%
I could have rushed down into
the lobby, aroused the desk

00:51:56.800 --> 00:51:58.450 align:middle line:90%
clerk to call the police.

00:51:58.450 --> 00:52:01.480 align:middle line:84%
But who would have
believed me, phantom victim

00:52:01.480 --> 00:52:03.580 align:middle line:90%
of a phantom cry?

00:52:03.580 --> 00:52:08.110 align:middle line:84%
Help, once again, and
then the voice broke off.

00:52:08.110 --> 00:52:11.110 align:middle line:84%
Thoughtfully, I
put on my pajamas.

00:52:11.110 --> 00:52:13.270 align:middle line:90%
Why does any of it matter?

00:52:13.270 --> 00:52:18.610 align:middle line:84%
Even the dead still cry out in
their sleep, protest injustice,

00:52:18.610 --> 00:52:22.150 align:middle line:84%
screaming from the
grave for vindication.

00:52:22.150 --> 00:52:26.380 align:middle line:84%
Still persecuted by the living
survivors who defame them,

00:52:26.380 --> 00:52:32.640 align:middle line:84%
who conspire to pretend we
are all deaf to the dead.

00:52:32.640 --> 00:52:35.970 align:middle line:84%
But at least they don't
send me empty letters

00:52:35.970 --> 00:52:39.150 align:middle line:84%
so that I tremble with
all they fail to say.

00:52:39.150 --> 00:52:41.930 align:middle line:90%


00:52:41.930 --> 00:52:45.140 align:middle line:84%
I'd like to read a poem
now by Rachel Korn.

00:52:45.140 --> 00:52:46.265 align:middle line:90%
This is from the Yiddish.

00:52:46.265 --> 00:52:50.140 align:middle line:90%


00:52:50.140 --> 00:52:55.570 align:middle line:84%
A book of Yiddish poetry was
commissioned by Irving Howe.

00:52:55.570 --> 00:52:59.140 align:middle line:84%
And we were sent literal
translations of the poems,

00:52:59.140 --> 00:53:03.490 align:middle line:84%
very careful ones, and tape
recordings of the poets

00:53:03.490 --> 00:53:05.140 align:middle line:84%
reading the poems
so that we could

00:53:05.140 --> 00:53:08.390 align:middle line:84%
hear the rhythms and
the rhymes and so on.

00:53:08.390 --> 00:53:12.340 align:middle line:84%
And then what we did with them
were carefully checked and sent

00:53:12.340 --> 00:53:14.470 align:middle line:90%
back.

00:53:14.470 --> 00:53:18.250 align:middle line:84%
I then read at the
YMHA with Rachel Korn

00:53:18.250 --> 00:53:21.340 align:middle line:84%
and another group of Yiddish
writers, all of them very old.

00:53:21.340 --> 00:53:24.070 align:middle line:90%


00:53:24.070 --> 00:53:28.180 align:middle line:84%
And after the terrible
background of the Holocaust

00:53:28.180 --> 00:53:32.850 align:middle line:84%
from which these few
emerged, I expected

00:53:32.850 --> 00:53:37.810 align:middle line:84%
to see a group of crumbling
and broken men and women.

00:53:37.810 --> 00:53:40.870 align:middle line:84%
So I dressed down for the
occasion, as they say.

00:53:40.870 --> 00:53:46.300 align:middle line:84%
What a joy then to be instantly
eclipsed by Mrs. Korn,

00:53:46.300 --> 00:53:48.970 align:middle line:84%
an erect and handsome
woman in a glittering gold

00:53:48.970 --> 00:53:50.215 align:middle line:90%
dress with sable cuffs.

00:53:50.215 --> 00:53:56.630 align:middle line:90%


00:53:56.630 --> 00:53:59.440 align:middle line:84%
This poem is called
"Keep Hidden From Me."

00:53:59.440 --> 00:54:02.590 align:middle line:84%
The best poems in this
anthology have been translated.

