The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock

Song The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock
Artist T.S.Eliot
Artist Robert Speaight
Album The Waste Land (And other T.S.Eliot Works)

Lyrics

[00:00.000] 作曲 : T.S.Eliot
[00:01.329] The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
[00:05.529]
[00:07.130] Let us go then, you and I,
[00:09.044] When the evening is spread out against the sky
[00:12.233] Like a patient etherized upon a table;
[00:15.128] Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
[00:18.238] The muttering retreats
[00:19.418] Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
[00:22.567] And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
[00:25.579] Streets that follow like a tedious argument
[00:28.850] Of insidious intent
[00:30.562] To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
[00:33.428] Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
[00:35.781] Let us go and make our visit.
[00:39.101]
[00:40.201] In the room the women come and go
[00:43.389] Talking of Michelangelo.
[00:45.405]
[00:46.647] The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
[00:50.492] The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
[00:54.327] Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
[00:57.576] Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
[01:01.174] Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
[01:05.427] Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
[01:08.920] And seeing that it was a soft October night,
[01:12.259] Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
[01:16.605]
[01:17.872] And indeed there will be time
[01:20.147] For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
[01:23.781] Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
[01:26.178] There will be time, there will be time
[01:29.441] To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
[01:32.616] There will be time to murder and create,
[01:36.498] And time for all the works and days of hands
[01:39.660] That lift and drop a question on your plate;
[01:42.927] Time for you and time for me,
[01:45.555] And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
[01:48.558] And for a hundred visions and revisions,
[01:51.906] Before the taking of a toast and tea.
[01:54.962]
[01:56.204] In the room the women come and go
[01:59.722] Talking of Michelangelo.
[02:02.138]
[02:03.092] And indeed there will be time
[02:04.811] To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
[02:10.806] Time to turn back and descend the stair,
[02:13.399] With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —
[02:16.998] (They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)
[02:21.343] My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
[02:25.629] My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —
[02:30.093] (They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)
[02:35.721] Do I dare
[02:38.109] Disturb the universe?
[02:40.213] In a minute there is time
[02:42.380] For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
[02:46.658]
[02:47.631] For I have known them all already, known them all:
[02:52.097] Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
[02:55.628] I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
[02:59.548] I know the voices dying with a dying fall
[03:03.695] Beneath the music from a farther room.
[03:06.499] So how should I presume?
[03:10.017] And I have known the eyes already, known them all—
[03:13.325] The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
[03:16.147] And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
[03:20.947] When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
[03:23.597] Then how should I begin
[03:25.934] To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
[03:29.673] And how should I presume?
[03:32.626]
[03:33.484] And I have known the arms already, known them all—
[03:37.487] Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[03:41.150] (But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
[03:45.445] Is it perfume from a dress
[03:48.596] That makes me so digress?
[03:50.531] Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
[03:55.955] And should I then presume?
[03:59.140] And how should I begin?
[04:01.823]
[04:02.530] Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
[04:07.440] And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
[04:10.749] Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ...
[04:14.428]
[04:15.473] I should have been a pair of ragged claws
[04:19.576] Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
[04:23.294]
[04:24.430] And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
[04:30.307] Smoothed by long fingers,
[04:32.741] Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
[04:37.766] Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
[04:41.290] Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
[04:45.606] Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
[04:49.271] But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
[04:53.565] Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
[05:00.454] I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
[05:04.650] I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
[05:08.775] And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
[05:15.311] And in short, I was afraid.
[05:19.694]
[05:21.046] And would it have been worth it, after all,
[05:23.765] After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
[05:26.680] Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
[05:30.493] Would it have been worth while,
[05:32.892] To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
[05:35.194] To have squeezed the universe into a ball
[05:38.470] To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
[05:41.530] To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
[05:45.707] Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—
[05:49.955] If one, settling a pillow by her head
[05:52.969] Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;
[05:57.470] That is not it, at all.”
[05:59.639]
[06:00.437] And would it have been worth it, after all,
[06:03.675] Would it have been worth while,
[06:05.570] After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
[06:09.975] After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
[06:16.233] And this, and so much more?—
[06:19.035] It is impossible to say just what I mean!
[06:22.114] But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
[06:26.351] Would it have been worth while
[06:28.826] If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
[06:32.603] And turning toward the window, should say:
[06:35.640] “That is not it at all,
[06:38.205] That is not what I meant, at all.”
[06:42.162]
[06:43.069] No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
[06:47.671] Am an attendant lord, one that will do
[06:51.376] To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
[06:54.142] Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
[06:57.304] Deferential, glad to be of use,
[07:00.041] Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
[07:02.983] Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
[07:06.491] At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
[07:10.620] Almost, at times, the Fool.
[07:14.825]
[07:17.015] I grow old ... I grow old ...
[07:20.514] I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
[07:23.870]
[07:24.378] Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
[07:29.290] I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
[07:34.462] I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
[07:39.929]
[07:40.513] I do not think that they will sing to me.
[07:42.641]
[07:43.611] I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
[07:46.721] Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
[07:49.982] When the wind blows the water white and black.
