WEBVTT

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It's difficult because
a great many studies

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have shown that you can
measure how much you

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know about a subject, by how
much vocabulary you have for it.

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When I was growing up, I
used to say the Eskimos had

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400 words for ice and snow.

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And a while ago, I read
that they had only 136 words

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and I got talking to a
scholar and he gave me

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a list of the vocabulary of
the Eskimos for snow and ice

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and it was 36.

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Still it shows a real
knowledge of ice and snow.

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When you think of the fact
that we have almost no language

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for love, maybe six words.

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So it makes you wonder,
makes me wonder.

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I was married to a
woman named Michiko.

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Michiko Nogami, who died.

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This is written about a villa
we lived on a Greek mountain.

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All falling down
19th century building

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and it starts out with the
same problem with language,

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trying to find an equivalent
to what you're talking about.

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It was extremely
hard for me to try

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to say what I wanted
to say in this poem.

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So it starts out talking about--

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you have to come at it
sideways, finding something.

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I say moon is horses
in the tempered dark

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because horse is the
closest I can get to it.

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I sit on the terrace
of this warm villa

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the King's calligrapher built
on the mountain that looks down

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on a blue sea, and the small
white ferry that crosses slowly

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to the next island, each known.

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Michiko is dying in
the house behind me,

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the long windows
open, so I can hear

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the faint sound
she will make when

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she wants watermelon to suck.

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Or so I can take
her to the bucket

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in the corner of the
high ceilinged room which

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is the best we can
do for chamber pot.

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She will lean against
my leg as she sits,

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so as not to fall
over in her weakness.

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How strange and fine
to get so near to it.

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The arches of her feet are
like voices of children

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calling in the grove
of lemon trees,

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where my heart is as
helpless as crushed birds.

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For me, the point is
not to say pity me,

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that's a sad thing
that happened.

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When I try to do in
the poem is trying

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to say it was wonderful to be
there, to be that close to her,

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to take care of her body
at its final stages,

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to pass across the border
of decorum or politeness

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or courtesy.

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And you enter an
intimacy that's--

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is a blessing.

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I don't mean it was not terrible
and what we call heartbreaking,

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but that's not the point.

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The point is something
valuable was there

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and you miss it if you
just think about how long I

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cried afterwards.

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