WEBVTT

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So my mother, who
was born in Brazil

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and always felt
like an immigrant,

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she came to the States in
1943, I guess, to college

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and met my dad here.

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When my dad had some
surgery, she was depressed.

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And I suggested that
we start translating

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Portuguese poetry or Brazilian
poetry from Portuguese.

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And it cheered her up,
and we talked every week,

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several times a week.

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And so I was going to say,
if you have family or loved

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ones who speak other
languages, and you

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can participate across languages
and help translate poetry,

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there's still so much
poetry that's untranslated.

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This poet Ana Cristina César
is like a rock star in Brazil.

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Not known in this country.

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Anyway, this is the
first edition of her book

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because she was a suicide.

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And so her family was very
protective of her legacy.

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Here's a very short poem
that Mom and I did together.

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And so we published
this when Mom was

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92, her first published thing.

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It was great.

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We had a one-person
poetry reading

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with Brian Teare
in a hotel room.

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And so Brian listened
to us reading the poems,

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and that was it.

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That was her only
poetry reading.

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"Noite Carioca"

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Diálogo de surdos,
não: amistoso no frio.

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Atravanco na contramão.

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Suspiros no contrafluxo.

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Te apresento a
mulher mais discreta

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do mundo-- essa que
não tem nenhum segredo.

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"Carioca Night"

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Dialogue of the deaf,
no friendly in the cold.

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I go against traffic,
sighing against the flow.

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I present to you the
most discreet woman

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in the world, the one
who has no secrets.

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Ana Cristina was a
magnificent poet.

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She was bisexual and
wrote across genres.

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And Mom didn't know what to
make of the poetry, especially

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the pronoun choices.

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She was writing very often,
and so Mom would carefully

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change the pronouns.

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And we would-- I would
change them back.

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[LAUGHTER]

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That was fun.