[07:52.893] We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
[07:57.388] By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
[08:01.615] Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
[08:11.414]
[08:19.788] The Hollow Men
[08:21.751]
[08:22.427] A penny for the Old Guy
[08:24.003]
[08:25.311] I
[08:26.097]
[08:26.639] We are the hollow men
[08:28.645] We are the stuffed men
[08:30.725] Leaning together
[08:32.179] Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
[08:35.989] Our dried voices, when
[08:38.135] We whisper together
[08:39.695] Are quiet and meaningless
[08:41.951] As wind in dry grass
[08:43.844] Or rats' feet over broken glass
[08:46.784] In our dry cellar
[08:49.210]
[08:49.808] Shape without form, shade without colour,
[08:54.323] Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
[08:58.699]
[08:59.564] Those who have crossed
[09:01.916] With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
[09:05.364] Remember us-if at all-not as lost
[09:09.839] Violent souls, but only
[09:12.549] As the hollow men
[09:14.935] The stuffed men.
[09:16.438]
[09:17.690] II
[09:18.095] Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
[09:20.302] In death's dream kingdom
[09:23.254] These do not appear:
[09:24.967] There, the eyes are
[09:27.318] Sunlight on a broken column
[09:29.832] There, is a tree swinging
[09:33.103] And voices are
[09:34.829] In the wind's singing
[09:36.702] More distant and more solemn
[09:39.499] Than a fading star.
[09:41.291]
[09:42.125] Let me be no nearer
[09:44.778] In death's dream kingdom
[09:47.216] Let me also wear
[09:49.153] Such deliberate disguises
[09:50.851] Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
[09:54.247] In a field
[09:55.857] Behaving as the wind behaves
[09:59.013] No nearer-
[10:01.156]
[10:02.123] Not that final meeting
[10:04.901] In the twilight kingdom
[10:07.197]
[10:07.825] III
[10:09.200] This is the dead land
[10:11.898] This is cactus land
[10:13.848] Here the stone images
[10:15.850] Are raised, here they receive
[10:18.927] The supplication of a dead man's hand
[10:21.389] Under the twinkle of a fading star.
[10:26.276]
[10:26.868] Is it like this
[10:28.465] In death's other kingdom
[10:30.302] Waking alone
[10:31.824] At the hour when we are
[10:33.929] Trembling with tenderness
[10:35.866] Lips that would kiss
[10:38.651] Form prayers to broken stone.
[10:43.120]
[10:43.702] IV
[10:44.821] The eyes are not here
[10:46.887] There are no eyes here
[10:48.914] In this valley of dying stars
[10:51.432] In this hollow valley
[10:53.907] This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
[10:57.360]
[10:58.066] In this last of meeting places
[11:01.867] We grope together
[11:03.518] And avoid speech
[11:05.245] Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
[11:08.919]
[11:09.526] Sightless, unless
[11:11.706] The eyes reappear
[11:13.564] As the perpetual star
[11:15.798] Multifoliate rose
[11:17.945] Of death's twilight kingdom
[11:20.805] The hope only
[11:23.716] Of empty men.
[11:25.840]
[11:27.091] V
[11:28.446] Here we go round the prickly pear
[11:29.965] Prickly pear prickly pear
[11:31.692] Here we go round the prickly pear
[11:34.003] At five o'clock in the morning.
[11:35.739]
[11:36.442] Between the idea
[11:38.266] And the reality
[11:40.134] Between the motion
[11:41.796] And the act
[11:43.187] Falls the Shadow
[11:46.139] For Thine is the Kingdom
[11:48.593]
[11:49.069] Between the conception
[11:50.812] And the creation
[11:52.390] Between the emotion
[11:53.976] And the response
[11:55.739] Falls the Shadow
[11:59.859] Life is very long
[12:02.137]
[12:03.311] Between the desire
[12:04.689] And the spasm
[12:06.242] Between the potency
[12:07.951] And the existence
[12:09.707] Between the essence
[12:11.669] And the descent
[12:13.498] Falls the Shadow
[12:17.004] For Thine is the Kingdom
[12:18.831]
[12:20.047] For Thine is
[12:23.928] Life is
[12:26.904] For Thine is the
[12:29.567]
[12:30.478] This is the way the world ends
[12:32.507] This is the way the world ends
[12:34.397] This is the way the world ends
[12:36.411] Not with a bang but a whimper.
[12:40.032]
[12:47.293] Ash Wednesday
[12:48.630]
[12:49.644] I
[12:50.781]
[12:50.938] Because I do not hope to turn again
[12:53.318] Because I do not hope
[12:55.371] Because I do not hope to turn
[12:57.499] Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
[13:00.790] I no longer strive to strive towards such things
[13:05.014] (Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)
[13:08.706] Why should I mourn
[13:10.923] The vanished power of the usual reign?
