WEBVTT

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So he got back to Warsaw.

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He had his passport confiscated.

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One of the leaders of
the new government,

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was married to a
woman who he had

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dated when he was a young man.

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And through her intercession,
he got his passport back

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and was assigned to Paris.

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And he went to Paris
and immediately

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asked for political
asylum and was gone.

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His wife and child were
still in the United States.

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And it was two years before they
were able to get back together.

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He was in a pretty
desperate condition.

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And then at a certain
point, he had written

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the book about his defection.

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And I'll finish with this
poem called "Mittelbergheim."

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He finally gets to
take a vacation.

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"Mittelbergheim."

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"Wine sleeps in
casks of Rhine Oak.

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I'm awakened by the bell of
a chapel in the vineyards

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Of Mittelbergheim.

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I hear a small spring

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Trickling into a well
in the yard, a clatter

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Of wooden shoes in the street.

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Tobacco drying

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Under the eaves, and
plows and wooden wheels

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And mountain slopes
and autumn are with me.

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I keep my eyes closed.

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Don't rush me,

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You, fire, power, might,
for it's too early.

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I've lived through many years
and, as in this half-dream,

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I felt I was attaining
the moving frontier,

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Beyond which color
and sound come true

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And the things of
this Earth are united.

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Do not force me to open my lips,

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Let me trust and believe
I will find my way.

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Let me linger here
in Mittelbergheim.

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I know I should.

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They are with me,

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Autumn and wooden
wheels and tobacco hung

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Under the eaves.

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Here and everywhere

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Is my homeland, wherever I turn

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And is whatever
language I would hear

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The song of a child in,
the conversation of lovers.

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Happier than anyone,
I am to receive

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A glance, a smile,
a star, silk creased

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At the knee.

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Serene, beholding,

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I am to walk on hills,
the soft glow of day

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Over waters, cities,
roads, human customs.

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Fire, power, might,
you who hold me

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In the palm of your
hand whose furrows

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Are the immense gorges combed

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By southern wind.

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You who grant certainty

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In the hour of fear,
in the week of doubt,

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It is too early,
let the wine mature,

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Let the travelers sleep
in Mittelbergheim."

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Alsace 1951.

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So that's some of this book.

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Thank you so much for
listening. ( APPLAUSE)

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