I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding |
|
| Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing |
|
| Memory and desire, stirring |
|
| Dull roots with spring rain. |
|
| Winter kept us warm, covering |
5 |
| Earth in forgetful snow, feeding |
|
| A little life with dried tubers. |
|
| Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee |
|
| With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, |
|
| And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, |
10 |
| And drank coffee, and talked for an hour. |
|
| Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch. |
|
| And when we were children, staying at the archduke's, |
|
| My cousin's, he took me out on a sled, |
|
| And I was frightened. He said, Marie, |
15 |
| Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. |
|
| In the mountains, there you feel free. |
|
| I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter. |
|
|
| What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow |
|
| Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, |
20 |
| You cannot say, or guess, for you know only |
|
| A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, |
|
| And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, |
|
| And the dry stone no sound of water. Only |
|
| There is shadow under this red rock, |
25 |
| (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), |
|
| And I will show you something different from either |
|
| Your shadow at morning striding behind you |
|
| Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; |
|
| I will show you fear in a handful of dust. |
30 |
| Frisch weht der Wind |
|
| Der Heimat zu. |
|
| Mein Irisch Kind, |
|
| Wo weilest du? |
|
| 'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; |
35 |
| 'They called me the hyacinth girl.' |
|
| Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, |
|
| Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not |
|
| Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither |
|
| Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, |
40 |
| Looking into the heart of light, the silence. |
|
| Od' und leer das Meer. |
|
|
| Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante, |
|
| Had a bad cold, nevertheless |
|
| Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, |
45 |
| With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she, |
|
| Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor, |
|
| (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!) |
|
| Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks, |
|
| The lady of situations. |
50 |
| Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel, |
|
| And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card, |
|
| Which is blank, is something he carries on his back, |
|
| Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find |
|
| The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. |
55 |
| I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring. |
|
| Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone, |
|
| Tell her I bring the horoscope myself: |
|
| One must be so careful these days. |
|
|
| Unreal City, |
60 |
| Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, |
|
| A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, |
|
| I had not thought death had undone so many. |
|
| Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, |
|
| And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. |
65 |
| Flowed up the hill and down King William Street, |
|
| To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours |
|
| With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine. |
|
| There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying 'Stetson! |
|
| 'You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! |
70 |
| 'That corpse you planted last year in your garden, |
|
| 'Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? |
|
| 'Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? |
|
| 'Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men, |
|
| 'Or with his nails he'll dig it up again! |
75 |
| 'You! hypocrite lecteur!mon semblable,mon frère!' |
|
|
II. A GAME OF CHESS
THE Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne, |
|
| Glowed on the marble, where the glass |
|
| Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines |
|
| From which a golden Cupidon peeped out |
80 |
| (Another hid his eyes behind his wing) |
|
| Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra |
|
| Reflecting light upon the table as |
|
| The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it, |
|
| From satin cases poured in rich profusion; |
85 |
| In vials of ivory and coloured glass |
|
| Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes, |
|
| Unguent, powdered, or liquidtroubled, confused |
|
| And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air |
|
| That freshened from the window, these ascended |
90 |
| In fattening the prolonged candle-flames, |
|
| Flung their smoke into the laquearia, |
|
| Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling. |
|
| Huge sea-wood fed with copper |
|
| Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone, |
95 |
| In which sad light a carvèd dolphin swam. |
|
| Above the antique mantel was displayed |
|
| As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene |
|
| The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king |
|
| So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale |
100 |
| Filled all the desert with inviolable voice |
|
| And still she cried, and still the world pursues, |
|
| 'Jug Jug' to dirty ears. |
|
| And other withered stumps of time |
|
| Were told upon the walls; staring forms |
105 |
| Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed. |
|
| Footsteps shuffled on the stair. |
|
| Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair |
|
| Spread out in fiery points |
|
| Glowed into words, then would be savagely still. |
110 |
|
| 'My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me. |
|
| 'Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak. |
|
| 'What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? |
|
| 'I never know what you are thinking. Think.' |
|
|
| I think we are in rats' alley |
115 |
| Where the dead men lost their bones. |
|
|
| 'What is that noise?' |
|
| The wind under the door. |
|
| 'What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?' |
|
| Nothing again nothing. |
120 |
| 'Do |
|
| 'You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember |
|
| 'Nothing?' |
|
| I remember |
|
| Those are pearls that were his eyes. |
125 |
| 'Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?' |
|
| But |
|
| O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag |
|
| It's so elegant |
|
| So intelligent |
130 |
| 'What shall I do now? What shall I do?' |
|
| 'I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street |
|
| 'With my hair down, so. What shall we do to-morrow? |
|
| 'What shall we ever do?' |
|
| The hot water at ten. |
135 |
| And if it rains, a closed car at four. |
|
| And we shall play a game of chess, |
|
| Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door. |
|
|
| When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said |
|
| I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself, |
140 |
| HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME |
|
| Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit smart. |
|
| He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you |
|
| To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there. |
|
| You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set, |
145 |
| He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at you. |
|
| And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert, |
|
| He's been in the army four years, he wants a good time, |
|
| And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said. |
|
| Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I said. |
150 |
| Then I'll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look. |
|
| HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME |
|
| If you don't like it you can get on with it, I said. |
|
| Others can pick and choose if you can't. |
|
| But if Albert makes off, it won't be for lack of telling. |
155 |
| You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique. |
|
| (And her only thirty-one.) |
|
| I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face, |
|
| It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she said. |
|
| (She's had five already, and nearly died of young George.) |
160 |
| The chemist said it would be alright, but I've never been the same. |
|
| You are a proper fool, I said. |
|
| Well, if Albert won't leave you alone, there it is, I said, |
|
| What you get married for if you don't want children? |
|
| HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME |
165 |
| Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon, |
|
| And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot |
|
| HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME |
|
| HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME |
|
| Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight. |
170 |
| Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight. |
|
| Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night |