[13:13.887]
[13:14.885] Because I do not hope to know
[13:17.651] The infirm glory of the positive hour
[13:20.724] Because I do not think
[13:23.116] Because I know I shall not know
[13:25.703] The one veritable transitory power
[13:28.843] Because I cannot drink
[13:31.300] There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again
[13:39.252]
[13:39.829] Because I know that time is always time
[13:43.622] And place is always and only place
[13:46.862] And what is actual is actual only for one time
[13:50.954] And only for one place
[13:53.086] I rejoice that things are as they are and
[13:56.921] I renounce the blessèd face
[13:59.543] And renounce the voice
[14:01.655] Because I cannot hope to turn again
[14:05.070] Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
[14:10.725] Upon which to rejoice
[14:12.787]
[14:13.516] And pray to God to have mercy upon us
[14:17.369] And pray that I may forget
[14:20.473] These matters that with myself I too much discuss
[14:24.662] Too much explain
[14:26.389] Because I do not hope to turn again
[14:30.392] Let these words answer
[14:32.775] For what is done, not to be done again
[14:36.282] May the judgement not be too heavy upon us
[14:40.685]
[14:41.326] Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
[14:45.536] But merely vans to beat the air
[14:48.602] The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
[14:52.761] Smaller and dryer than the will
[14:55.692] Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still.
[15:02.993]
[15:03.958] Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
[15:08.895] Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
[15:13.856] II
[15:15.983] Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree
[15:20.911] In the cool of the day, having fed to sateity
[15:24.200] On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been contained
[15:28.305] In the hollow round of my skull. And God said
[15:32.169] Shall these bones live? shall these
[15:36.496] Bones live? And that which had been contained
[15:40.036] In the bones (which were already dry) said chirping:
[15:44.446] Because of the goodness of this Lady
[15:47.594] And because of her loveliness, and because
[15:50.944] She honours the Virgin in meditation,
[15:53.335] We shine with brightness. And I who am here dissembled
[15:58.857] Proffer my deeds to oblivion, and my love
[16:03.417] To the posterity of the desert and the fruit of the gourd.
[16:06.833] It is this which recovers
[16:09.311] My guts the strings of my eyes and the indigestible portions
[16:13.951] Which the leopards reject. The Lady is withdrawn
[16:19.041] In a white gown, to contemplation, in a white gown.
[16:24.399] Let the whiteness of bones atone to forgetfulness.
[16:29.318] There is no life in them. As I am forgotten
[16:34.517] And would be forgotten, so I would forget
[16:38.525] Thus devoted, concentrated in purpose. And God said
[16:44.892] Prophesy to the wind, to the wind only for only
[16:49.547] The wind will listen. And the bones sang chirping
[16:54.654] With the burden of the grasshopper, saying
[16:57.504]
[16:58.892] Lady of silences
[17:00.821] Calm and distressed
[17:02.581] Torn and most whole
[17:04.433] Rose of memory
[17:06.209] Rose of forgetfulness
[17:07.702] Exhausted and life-giving
[17:09.846] Worried reposeful
[17:11.634] The single Rose
[17:13.469] Is now the Garden
[17:15.152] Where all loves end
[17:16.882] Terminate torment
[17:18.916] Of love unsatisfied
[17:20.875] The greater torment
[17:22.650] Of love satisfied
[17:24.672] End of the endless
[17:27.024] Journey to no end
[17:28.853] Conclusion of all that
[17:30.605] Is inconclusible
[17:32.290] Speech without word and
[17:34.738] Word of no speech
[17:36.847] Grace to the Mother
[17:39.116] For the Garden
[17:41.060] Where all love ends.
[17:43.559]
[17:45.170] Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining
[17:51.278] We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each other,
[17:55.392] Under a tree in the cool of day, with the blessing of sand,
[17:59.890] Forgetting themselves and each other, united
[18:03.472] In the quiet of the desert. This is the land which ye
[18:08.656] Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
[18:12.872] Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.
[18:19.422]
[18:20.340] III
[18:23.843] At the first turning of the second stair
[18:26.753] I turned and saw below
[18:28.797] The same shape twisted on the banister
[18:31.679] Under the vapour in the fetid air
[18:34.327] Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
[18:38.267] The deceitul face of hope and of despair.
[18:42.215]
[18:43.261] At the second turning of the second stair
[18:46.877] I left them twisting, turning below;
[18:50.219] There were no more faces and the stair was dark,
[18:54.093] Damp, jaggèd, like an old man's mouth drivelling, beyond repair,
[19:00.422] Or the toothed gullet of an agèd shark.
[19:03.849]
[19:04.618] At the first turning of the third stair
[19:08.561] Was a slotted window bellied like the figs's fruit
[19:12.361] And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene
[19:17.240] The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green
[19:21.437] Enchanted the maytime with an antique flute.
[19:24.906] Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown,
[19:30.314] Lilac and brown hair;
[19:33.318] Distraction, music of the flute, stops and steps of the mind over the third stair,
[19:41.344] Fading, fading; strength beyond hope and despair
[19:47.827] Climbing the third stair.
[19:50.763]
[19:52.820] Lord, I am not worthy
[19:54.991] Lord, I am not worthy
[19:58.553]
[19:59.270] but speak the word only.