00:54:02.590 --> 00:54:05.260 align:middle line:84%
I mean the best translations in
this book are by Adrienne Rich,

00:54:05.260 --> 00:54:09.470 align:middle line:84%
I might say, in case any of
you are interested in it.

00:54:09.470 --> 00:54:11.890 align:middle line:90%
This is in couplets.

00:54:11.890 --> 00:54:14.740 align:middle line:84%
Keep hidden from me all
that I might comprehend.

00:54:14.740 --> 00:54:18.700 align:middle line:84%
Oh God, I ripen towards
you in my unknowing.

00:54:18.700 --> 00:54:22.360 align:middle line:84%
The barely burgeoning leaf
on the roadside tree limns

00:54:22.360 --> 00:54:25.630 align:middle line:84%
innocence; here endeth
the first lesson.

00:54:25.630 --> 00:54:28.360 align:middle line:84%
Keep from me, God, all
forms of certainty,

00:54:28.360 --> 00:54:31.510 align:middle line:84%
the steady tread that paces
off the self and forms it,

00:54:31.510 --> 00:54:34.240 align:middle line:84%
seamless, ignorant
of doubt of failure,

00:54:34.240 --> 00:54:36.770 align:middle line:90%
hell-bent for fulfillment.

00:54:36.770 --> 00:54:41.540 align:middle line:84%
To know myself, is that
not the supreme disaster?

00:54:41.540 --> 00:54:45.770 align:middle line:84%
To know Thee, one must
sink on trembling knees.

00:54:45.770 --> 00:54:50.870 align:middle line:84%
To hear Thee, only terrified
heart may truly listen.

00:54:50.870 --> 00:54:57.180 align:middle line:84%
To see Thee, only the gaze
half blind with dread.

00:54:57.180 --> 00:54:59.550 align:middle line:84%
Though the day darken,
preserve my memory

00:54:59.550 --> 00:55:01.980 align:middle line:90%
from your bright oblivion.

00:55:01.980 --> 00:55:05.250 align:middle line:90%
Erase not my faulty traces.

00:55:05.250 --> 00:55:09.960 align:middle line:84%
If I aspire again to make
four poor walls my house,

00:55:09.960 --> 00:55:14.410 align:middle line:84%
let me pillow myself on the
book of my peregrinations.

00:55:14.410 --> 00:55:16.950 align:middle line:84%
God, give me
strength to give over

00:55:16.950 --> 00:55:22.080 align:middle line:84%
false happiness and the sense
that suffering has earned us

00:55:22.080 --> 00:55:24.060 align:middle line:90%
your regard.

00:55:24.060 --> 00:55:25.380 align:middle line:90%
Elohim.

00:55:25.380 --> 00:55:28.200 align:middle line:84%
Though sorrow fill
me to the brim,

00:55:28.200 --> 00:55:32.775 align:middle line:84%
let me carefully bear the
cup of myself to Thee.

00:55:32.775 --> 00:55:36.070 align:middle line:90%


00:55:36.070 --> 00:55:38.963 align:middle line:84%
And lately, I've been
translating a young woman who

00:55:38.963 --> 00:55:40.630 align:middle line:84%
is younger than my
youngest child, which

00:55:40.630 --> 00:55:42.460 align:middle line:90%
is sort of bizarre feeling.

00:55:42.460 --> 00:55:43.630 align:middle line:90%
Her name is Shu Ting.

00:55:43.630 --> 00:55:46.150 align:middle line:84%
She's a very popular
poet in China,

00:55:46.150 --> 00:55:49.480 align:middle line:84%
and she's very funny
and witty and charming.

00:55:49.480 --> 00:55:52.600 align:middle line:84%
She's very plain with heavy
glasses and buck teeth,

00:55:52.600 --> 00:55:54.580 align:middle line:84%
but she's absolute
such a charmer

00:55:54.580 --> 00:55:56.080 align:middle line:84%
that you forget it
after you've been

00:55:56.080 --> 00:55:59.220 align:middle line:90%
with her for a few moments.

00:55:59.220 --> 00:56:04.410 align:middle line:84%
And I would like to read a
couple of her poems to you.

