Alba

FAAPI 2009 A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN Panel discussion 25 September

W.S. MERWIN born in 1927 in New York City, raised in Union City, N:ewJersey and Scranton, Pennsylvania, is a prolific poet, a respected translator of Spanis~ Frenc~ Latin and Italian poetry as well as poetry ftom Sanskrit, Yiddish, Middle English, Japanese and Quechua. His latest work 'The Shadow of Sirius', published in 2008 was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He had already received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1971. He lives in Hawai and is dedicated to the restoration of its forests. www.pbs.orglmoyersliournal/...Iprofile.html www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2008/11/03/081103po--poem merwin?print "POETRY BEGINS WITH HEARING IT AND LISTENING TO IT"

ALBA Climbing in the mist I came to a terrace wall and saw above it a small'field of broad beans in flower . their white ftagrance was flowing through the first light of morning there a little way up the mountain where I had made my way through the olive groves and under the blossoming boughs of the almonds above the old hut of the charcoal burner where suddenly the scent of the bean flowers found me and as I took the next step I heard the creak of the harness and the mule's shod hooves striking stones in the furrow and then the low voice of the man talking softly praising the mule as he walked behind through the cloud in his white shirt along the row and between his own words he was singing under his breath a few phrases at a time of the same song singing it to his mule it seemed as I listened watching their breaths and not understanding a word The New Yorker

3 November 2008

Susana Gullco Groisman [email protected] [email protected]