[20:02.686] IV
[20:04.559] Who walked between the violet and the violet
[20:08.322] Whe walked between
[20:10.496] The various ranks of varied green
[20:12.610] Going in white and blue, in Mary's colour,
[20:15.895] Talking of trivial things
[20:17.662] In ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolour
[20:21.650] Who moved among the others as they walked,
[20:25.100] Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs
[20:29.629]
[20:30.588] Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand
[20:34.036] In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary's colour,
[20:38.686] Sovegna vos
[20:41.762]
[20:43.299] Here are the years that walk between, bearing
[20:46.959] Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring
[20:50.446] One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing
[20:55.340]
[20:56.097] White light folded, sheathing about her, folded.
[20:59.991] The new years walk, restoring
[21:03.698] Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
[21:08.792] With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
[21:13.356] The time. Redeem
[21:15.922] The unread vision in the higher dream
[21:19.007] While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.
[21:24.078]
[21:25.282] The silent sister veiled in white and blue
[21:29.903] Between the yews, behind the garden god,
[21:33.259] Whose flute is breathless, bent her head and signed but spoke no word
[21:41.483]
[21:42.445] But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down
[21:46.523] Redeem the time, redeem the dream
[21:49.759] The token of the word unheard, unspoken
[21:54.374]
[21:55.646] Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew
[22:00.817]
[22:01.882] And after this our exile
[22:06.298]
[22:07.433] V
[22:08.420] If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
[22:13.482] If the unheard, unspoken
[22:15.903] Word is unspoken, unheard;
[22:19.073] Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
[22:24.485] The Word without a word, the Word within
[22:28.500] The world and for the world;
[22:30.936] And the light shone in darkness and
[22:34.111] Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
[22:40.756] About the centre of the silent Word.
[22:44.218]
[22:45.726] O my people, what have I done unto thee.
[22:49.939]
[22:50.688] Where shall the word be found, where will the word
[22:54.568] Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
[23:00.023] Not on the sea or on the islands, not
[23:03.972] On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
[23:07.296] For those who walk in darkness
[23:10.079] Both in the day time and in the night time
[23:13.217] The right time and the right place are not here
[23:17.182] No place of grace for those who avoid the face
[23:22.284] No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice
[23:30.479]
[23:30.923] Will the veiled sister pray for
[23:34.413] Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee,
[23:40.577] Those who are torn on the horn between season and season, time and time, between
[23:48.355] Hour and hour, word and word, power and power, those who wait
[23:55.809] In darkness? Will the veiled sister pray
[24:01.347] For children at the gate
[24:03.258] Who will not go away and cannot pray:
[24:06.372] Pray for those who chose and oppose
[24:11.951]
[24:12.974] O my people, what have I done unto thee.
[24:17.820]
[24:18.952] Will the veiled sister between the slender
[24:22.557] Yew trees pray for those who offend her
[24:25.948] And are terrified and cannot surrender
[24:29.402] And affirm before the world and deny between the rocks
[24:34.201] In the last desert before the last blue rocks
[24:38.563] The desert in the garden the garden in the desert
[24:42.387] Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered apple-seed.
[24:48.297]
[24:49.476] O my people.
[24:52.122] VI
[24:53.391] Although I do not hope to turn again
[24:57.457] Although I do not hope
[24:59.699] Although I do not hope to turn
[25:01.930]
[25:02.591] Wavering between the profit and the loss
[25:05.215] In this brief transit where the dreams cross
[25:08.447] The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying
[25:12.820] (Bless me father) though I do not wish to wish these things
[25:18.817] From the wide window towards the granite shore
[25:22.661] The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying
[25:27.567] Unbroken wings
[25:29.337]
[25:30.095] And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
[25:33.394] In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
[25:36.818] And the weak spirit quickens to rebel
[25:40.252] For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell
[25:44.106] Quickens to recover
[25:46.266] The cry of quail and the whirling plover
[25:49.822] And the blind eye creates
[25:53.015] The empty forms between the ivory gates
[25:56.397] And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth
[26:02.531]
[26:03.960] This is the time of tension between dying and birth
[26:09.680] The place of solitude where three dreams cross
[26:14.435] Between blue rocks
[26:16.458] But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away
[26:21.455] Let the other yew be shaken and reply.
[26:25.409]
[26:26.740] Blessèd sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
[26:34.516] Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
[26:38.486] Teach us to care and not to care
[26:42.042] Teach us to sit still
[26:44.731] Even among these rocks,
[26:47.121] Our peace in His will
[26:50.491] And even among these rocks
[26:54.231] Sister, mother
[26:55.956] And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
[27:00.453] Suffer me not to be separated
[27:03.969]
[27:05.055] And let my cry come unto Thee.

Pinyin

[00:00.000] zuò qǔ : T. S. Eliot
[00:01.329] The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
[00:05.529]
[00:07.130] Let us go then, you and I,
[00:09.044] When the evening is spread out against the sky
[00:12.233] Like a patient etherized upon a table
[00:15.128] Let us go, through certain halfdeserted streets,
[00:18.238] The muttering retreats
[00:19.418] Of restless nights in onenight cheap hotels
[00:22.567] And sawdust restaurants with oystershells:
[00:25.579] Streets that follow like a tedious argument
[00:28.850] Of insidious intent
[00:30.562] To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
[00:33.428] Oh, do not ask, " What is it?"