00:56:04.410 --> 00:56:07.430 align:middle line:90%
They're short.

00:56:07.430 --> 00:56:08.720 align:middle line:90%
"Bits of Reminiscence."

00:56:08.720 --> 00:56:11.870 align:middle line:90%


00:56:11.870 --> 00:56:14.810 align:middle line:84%
She belongs to what's called
the Misty school of poetry.

00:56:14.810 --> 00:56:19.610 align:middle line:84%
Mistiness evolved as
a way of disguising

00:56:19.610 --> 00:56:23.900 align:middle line:84%
what you said so that you
didn't get sent to prison

00:56:23.900 --> 00:56:32.390 align:middle line:84%
or sent off to farm manure
4,000 miles from home and so on.

00:56:32.390 --> 00:56:34.610 align:middle line:84%
Things are getting a little
less misty now, I guess.

00:56:34.610 --> 00:56:37.850 align:middle line:84%
She and a poet named Bei Dao
are the two most eminent poets

00:56:37.850 --> 00:56:40.480 align:middle line:84%
of their generation, even though
at this point she's only 35.

00:56:40.480 --> 00:56:43.640 align:middle line:90%


00:56:43.640 --> 00:56:45.200 align:middle line:90%
"Bits of Reminiscence."

00:56:45.200 --> 00:56:49.520 align:middle line:84%
A toppled wine cup, a stone
path floating beneath the moon

00:56:49.520 --> 00:56:51.440 align:middle line:90%
where the grass was trampled.

00:56:51.440 --> 00:56:55.100 align:middle line:84%
One azalea branch
left lying there.

00:56:55.100 --> 00:56:58.790 align:middle line:84%
Eucalyptus trees begin to
spin in a collage of stars

00:56:58.790 --> 00:57:02.060 align:middle line:84%
as I sit on the rested
anchor, the dizzy sky

00:57:02.060 --> 00:57:04.650 align:middle line:90%
reflected in my eyes.

00:57:04.650 --> 00:57:09.300 align:middle line:84%
A book held up to shut out
candle light, fingers lightly

00:57:09.300 --> 00:57:11.310 align:middle line:90%
in your mouth.

00:57:11.310 --> 00:57:16.710 align:middle line:84%
In the fragile cup of silence,
a dream, half illuminated,

00:57:16.710 --> 00:57:17.550 align:middle line:90%
half obscure.

00:57:17.550 --> 00:57:22.590 align:middle line:90%


00:57:22.590 --> 00:57:24.870 align:middle line:90%
This is called "Missing You."

00:57:24.870 --> 00:57:27.510 align:middle line:84%
A multicolored chart
without a boundary.

00:57:27.510 --> 00:57:31.350 align:middle line:84%
An equation chalked on the
board with no solution.

00:57:31.350 --> 00:57:35.160 align:middle line:84%
A one stringed lyre that
tells the beads of rain.

00:57:35.160 --> 00:57:39.180 align:middle line:84%
A pair of useless oars that
never crossed the water.

00:57:39.180 --> 00:57:42.420 align:middle line:84%
Waiting buds in
suspended animation.

00:57:42.420 --> 00:57:45.360 align:middle line:84%
The setting sun is
watching from a distance.

00:57:45.360 --> 00:57:50.700 align:middle line:84%
Though in my mind there may be
an enormous ocean, what emerges

00:57:50.700 --> 00:57:54.660 align:middle line:90%
is the sum; a pair of tears.

00:57:54.660 --> 00:58:01.545 align:middle line:84%
Yes, from these vistas, from
these depths, only this.

00:58:01.545 --> 00:58:08.310 align:middle line:90%


00:58:08.310 --> 00:58:12.000 align:middle line:84%
And I will close now with a poem
that hasn't been published yet.

00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:19.312 align:middle line:90%


00:58:19.312 --> 00:58:20.520 align:middle line:90%
It's called "Twelve O'clock."

