WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.410 align:middle line:84% The first poems, so the poems that he wrote-- 00:00:03.410 --> 00:00:06.770 align:middle line:84% first poems that he wrote in the United States are-- 00:00:06.770 --> 00:00:09.590 align:middle line:90% 00:00:09.590 --> 00:00:11.360 align:middle line:90% you can tell that his-- 00:00:11.360 --> 00:00:13.670 align:middle line:84% first of all, he's learning this new place 00:00:13.670 --> 00:00:17.810 align:middle line:84% but that his imagination is still in Europe. 00:00:17.810 --> 00:00:27.600 align:middle line:84% And this poem is called "Two Men in Rome." 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:30.210 align:middle line:84% I should say that all of these poems 00:00:30.210 --> 00:00:32.759 align:middle line:84% are the poems he wrote during this period. 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:34.380 align:middle line:90% They're all metrical. 00:00:34.380 --> 00:00:36.390 align:middle line:90% They're all rhymed. 00:00:36.390 --> 00:00:40.020 align:middle line:84% One of the reasons he didn't want to translate them 00:00:40.020 --> 00:00:43.500 align:middle line:84% was because they were all rhymed. 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:50.070 align:middle line:84% And we would work it, work at his poems that rhymed 00:00:50.070 --> 00:00:53.340 align:middle line:84% and try something, and he wanted them 00:00:53.340 --> 00:00:57.210 align:middle line:84% to rhyme if they rhymed in Polish but he 00:00:57.210 --> 00:00:59.880 align:middle line:84% didn't want them to say one thing that they 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:01.980 align:middle line:90% didn't say in Polish. 00:01:01.980 --> 00:01:04.379 align:middle line:84% I've told this story many times, but there's 00:01:04.379 --> 00:01:09.930 align:middle line:84% a poem of his from the war years in which a mother is telling 00:01:09.930 --> 00:01:12.990 align:middle line:84% children a good night story called "Parable of a Poppy 00:01:12.990 --> 00:01:18.500 align:middle line:84% Seed," and the poem goes roughly on a seed of poppy there's 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:22.580 align:middle line:84% a little house inside it or people and a cat 00:01:22.580 --> 00:01:25.730 align:middle line:84% outside in the yard, a dog who doesn't 00:01:25.730 --> 00:01:29.240 align:middle line:84% know he's on a poppy seed barks at the moon. 00:01:29.240 --> 00:01:34.280 align:middle line:84% But the model for that was William Blake's Songs 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:36.740 align:middle line:84% of Innocence, which he was translating. 00:01:36.740 --> 00:01:43.710 align:middle line:84% So he wanted it in the rhythm of a child's song, 00:01:43.710 --> 00:01:46.330 align:middle line:90% and he wanted it to rhyme. 00:01:46.330 --> 00:01:49.600 align:middle line:90% So what we did, what I did was, 00:01:49.600 --> 00:01:52.810 align:middle line:84% On a seed of poppy is a tiny house. 00:01:52.810 --> 00:01:57.250 align:middle line:84% Inside it are people, a cat, and a mouse. 00:01:57.250 --> 00:02:02.650 align:middle line:84% Outside, in the yard, a dog barks at the moon. 00:02:02.650 --> 00:02:07.210 align:middle line:84% And then in his one world sleeps until noon. 00:02:07.210 --> 00:02:11.080 align:middle line:84% The Earth is a poppy seed and nothing more 00:02:11.080 --> 00:02:14.050 align:middle line:84% And that seed's a planet, and that seed's a star. 00:02:14.050 --> 00:02:16.390 align:middle line:90% And even if there were 100,000, 00:02:16.390 --> 00:02:19.060 align:middle line:84% Each would contain a house and a garden. 00:02:19.060 --> 00:02:23.080 align:middle line:84% All in a poppy head they grow taller than hay. 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:27.220 align:middle line:84% The children run through and the poppy plants sway. 00:02:27.220 --> 00:02:30.970 align:middle line:84% And in the night when the moon is aloft, 00:02:30.970 --> 00:02:36.730 align:middle line:84% You hear the dogs barking, first loud then soft. 00:02:36.730 --> 00:02:40.420 align:middle line:90% And I thought, did I nail it? 00:02:40.420 --> 00:02:42.640 align:middle line:90% I nailed it. 00:02:42.640 --> 00:02:46.960 align:middle line:90% And he said, mouse? 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:49.630 align:middle line:90% There is no mouse in my poem. 00:02:49.630 --> 00:02:53.410 align:middle line:84% And what kind of idiot doesn't know that poppy seeds are 00:02:53.410 --> 00:02:54.415 align:middle line:90% taller than hay? 00:02:54.415 --> 00:02:58.570 align:middle line:90% 00:02:58.570 --> 00:03:03.240 align:middle line:84% So I didn't even try with these poems.