[00:35.781] Let us go and make our visit.
[00:39.101]
[00:40.201] In the room the women come and go
[00:43.389] Talking of Michelangelo.
[00:45.405]
[00:46.647] The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the windowpanes,
[00:50.492] The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the windowpanes,
[00:54.327] Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
[00:57.576] Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
[01:01.174] Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
[01:05.427] Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
[01:08.920] And seeing that it was a soft October night,
[01:12.259] Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
[01:16.605]
[01:17.872] And indeed there will be time
[01:20.147] For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
[01:23.781] Rubbing its back upon the windowpanes
[01:26.178] There will be time, there will be time
[01:29.441] To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet
[01:32.616] There will be time to murder and create,
[01:36.498] And time for all the works and days of hands
[01:39.660] That lift and drop a question on your plate
[01:42.927] Time for you and time for me,
[01:45.555] And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
[01:48.558] And for a hundred visions and revisions,
[01:51.906] Before the taking of a toast and tea.
[01:54.962]
[01:56.204] In the room the women come and go
[01:59.722] Talking of Michelangelo.
[02:02.138]
[02:03.092] And indeed there will be time
[02:04.811] To wonder, " Do I dare?" and, " Do I dare?"
[02:10.806] Time to turn back and descend the stair,
[02:13.399] With a bald spot in the middle of my hair
[02:16.998] They will say: " How his hair is growing thin!"
[02:21.343] My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
[02:25.629] My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin
[02:30.093] They will say: " But how his arms and legs are thin!"
[02:35.721] Do I dare
[02:38.109] Disturb the universe?
[02:40.213] In a minute there is time
[02:42.380] For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
[02:46.658]
[02:47.631] For I have known them all already, known them all:
[02:52.097] Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
[02:55.628] I have measured out my life with coffee spoons
[02:59.548] I know the voices dying with a dying fall
[03:03.695] Beneath the music from a farther room.
[03:06.499] So how should I presume?
[03:10.017] And I have known the eyes already, known them all
[03:13.325] The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
[03:16.147] And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
[03:20.947] When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
[03:23.597] Then how should I begin
[03:25.934] To spit out all the buttends of my days and ways?
[03:29.673] And how should I presume?
[03:32.626]
[03:33.484] And I have known the arms already, known them all
[03:37.487] Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[03:41.150] But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!
[03:45.445] Is it perfume from a dress
[03:48.596] That makes me so digress?
[03:50.531] Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
[03:55.955] And should I then presume?
[03:59.140] And how should I begin?
[04:01.823]
[04:02.530] Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
[04:07.440] And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
[04:10.749] Of lonely men in shirtsleeves, leaning out of windows? ...
[04:14.428]
[04:15.473] I should have been a pair of ragged claws
[04:19.576] Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
[04:23.294]
[04:24.430] And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
[04:30.307] Smoothed by long fingers,
[04:32.741] Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
[04:37.766] Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
[04:41.290] Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
[04:45.606] Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
[04:49.271] But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
[04:53.565] Though I have seen my head grown slightly bald brought in upon a platter,
[05:00.454] I am no prophet and here' s no great matter
[05:04.650] I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
[05:08.775] And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
[05:15.311] And in short, I was afraid.
[05:19.694]
[05:21.046] And would it have been worth it, after all,
[05:23.765] After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
[05:26.680] Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
[05:30.493] Would it have been worth while,
[05:32.892] To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
[05:35.194] To have squeezed the universe into a ball
[05:38.470] To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
[05:41.530] To say: " I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
[05:45.707] Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"
[05:49.955] If one, settling a pillow by her head
[05:52.969] Should say: " That is not what I meant at all
[05:57.470] That is not it, at all."
[05:59.639]
[06:00.437] And would it have been worth it, after all,
[06:03.675] Would it have been worth while,
[06:05.570] After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
[06:09.975] After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor
[06:16.233] And this, and so much more?
[06:19.035] It is impossible to say just what I mean!
[06:22.114] But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
[06:26.351] Would it have been worth while
[06:28.826] If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
[06:32.603] And turning toward the window, should say:
[06:35.640] " That is not it at all,
[06:38.205] That is not what I meant, at all."
[06:42.162]
[06:43.069] No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be
[06:47.671] Am an attendant lord, one that will do
[06:51.376] To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
[06:54.142] Advise the prince no doubt, an easy tool,
[06:57.304] Deferential, glad to be of use,
[07:00.041] Politic, cautious, and meticulous
[07:02.983] Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse
[07:06.491] At times, indeed, almost ridiculous
[07:10.620] Almost, at times, the Fool.
[07:14.825]
[07:17.015] I grow old ... I grow old ...
[07:20.514] I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
[07:23.870]
[07:24.378] Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
[07:29.290] I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
[07:34.462] I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
[07:39.929]
[07:40.513] I do not think that they will sing to me.