00:58:20.520 --> 00:58:24.410 align:middle line:90%


00:58:24.410 --> 00:58:27.650 align:middle line:84%
At 17, I've come to read
a poem at Princeton.

00:58:27.650 --> 00:58:30.020 align:middle line:84%
Now my young hosts
inquire if I would like

00:58:30.020 --> 00:58:32.880 align:middle line:90%
to meet Professor Einstein.

00:58:32.880 --> 00:58:36.030 align:middle line:84%
But I'm too conscious I have
nothing to say to interest him.

00:58:36.030 --> 00:58:39.390 align:middle line:84%
The genius fled from
Germany just in time.

00:58:39.390 --> 00:58:41.655 align:middle line:84%
Just tell me where I can
look at him, I reply.

00:58:41.655 --> 00:58:44.990 align:middle line:90%


00:58:44.990 --> 00:58:47.670 align:middle line:90%
Mother had scientific training.

00:58:47.670 --> 00:58:49.010 align:middle line:90%
I did not.

00:58:49.010 --> 00:58:51.980 align:middle line:84%
She loved that line of
Meredith's about the army

00:58:51.980 --> 00:58:54.800 align:middle line:90%
of unalterable law.

00:58:54.800 --> 00:58:56.870 align:middle line:84%
God was made manifest
to her in what

00:58:56.870 --> 00:59:00.600 align:middle line:84%
she saw as the supreme
order of the skies.

00:59:00.600 --> 00:59:03.320 align:middle line:84%
We lay in the meadow
side by side, long summer

00:59:03.320 --> 00:59:07.160 align:middle line:84%
nights as she named
the stars with awe.

00:59:07.160 --> 00:59:10.490 align:middle line:84%
But I saw nothing that was
rank on rank, heard nothing

00:59:10.490 --> 00:59:12.570 align:middle line:90%
of the music of the spheres.

00:59:12.570 --> 00:59:16.700 align:middle line:84%
But in the bliss of meadow
silences, lying on insects

00:59:16.700 --> 00:59:20.870 align:middle line:84%
we had mashed without
intent, found overhead

00:59:20.870 --> 00:59:27.300 align:middle line:84%
a beautiful and terrifying
mess, especially in August

00:59:27.300 --> 00:59:31.020 align:middle line:84%
when the meteors whizzed
and zoomed, echoed in little

00:59:31.020 --> 00:59:33.480 align:middle line:90%
by the fireflies in the grass.

00:59:33.480 --> 00:59:37.020 align:middle line:84%
Although, small hypocrite,
I was seeming to assent,

00:59:37.020 --> 00:59:40.440 align:middle line:84%
I was dead certain that
uncertainty governed

00:59:40.440 --> 00:59:46.410 align:middle line:84%
the universe and everything else
including mother's temperament.

00:59:46.410 --> 00:59:48.480 align:middle line:84%
A few years earlier,
when I was four,

00:59:48.480 --> 00:59:52.170 align:middle line:84%
Mother and Father hushed
before the Atwater Kent

00:59:52.170 --> 00:59:55.500 align:middle line:84%
as a small voice making ugly
noises through the static

00:59:55.500 --> 01:00:00.540 align:middle line:84%
spoke from the grille,
church window-shaped to them.

01:00:00.540 --> 01:00:03.510 align:middle line:84%
Listen, Darling,
and remember always;

01:00:03.510 --> 01:00:08.370 align:middle line:84%
it's Dr. Einstein
broadcasting from Switzerland.

01:00:08.370 --> 01:00:11.220 align:middle line:90%
I said, so what?

01:00:11.220 --> 01:00:15.240 align:middle line:84%
This was repeated as a
witticism by my doting parents.

01:00:15.240 --> 01:00:17.910 align:middle line:90%
I was dumb and mortified.

01:00:17.910 --> 01:00:20.820 align:middle line:84%
So now when I'm asked if I
would like to speak to Einstein,

01:00:20.820 --> 01:00:23.580 align:middle line:84%
I say I only want
to look at him.

