WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.100 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.100 --> 00:00:05.940 align:middle line:84% So the next-- the other poem of the only two 00:00:05.940 --> 00:00:08.039 align:middle line:84% he wrote in that year, when he was 00:00:08.039 --> 00:00:11.280 align:middle line:90% settling into this new thing. 00:00:11.280 --> 00:00:14.310 align:middle line:84% He was translating American poetry. 00:00:14.310 --> 00:00:20.280 align:middle line:84% Beginning to travel, he went to New Hampshire 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:22.400 align:middle line:90% and met Robert Frost. 00:00:22.400 --> 00:00:26.630 align:middle line:84% Translated some of the poems of Wallace Stevens. 00:00:26.630 --> 00:00:28.850 align:middle line:84% Later on he would write poems about, 00:00:28.850 --> 00:00:30.570 align:middle line:84% if I should have stayed in America, 00:00:30.570 --> 00:00:34.910 align:middle line:84% I could have become a professor of pears. 00:00:34.910 --> 00:00:37.130 align:middle line:90% Became Stevens. 00:00:37.130 --> 00:00:39.485 align:middle line:84% So this poem is called Child of Europe. 00:00:39.485 --> 00:00:44.080 align:middle line:90% 00:00:44.080 --> 00:00:46.190 align:middle line:84% And I'm just going to read a little bit of it. 00:00:46.190 --> 00:00:51.820 align:middle line:84% And this is so that poem is very much in a symbolic mode, 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:54.340 align:middle line:90% the one that we-- 00:00:54.340 --> 00:01:00.010 align:middle line:84% and this is trying to find a new satiric, straightforward voice. 00:01:00.010 --> 00:01:03.760 align:middle line:84% We whose lungs fill the sweetness of day, 00:01:03.760 --> 00:01:06.850 align:middle line:84% who in May admire trees flowering, 00:01:06.850 --> 00:01:09.670 align:middle line:84% we're better than those who perished. 00:01:09.670 --> 00:01:13.630 align:middle line:84% We who taste exotic dishes and enjoy 00:01:13.630 --> 00:01:16.150 align:middle line:84% fully the delights of love, we're 00:01:16.150 --> 00:01:18.790 align:middle line:90% better than those who perished. 00:01:18.790 --> 00:01:22.450 align:middle line:84% We from the fiery furnace, from behind 00:01:22.450 --> 00:01:26.440 align:middle line:84% barbed wire, on which the winds of endless autumns howled. 00:01:26.440 --> 00:01:30.010 align:middle line:84% We who remember battles when the wounded air 00:01:30.010 --> 00:01:34.240 align:middle line:90% roared in a paroxysm of pain. 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:38.380 align:middle line:84% We, saved by our own cunning and knowledge, 00:01:38.380 --> 00:01:41.950 align:middle line:84% by sending others to the more exposed positions. 00:01:41.950 --> 00:01:44.930 align:middle line:84% By urging them loudly to fight on. 00:01:44.930 --> 00:01:47.420 align:middle line:84% Ourselves withdrawing in certainty 00:01:47.420 --> 00:01:49.340 align:middle line:90% that the cause was lost. 00:01:49.340 --> 00:01:52.220 align:middle line:84% Having the choice of our own death or that of a friend, 00:01:52.220 --> 00:01:56.210 align:middle line:84% we chose his coldly, thinking let it be done quickly. 00:01:56.210 --> 00:01:59.180 align:middle line:90% We sealed gas chamber doors. 00:01:59.180 --> 00:02:02.840 align:middle line:84% We stole bread knowing the next day 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:05.870 align:middle line:84% would be harder to bear than the day before. 00:02:05.870 --> 00:02:10.009 align:middle line:84% As befits human beings, we explored good and evil. 00:02:10.009 --> 00:02:14.750 align:middle line:84% Our malignant wisdom has no like on this planet, except it 00:02:14.750 --> 00:02:15.650 align:middle line:90% as proven. 00:02:15.650 --> 00:02:19.130 align:middle line:84% We're better than they, the gullible, hot blooded 00:02:19.130 --> 00:02:21.875 align:middle line:84% weaklings, who are careless with their lives. 00:02:21.875 --> 00:02:24.640 align:middle line:90% 00:02:24.640 --> 00:02:28.480 align:middle line:90% You get a feel of this. 00:02:28.480 --> 00:02:31.270 align:middle line:84% There can be no question of force triumphant. 00:02:31.270 --> 00:02:35.530 align:middle line:84% We live in the age of victorious justice, don't mention force 00:02:35.530 --> 00:02:37.090 align:middle line:90% or you'll be accused of-- 00:02:37.090 --> 00:02:38.290 align:middle line:90% So on you can get-- 00:02:38.290 --> 00:02:41.050 align:middle line:84% Love no country, countries soon disappear. 00:02:41.050 --> 00:02:43.780 align:middle line:84% Love no city, cities are soon rubble. 00:02:43.780 --> 00:02:46.690 align:middle line:84% Throw away keepsakes, or from your desk 00:02:46.690 --> 00:02:49.780 align:middle line:84% a choking poisonous fume will exude. 00:02:49.780 --> 00:02:53.770 align:middle line:84% Do not love people, people soon perish or they are wronged 00:02:53.770 --> 00:02:55.090 align:middle line:90% and call for your help. 00:02:55.090 --> 00:02:57.490 align:middle line:84% Don't gaze into the pool of the past. 00:02:57.490 --> 00:03:00.100 align:middle line:84% That corroded surface will mirror 00:03:00.100 --> 00:03:03.380 align:middle line:84% a face very different from the ones you expect. 00:03:03.380 --> 00:03:07.920 align:middle line:84% And so on, with that child of Europe tone.