[07:42.641]
[07:43.611] I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
[07:46.721] Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
[07:49.982] When the wind blows the water white and black.
[07:52.893] We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
[07:57.388] By seagirls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
[08:01.615] Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
[08:11.414]
[08:19.788] The Hollow Men
[08:21.751]
[08:22.427] A penny for the Old Guy
[08:24.003]
[08:25.311] I
[08:26.097]
[08:26.639] We are the hollow men
[08:28.645] We are the stuffed men
[08:30.725] Leaning together
[08:32.179] Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
[08:35.989] Our dried voices, when
[08:38.135] We whisper together
[08:39.695] Are quiet and meaningless
[08:41.951] As wind in dry grass
[08:43.844] Or rats' feet over broken glass
[08:46.784] In our dry cellar
[08:49.210]
[08:49.808] Shape without form, shade without colour,
[08:54.323] Paralysed force, gesture without motion
[08:58.699]
[08:59.564] Those who have crossed
[09:01.916] With direct eyes, to death' s other Kingdom
[09:05.364] Remember usif at allnot as lost
[09:09.839] Violent souls, but only
[09:12.549] As the hollow men
[09:14.935] The stuffed men.
[09:16.438]
[09:17.690] II
[09:18.095] Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
[09:20.302] In death' s dream kingdom
[09:23.254] These do not appear:
[09:24.967] There, the eyes are
[09:27.318] Sunlight on a broken column
[09:29.832] There, is a tree swinging
[09:33.103] And voices are
[09:34.829] In the wind' s singing
[09:36.702] More distant and more solemn
[09:39.499] Than a fading star.
[09:41.291]
[09:42.125] Let me be no nearer
[09:44.778] In death' s dream kingdom
[09:47.216] Let me also wear
[09:49.153] Such deliberate disguises
[09:50.851] Rat' s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
[09:54.247] In a field
[09:55.857] Behaving as the wind behaves
[09:59.013] No nearer
[10:01.156]
[10:02.123] Not that final meeting
[10:04.901] In the twilight kingdom
[10:07.197]
[10:07.825] III
[10:09.200] This is the dead land
[10:11.898] This is cactus land
[10:13.848] Here the stone images
[10:15.850] Are raised, here they receive
[10:18.927] The supplication of a dead man' s hand
[10:21.389] Under the twinkle of a fading star.
[10:26.276]
[10:26.868] Is it like this
[10:28.465] In death' s other kingdom
[10:30.302] Waking alone
[10:31.824] At the hour when we are
[10:33.929] Trembling with tenderness
[10:35.866] Lips that would kiss
[10:38.651] Form prayers to broken stone.
[10:43.120]
[10:43.702] IV
[10:44.821] The eyes are not here
[10:46.887] There are no eyes here
[10:48.914] In this valley of dying stars
[10:51.432] In this hollow valley
[10:53.907] This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
[10:57.360]
[10:58.066] In this last of meeting places
[11:01.867] We grope together
[11:03.518] And avoid speech
[11:05.245] Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
[11:08.919]
[11:09.526] Sightless, unless
[11:11.706] The eyes reappear
[11:13.564] As the perpetual star
[11:15.798] Multifoliate rose
[11:17.945] Of death' s twilight kingdom
[11:20.805] The hope only
[11:23.716] Of empty men.
[11:25.840]
[11:27.091] V
[11:28.446] Here we go round the prickly pear
[11:29.965] Prickly pear prickly pear
[11:31.692] Here we go round the prickly pear
[11:34.003] At five o' clock in the morning.
[11:35.739]
[11:36.442] Between the idea
[11:38.266] And the reality
[11:40.134] Between the motion
[11:41.796] And the act
[11:43.187] Falls the Shadow
[11:46.139] For Thine is the Kingdom
[11:48.593]
[11:49.069] Between the conception
[11:50.812] And the creation
[11:52.390] Between the emotion
[11:53.976] And the response
[11:55.739] Falls the Shadow
[11:59.859] Life is very long
[12:02.137]
[12:03.311] Between the desire
[12:04.689] And the spasm
[12:06.242] Between the potency
[12:07.951] And the existence
[12:09.707] Between the essence
[12:11.669] And the descent
[12:13.498] Falls the Shadow
[12:17.004] For Thine is the Kingdom
[12:18.831]
[12:20.047] For Thine is
[12:23.928] Life is
[12:26.904] For Thine is the
[12:29.567]
[12:30.478] This is the way the world ends
[12:32.507] This is the way the world ends
[12:34.397] This is the way the world ends
[12:36.411] Not with a bang but a whimper.
[12:40.032]
[12:47.293] Ash Wednesday
[12:48.630]
[12:49.644] I
[12:50.781]
[12:50.938] Because I do not hope to turn again
[12:53.318] Because I do not hope
[12:55.371] Because I do not hope to turn
[12:57.499] Desiring this man' s gift and that man' s scope
[13:00.790] I no longer strive to strive towards such things
[13:05.014] Why should the agè d eagle stretch its wings?
[13:08.706] Why should I mourn
[13:10.923] The vanished power of the usual reign?