01:00:23.580 --> 01:00:25.710 align:middle line:84%
Each day in the
library, right at 12:00,

01:00:25.710 --> 01:00:27.540 align:middle line:90%
Einstein comes out for lunch.

01:00:27.540 --> 01:00:29.850 align:middle line:90%
So I am posted.

01:00:29.850 --> 01:00:34.710 align:middle line:84%
At the precise stroke of noon,
the sun sends one clear ray

01:00:34.710 --> 01:00:40.650 align:middle line:84%
into the center aisle, he just
appears, baggy-kneed, sockless,

01:00:40.650 --> 01:00:44.370 align:middle line:84%
slippered, with the famous
raveling gray sweater,

01:00:44.370 --> 01:00:47.490 align:middle line:84%
clutching a jumble of papers
in one hand, and in the other,

01:00:47.490 --> 01:00:49.770 align:middle line:90%
his brown sack of sandwiches.

01:00:49.770 --> 01:00:52.380 align:middle line:90%
The ray halos his head.

01:00:52.380 --> 01:00:54.810 align:middle line:90%
Blake's vision of God.

01:00:54.810 --> 01:00:58.980 align:middle line:84%
Unmuscular, serene, except
for the electric hair.

01:00:58.980 --> 01:01:02.350 align:middle line:84%
In that flicker of a
second, our smiles meet,

01:01:02.350 --> 01:01:07.890 align:middle line:84%
vast genius and vast
ignorance conjoined.

01:01:07.890 --> 01:01:12.150 align:middle line:84%
He fixed, I fluid, in a
complicit yet impersonal

01:01:12.150 --> 01:01:13.230 align:middle line:90%
interest.

01:01:13.230 --> 01:01:18.180 align:middle line:84%
He dematerialized,
and I left, content.

01:01:18.180 --> 01:01:21.690 align:middle line:84%
It was December
6th, exactly when,

01:01:21.690 --> 01:01:24.030 align:middle line:84%
just hours before
the Japanese attack

01:01:24.030 --> 01:01:26.970 align:middle line:84%
the Office of
Scientific R & D began

01:01:26.970 --> 01:01:31.680 align:middle line:84%
its hugely expanded program of
research into nuclear weaponry,

01:01:31.680 --> 01:01:35.370 align:middle line:84%
racing the Germans who,
they feared, were far ahead.

01:01:35.370 --> 01:01:38.730 align:middle line:90%
In fact, they weren't.

01:01:38.730 --> 01:01:42.900 align:middle line:84%
Next night, the coach to
school, the train express.

01:01:42.900 --> 01:01:45.510 align:middle line:84%
Instead, pulls
into every hamlet.

01:01:45.510 --> 01:01:49.680 align:middle line:84%
Grim young men swarm the
platforms going to enlist.

01:01:49.680 --> 01:01:54.000 align:middle line:84%
I see their faces in the sallow
light as the train jolts,

01:01:54.000 --> 01:01:58.050 align:middle line:84%
then starts up again,
reaching Penn Station hours

01:01:58.050 --> 01:02:00.540 align:middle line:90%
after midnight.

01:02:00.540 --> 01:02:05.370 align:middle line:84%
At dinner in New York in '44,
I hear the name of Heisenberg.

01:02:05.370 --> 01:02:08.010 align:middle line:84%
Someone remarked, I
wonder where he is.

01:02:08.010 --> 01:02:13.380 align:middle line:84%
The most dangerous man alive,
I hope we get to him in time.

01:02:13.380 --> 01:02:18.050 align:middle line:90%
Heisenberg, I kept the name.

01:02:18.050 --> 01:02:23.210 align:middle line:84%
Were the Germans still or
the Russians yet a threat?

01:02:23.210 --> 01:02:26.750 align:middle line:84%
Uncertainty, but I felt
a thrill of apprehension.

01:02:26.750 --> 01:02:29.910 align:middle line:90%
Genius struck again.

01:02:29.910 --> 01:02:31.340 align:middle line:90%
It is the stroke of 12:00.

