The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (Soundtrack)-Karl Verkade

[00:05.64]Let us go then, you and I, [00:08.98]When the evening is spread out against the sky [00:14.27]Like a patient etherized upon a table; [00:19.64]Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, [00:23.91]The muttering retreats [00:25.10]Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels [00:29.59]And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: [00:34.63]Streets that follow like a tedious argument [00:37.98]Of insidious intent [00:41.42]To lead you to an overwhelming question ... [00:46.32]Oh, do not ask, "What is it?" [00:49.97]Let us go and make our visit. [00:53.89]In the room the women come and go [00:55.83]Talking of Michelangelo. [01:00.52]The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, [01:05.75]The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, [01:10.68]Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, [01:14.70]Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, [01:19.54]Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, [01:24.29]Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, [01:30.07]And seeing that it was a soft October night, [01:34.45]Curled once about the house, and fell asleep. [01:40.78]And indeed there will be time [01:44.31]For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, [01:47.90]Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; [01:50.96]There will be time, there will be time [01:54.64]To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; [01:57.98]There will be time to murder and create, [02:02.59]And time for all the works and days of hands [02:06.16]That lift and drop a question on your plate; [02:10.28]Time for you and time for me, [02:13.72]And time yet for a hundred indecisions, [02:17.08]And for a hundred visions and revisions, [02:19.55]Before the taking of a toast and tea. [02:23.92]In the room the women come and go [02:26.09]Talking of Michelangelo. [02:31.09]And indeed there will be time [02:34.75]To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?" [02:40.39]Time to turn back and descend the stair, [02:43.95]With a bald spot in the middle of my hair— [02:47.41](They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!") [02:51.19]My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, [02:56.06]My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin [03:03.49](They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!") [03:10.05]Do I dare [03:10.66]Disturb the universe? [03:15.44]In a minute there is time [03:17.91]For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. [03:24.76]For I have known them all already, known them all: [03:29.90]Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, [03:34.12]I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; [03:38.68]I know the voices dying with a dying fall [03:42.88]Beneath the music from a farther room. [03:48.74]So how should I presume? [03:52.60]And I have known the eyes already, known them all— [03:57.50]The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, [04:00.71]And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, [04:04.29]When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, [04:08.04]Then how should I begin [04:10.44]To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? [04:13.67]And how should I presume? [04:16.55]And I have known the arms already, known them all— [04:20.32]Arms that are braceleted and white and bare [04:24.21](But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!) [04:28.89]Is it perfume from a dress [04:32.10]That makes me so digress? [04:36.04]Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. [04:41.16]And should I then presume? [04:44.27]And how should I begin? [04:49.64]Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets [04:54.09]And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes [04:57.00]Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ... [05:05.07]I should have been a pair of ragged claws [05:07.00]Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. [05:13.28]And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! [05:17.61]Smoothed by long fingers, [05:21.34]Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers, [05:28.43]Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. [05:33.66]Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, [05:37.52]Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? [05:42.43]But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, [05:47.48]Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, [05:53.42]I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter; [05:58.79]I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, [06:02.68]And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, [06:10.29]And in short, I was afraid. [06:15.93]And would it have been worth it, after all, [06:18.98]After the cups, the marmalade, the tea, [06:21.64]Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me, [06:25.43]Would it have been worth while, [06:27.87]To have bitten off the matter with a smile, [06:30.58]To have squeezed the universe into a ball [06:33.00]To roll it toward some overwhelming question, [06:35.88]To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead, [06:38.42]Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"— [06:43.15]If one, settling a pillow by her head, [06:45.66] Should say: "That is not what I meant at all; [06:51.17] That is not it, at all." [06:54.97]And would it have been worth it, after all, [06:58.24]Would it have been worth while, [07:00.29]After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, [07:03.95]After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor— [07:10.23]And this, and so much more?— [07:14.50]It is impossible to say just what I mean! [07:20.06]But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: [07:25.02]Would it have been worth while [07:27.33]If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, [07:31.68]And turning toward the window, should say: [07:35.05]"That is not it at all, [07:38.48]That is not what I meant, at all." [07:42.99]No I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; [07:47.68]Am an attendant lord, one that will do [07:51.47]To swell a progress, start a scene or two, [07:54.80]Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, [08:05.39]Deferential, glad to be of use, [08:09.17]Politic, cautious, and meticulous; [08:12.98]Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; [08:16.76]At times, indeed, almost ridiculous— [08:20.92]Almost, at times, the Fool. [08:27.42]I grow old ... I grow old ... [08:34.77]I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. [08:39.41]Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? [08:46.00]I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. [08:51.61]I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. [08:58.65]I do not think that they will sing to me. [09:04.49]I have seen them riding seaward on the waves [09:09.09]Combing the white hair of the waves blown back [09:13.68]When the wind blows the water white and black. [09:21.16]We have lingered in the chambers of the sea [09:24.33]By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown [09:30.44]Till human voices wake us, and we drown.