[13:13.887]
[13:14.885] Because I do not hope to know
[13:17.651] The infirm glory of the positive hour
[13:20.724] Because I do not think
[13:23.116] Because I know I shall not know
[13:25.703] The one veritable transitory power
[13:28.843] Because I cannot drink
[13:31.300] There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again
[13:39.252]
[13:39.829] Because I know that time is always time
[13:43.622] And place is always and only place
[13:46.862] And what is actual is actual only for one time
[13:50.954] And only for one place
[13:53.086] I rejoice that things are as they are and
[13:56.921] I renounce the blessè d face
[13:59.543] And renounce the voice
[14:01.655] Because I cannot hope to turn again
[14:05.070] Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
[14:10.725] Upon which to rejoice
[14:12.787]
[14:13.516] And pray to God to have mercy upon us
[14:17.369] And pray that I may forget
[14:20.473] These matters that with myself I too much discuss
[14:24.662] Too much explain
[14:26.389] Because I do not hope to turn again
[14:30.392] Let these words answer
[14:32.775] For what is done, not to be done again
[14:36.282] May the judgement not be too heavy upon us
[14:40.685]
[14:41.326] Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
[14:45.536] But merely vans to beat the air
[14:48.602] The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
[14:52.761] Smaller and dryer than the will
[14:55.692] Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still.
[15:02.993]
[15:03.958] Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
[15:08.895] Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
[15:13.856] II
[15:15.983] Lady, three white leopards sat under a junipertree
[15:20.911] In the cool of the day, having fed to sateity
[15:24.200] On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been contained
[15:28.305] In the hollow round of my skull. And God said
[15:32.169] Shall these bones live? shall these
[15:36.496] Bones live? And that which had been contained
[15:40.036] In the bones which were already dry said chirping:
[15:44.446] Because of the goodness of this Lady
[15:47.594] And because of her loveliness, and because
[15:50.944] She honours the Virgin in meditation,
[15:53.335] We shine with brightness. And I who am here dissembled
[15:58.857] Proffer my deeds to oblivion, and my love
[16:03.417] To the posterity of the desert and the fruit of the gourd.
[16:06.833] It is this which recovers
[16:09.311] My guts the strings of my eyes and the indigestible portions
[16:13.951] Which the leopards reject. The Lady is withdrawn
[16:19.041] In a white gown, to contemplation, in a white gown.
[16:24.399] Let the whiteness of bones atone to forgetfulness.
[16:29.318] There is no life in them. As I am forgotten
[16:34.517] And would be forgotten, so I would forget
[16:38.525] Thus devoted, concentrated in purpose. And God said
[16:44.892] Prophesy to the wind, to the wind only for only
[16:49.547] The wind will listen. And the bones sang chirping
[16:54.654] With the burden of the grasshopper, saying
[16:57.504]
[16:58.892] Lady of silences
[17:00.821] Calm and distressed
[17:02.581] Torn and most whole
[17:04.433] Rose of memory
[17:06.209] Rose of forgetfulness
[17:07.702] Exhausted and lifegiving
[17:09.846] Worried reposeful
[17:11.634] The single Rose
[17:13.469] Is now the Garden
[17:15.152] Where all loves end
[17:16.882] Terminate torment
[17:18.916] Of love unsatisfied
[17:20.875] The greater torment
[17:22.650] Of love satisfied
[17:24.672] End of the endless
[17:27.024] Journey to no end
[17:28.853] Conclusion of all that
[17:30.605] Is inconclusible
[17:32.290] Speech without word and
[17:34.738] Word of no speech
[17:36.847] Grace to the Mother
[17:39.116] For the Garden
[17:41.060] Where all love ends.
[17:43.559]
[17:45.170] Under a junipertree the bones sang, scattered and shining
[17:51.278] We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each other,
[17:55.392] Under a tree in the cool of day, with the blessing of sand,
[17:59.890] Forgetting themselves and each other, united
[18:03.472] In the quiet of the desert. This is the land which ye
[18:08.656] Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
[18:12.872] Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.
[18:19.422]
[18:20.340] III
[18:23.843] At the first turning of the second stair
[18:26.753] I turned and saw below
[18:28.797] The same shape twisted on the banister
[18:31.679] Under the vapour in the fetid air
[18:34.327] Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
[18:38.267] The deceitul face of hope and of despair.
[18:42.215]
[18:43.261] At the second turning of the second stair
[18:46.877] I left them twisting, turning below
[18:50.219] There were no more faces and the stair was dark,
[18:54.093] Damp, jaggè d, like an old man' s mouth drivelling, beyond repair,
[19:00.422] Or the toothed gullet of an agè d shark.
[19:03.849]
[19:04.618] At the first turning of the third stair
[19:08.561] Was a slotted window bellied like the figs' s fruit
[19:12.361] And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene
[19:17.240] The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green
[19:21.437] Enchanted the maytime with an antique flute.
[19:24.906] Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown,
[19:30.314] Lilac and brown hair
[19:33.318] Distraction, music of the flute, stops and steps of the mind over the third stair,
[19:41.344] Fading, fading strength beyond hope and despair
[19:47.827] Climbing the third stair.