01:02:31.340 --> 01:02:36.200 align:middle line:84%
And I suppose the ray that
halos Einstein halos me.

01:02:36.200 --> 01:02:40.550 align:middle line:84%
White blond hair to my
waist, almost six feet tall

01:02:40.550 --> 01:02:43.520 align:middle line:90%
in my best and only suit.

01:02:43.520 --> 01:02:45.050 align:middle line:90%
Why cavil ?

01:02:45.050 --> 01:02:47.060 align:middle line:90%
I am beautiful.

01:02:47.060 --> 01:02:48.500 align:middle line:90%
We smile.

01:02:48.500 --> 01:02:50.180 align:middle line:84%
But it's taken me
all these years

01:02:50.180 --> 01:02:54.280 align:middle line:84%
to realize that when I looked
at Einstein, he saw me.

01:02:54.280 --> 01:02:56.710 align:middle line:84%
At last that May when
Germany collapsed,

01:02:56.710 --> 01:02:59.240 align:middle line:84%
the British kidnapped
Heisenberg from France,

01:02:59.240 --> 01:03:01.930 align:middle line:84%
where he and colleagues sat
in a special transit camp

01:03:01.930 --> 01:03:06.730 align:middle line:84%
named DUSTBIN to save them
from a threat they never knew.

01:03:06.730 --> 01:03:09.490 align:middle line:84%
A mad American general
thought to solve

01:03:09.490 --> 01:03:14.140 align:middle line:84%
the post-war nuclear problem
by having them all shot.

01:03:14.140 --> 01:03:17.800 align:middle line:84%
Some boys in pristine
uniforms crowd the car.

01:03:17.800 --> 01:03:21.250 align:middle line:84%
West Pointers fleeing
from a weekend dance.

01:03:21.250 --> 01:03:25.120 align:middle line:84%
Youth's ambiguities
resolved in a single action.

01:03:25.120 --> 01:03:28.960 align:middle line:84%
I still see their faces in
the yellow light as the train

01:03:28.960 --> 01:03:31.810 align:middle line:90%
jolts, then starts up again.

01:03:31.810 --> 01:03:36.790 align:middle line:84%
So many destined
never to be men.

01:03:36.790 --> 01:03:38.830 align:middle line:84%
In Cambridge, the
Germans visited

01:03:38.830 --> 01:03:41.410 align:middle line:90%
old friends kept apart by war.

01:03:41.410 --> 01:03:46.510 align:middle line:84%
Austrian, English, Danes, and
a happy reunion at Farm Hill,

01:03:46.510 --> 01:03:52.870 align:middle line:84%
but then the giant fist
struck in the still center

01:03:52.870 --> 01:03:55.210 align:middle line:90%
of chaos, noise.

01:03:55.210 --> 01:03:59.620 align:middle line:84%
Unimaginable, we thought
we heard the awful cry

01:03:59.620 --> 01:04:05.150 align:middle line:90%
of God, Hiroshima.

01:04:05.150 --> 01:04:08.690 align:middle line:84%
Heisenberg, at first,
refused to believe it

01:04:08.690 --> 01:04:11.150 align:middle line:84%
till the evening news confirmed
that their work had led

01:04:11.150 --> 01:04:14.990 align:middle line:90%
to Hiroshima's 100,000 dead.

01:04:14.990 --> 01:04:16.820 align:middle line:84%
Worst hit of us all,
said Heisenberg,

01:04:16.820 --> 01:04:20.150 align:middle line:84%
was Otto Hahn, who
discovered uranium fission.

01:04:20.150 --> 01:04:21.770 align:middle line:84%
Hahn withdrew to
his room, and we

01:04:21.770 --> 01:04:25.910 align:middle line:84%
feared that he might
do himself some harm.

01:04:25.910 --> 01:04:28.670 align:middle line:84%
It is exactly noon,
and Dr. Einstein

01:04:28.670 --> 01:04:30.860 align:middle line:84%
is an ancient
drawing of the sun,

01:04:30.860 --> 01:04:33.620 align:middle line:84%
simple as a saint
emerging from his cell,

01:04:33.620 --> 01:04:35.540 align:middle line:90%
dazed by his own light.

