The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock - T.S. Eliot.mp3

[00:01.770] Let us go then, you and I,
[00:04.894] When the evening is spread out against the sky
[00:08.011] Like a patient etherized upon a table;
[00:11.329] Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
[00:15.135] The muttering retreats
[00:17.064] Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
[00:21.274] And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
[00:25.169] Streets that follow like a tedious argument
[00:29.138] Of insidious intent
[00:31.337] To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
[00:33.970] Oh, do not ask, “What is it?“
[00:36.571] Let us go and make our visit.
[00:39.935] In the room the women come and go
[00:44.915] Talking of Michelangelo.
[00:47.386] The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
[00:52.940] The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
[00:57.965] Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
[01:01.662] Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
[01:06.463] Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
[01:10.527] Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
[01:14.122] And seeing that it was a soft October night,
[01:18.213] Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
[01:23.442] And indeed there will be time
[01:26.484] For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
[01:29.548] Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
[01:32.726] There will be time, there will be time
[01:35.374] To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
[01:38.994] There will be time to murder and create,
[01:42.326] And time for all the works and days of hands
[01:46.317] That lift and drop a question on your plate;
[01:50.218] Time for you and time for me,
[01:53.656] And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
[01:56.629] And for a hundred visions and revisions,
[01:59.827] Before the taking of a toast and tea.
[02:03.760] In the room the women come and go
[02:08.373] Talking of Michelangelo.
[02:11.094] And indeed there will be time
[02:14.566] To wonder, “Do I dare?“ and, “Do I dare?“
[02:18.966] Time to turn back and descend the stair,
[02:22.144] With a bald spot in the middle of my hair--
[02:24.831] (They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!“)
[02:28.349] My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
[02:32.842] My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin--
[02:37.442] (They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!“)
[02:41.590] Do I dare
[02:43.610] Disturb the universe?
[02:45.559] In a minute there is time
[02:48.135] For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
[02:55.173] For I have known them all already, known them all:
[02:59.112] Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
[03:03.103] I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
[03:07.679] I know the voices dying with a dying fall
[03:11.641] Beneath the music from a farther room.
[03:14.502] So how should I presume?
[03:18.237] And I have known the eyes already, known them all--
[03:22.793] The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
[03:25.883] And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
[03:30.188] When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
[03:33.766] Then how should I begin
[03:36.370] To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
[03:39.659] And how should I presume?
[03:42.892] And I have known the arms already, known them all--
[03:48.383] Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[03:51.705] (But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
[03:55.945] Is it perfume from a dress
[03:59.841] That makes me so digress?
[04:00.023] Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
[04:04.708] And should I then presume?
[04:07.793] And how should I begin?
[04:10.701] Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
[04:18.069] And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
[04:22.173] Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ...
[04:27.195] I should have been a pair of ragged claws
[04:32.009] Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
[04:35.781] And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
[04:42.385] Smoothed by long fingers,
[04:44.724] Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
[04:47.887] Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
[04:52.071] Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
[04:56.544] Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
[05:00.625] But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
[05:05.359] Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
[05:12.081] I am no prophet--and here's no great matter;
[05:16.323] I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
[05:19.556] And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
[05:25.502] And in short, I was afraid.
[05:29.585] And would it have been worth it, after all,
[05:33.378] After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
[05:37.264] Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
[05:41.749] Would it have been worth while,
[05:44.017] To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
[05:46.580] To have squeezed the universe into a ball
[05:49.352] To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
[05:52.543] To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
[05:57.175] Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all“--
[05:59.991] If one, settling a pillow by her head,**
[06:04.200] Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;
[06:09.126] That is not it, at all.“
[06:11.516] And would it have been worth it, after all,
[06:16.665] Would it have been worth while,
[06:19.041] After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
[06:23.939] After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor--
[06:30.595] And this, and so much more?--
[06:34.692] It is impossible to say just what I mean I
[06:35.149] But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
[06:40.291] Would it have been worth while
[06:43.739] If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
[06:48.024] And turning toward the window, should say:
[06:51.757] “That is not it at all,
[06:53.996] That is not what I meant, at all.“
[06:57.524] No I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
[07:04.680] Am an attendant lord, one that will do
[07:08.834] To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
[07:12.247] Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
[07:16.584] Deferential, glad to be of use,
[07:19.298] Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
[07:22.425] Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
[07:25.840] At times, indeed, almost ridiculous--
[07:29.954] Almost, at times, the Fool.
[07:33.833] I grow old ... I grow old ...
[07:38.359] I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
[07:42.797] Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
[07:47.823] I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
[07:52.679] I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
[07:57.788] I do not think that they will sing to me.
[08:02.462] I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
[08:06.975] Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
[08:10.421] When the wind blows the water white and black.
[08:14.474] We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
[08:18.963] By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
[08:23.966] Till human voices wake us, and we drown.