[19:50.763]
[19:52.820] Lord, I am not worthy
[19:54.991] Lord, I am not worthy
[19:58.553]
[19:59.270] but speak the word only.
[20:02.686] IV
[20:04.559] Who walked between the violet and the violet
[20:08.322] Whe walked between
[20:10.496] The various ranks of varied green
[20:12.610] Going in white and blue, in Mary' s colour,
[20:15.895] Talking of trivial things
[20:17.662] In ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolour
[20:21.650] Who moved among the others as they walked,
[20:25.100] Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs
[20:29.629]
[20:30.588] Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand
[20:34.036] In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary' s colour,
[20:38.686] Sovegna vos
[20:41.762]
[20:43.299] Here are the years that walk between, bearing
[20:46.959] Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring
[20:50.446] One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing
[20:55.340]
[20:56.097] White light folded, sheathing about her, folded.
[20:59.991] The new years walk, restoring
[21:03.698] Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
[21:08.792] With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
[21:13.356] The time. Redeem
[21:15.922] The unread vision in the higher dream
[21:19.007] While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.
[21:24.078]
[21:25.282] The silent sister veiled in white and blue
[21:29.903] Between the yews, behind the garden god,
[21:33.259] Whose flute is breathless, bent her head and signed but spoke no word
[21:41.483]
[21:42.445] But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down
[21:46.523] Redeem the time, redeem the dream
[21:49.759] The token of the word unheard, unspoken
[21:54.374]
[21:55.646] Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew
[22:00.817]
[22:01.882] And after this our exile
[22:06.298]
[22:07.433] V
[22:08.420] If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
[22:13.482] If the unheard, unspoken
[22:15.903] Word is unspoken, unheard
[22:19.073] Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
[22:24.485] The Word without a word, the Word within
[22:28.500] The world and for the world
[22:30.936] And the light shone in darkness and
[22:34.111] Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
[22:40.756] About the centre of the silent Word.
[22:44.218]
[22:45.726] O my people, what have I done unto thee.
[22:49.939]
[22:50.688] Where shall the word be found, where will the word
[22:54.568] Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
[23:00.023] Not on the sea or on the islands, not
[23:03.972] On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
[23:07.296] For those who walk in darkness
[23:10.079] Both in the day time and in the night time
[23:13.217] The right time and the right place are not here
[23:17.182] No place of grace for those who avoid the face
[23:22.284] No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice
[23:30.479]
[23:30.923] Will the veiled sister pray for
[23:34.413] Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee,
[23:40.577] Those who are torn on the horn between season and season, time and time, between
[23:48.355] Hour and hour, word and word, power and power, those who wait
[23:55.809] In darkness? Will the veiled sister pray
[24:01.347] For children at the gate
[24:03.258] Who will not go away and cannot pray:
[24:06.372] Pray for those who chose and oppose
[24:11.951]
[24:12.974] O my people, what have I done unto thee.
[24:17.820]
[24:18.952] Will the veiled sister between the slender
[24:22.557] Yew trees pray for those who offend her
[24:25.948] And are terrified and cannot surrender
[24:29.402] And affirm before the world and deny between the rocks
[24:34.201] In the last desert before the last blue rocks
[24:38.563] The desert in the garden the garden in the desert
[24:42.387] Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered appleseed.
[24:48.297]
[24:49.476] O my people.
[24:52.122] VI
[24:53.391] Although I do not hope to turn again
[24:57.457] Although I do not hope
[24:59.699] Although I do not hope to turn
[25:01.930]
[25:02.591] Wavering between the profit and the loss
[25:05.215] In this brief transit where the dreams cross
[25:08.447] The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying
[25:12.820] Bless me father though I do not wish to wish these things
[25:18.817] From the wide window towards the granite shore
[25:22.661] The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying
[25:27.567] Unbroken wings
[25:29.337]
[25:30.095] And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
[25:33.394] In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
[25:36.818] And the weak spirit quickens to rebel
[25:40.252] For the bent goldenrod and the lost sea smell
[25:44.106] Quickens to recover
[25:46.266] The cry of quail and the whirling plover
[25:49.822] And the blind eye creates
[25:53.015] The empty forms between the ivory gates
[25:56.397] And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth
[26:02.531]
[26:03.960] This is the time of tension between dying and birth
[26:09.680] The place of solitude where three dreams cross
[26:14.435] Between blue rocks
[26:16.458] But when the voices shaken from the yewtree drift away
[26:21.455] Let the other yew be shaken and reply.
[26:25.409]
[26:26.740] Blessè d sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
[26:34.516] Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
[26:38.486] Teach us to care and not to care
[26:42.042] Teach us to sit still
[26:44.731] Even among these rocks,
[26:47.121] Our peace in His will
[26:50.491] And even among these rocks
[26:54.231] Sister, mother
[26:55.956] And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
[27:00.453] Suffer me not to be separated
[27:03.969]
[27:05.055] And let my cry come unto Thee.