01:04:35.540 --> 01:04:40.730 align:middle line:84%
I think of Giotto, Chaucer, all
good and moral medieval men,

01:04:40.730 --> 01:04:46.020 align:middle line:84%
in yet removed from
their historic time.

01:04:46.020 --> 01:04:47.850 align:middle line:84%
The week before we
heard of Heisenberg,

01:04:47.850 --> 01:04:50.850 align:middle line:84%
my parents and I are chatting
on the train from Washington.

01:04:50.850 --> 01:04:54.210 align:middle line:84%
A gray-haired, handsome man
listens with open interest,

01:04:54.210 --> 01:04:56.410 align:middle line:84%
then inquires if
he might join us.

01:04:56.410 --> 01:04:59.160 align:middle line:84%
We were such a
fascinating family.

01:04:59.160 --> 01:05:03.000 align:middle line:90%
Oh yes, we chorus, sit with us.

01:05:03.000 --> 01:05:05.760 align:middle line:84%
Penn Station near at
hand, we asked his name.

01:05:05.760 --> 01:05:10.550 align:middle line:84%
E. O. Lawrence, he replied,
and produced his card.

01:05:10.550 --> 01:05:14.840 align:middle line:84%
I'd never heard of him,
but on an impulse asked,

01:05:14.840 --> 01:05:18.530 align:middle line:84%
what is all this about the
harnessing of the sun's rays?

01:05:18.530 --> 01:05:20.840 align:middle line:90%
Should we be frightened?

01:05:20.840 --> 01:05:26.310 align:middle line:84%
He smiled, my dear,
there's nothing in it.

01:05:26.310 --> 01:05:31.040 align:middle line:84%
So reassured, we said
goodbyes, and spoke of him

01:05:31.040 --> 01:05:34.520 align:middle line:84%
in coming years,
that lovely man.

01:05:34.520 --> 01:05:37.160 align:middle line:84%
Of course, we found
out who he was

01:05:37.160 --> 01:05:41.870 align:middle line:84%
and what he did, at least as
much as we could comprehend.

01:05:41.870 --> 01:05:44.060 align:middle line:84%
Now I am living in
the Berkeley Hills

01:05:44.060 --> 01:05:46.820 align:middle line:84%
in walking distance
of the Lawrence lab.

01:05:46.820 --> 01:05:49.490 align:middle line:84%
Here where Dr. Lawrence
built a cyclotron,

01:05:49.490 --> 01:05:53.450 align:middle line:84%
it's noon, the
anniversary of Hiroshima.

01:05:53.450 --> 01:05:56.120 align:middle line:84%
Everywhere all over
Japan and Germany,

01:05:56.120 --> 01:05:58.220 align:middle line:90%
people are lighting candles.

01:05:58.220 --> 01:06:02.150 align:middle line:84%
It's dark in Germany and
Japan on different days,

01:06:02.150 --> 01:06:06.920 align:middle line:84%
but here in Berkeley
it is 12 o'clock.

01:06:06.920 --> 01:06:11.630 align:middle line:84%
I stand in the center of
the library, and he appears.

01:06:11.630 --> 01:06:15.350 align:middle line:90%
Are we witnesses or actors?

01:06:15.350 --> 01:06:19.760 align:middle line:84%
The old man and the girl
smiling at one another.

01:06:19.760 --> 01:06:21.740 align:middle line:90%
He fixed by fame.

01:06:21.740 --> 01:06:24.980 align:middle line:84%
She fluid, still
without identity.

01:06:24.980 --> 01:06:31.860 align:middle line:84%
An instant which changes
nothing and everything forever.

01:06:31.860 --> 01:06:35.860 align:middle line:90%
Everything is changed.

01:06:35.860 --> 01:06:37.060 align:middle line:90%
Thank you very much.

01:06:37.060 --> 01:06:38.910 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

01:06:38.910 --> 01:06:49.000 align:middle line:90%