WEBVTT

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And so the ordeal
presents itself

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in the detail of a life lived.

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We know only what
we have experienced.

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The substance of our
lives is what we know.

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And in this next poem,
which is quite a long poem--

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it's called "Nightwalker"--

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many of the details
of my own experience,

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which of course, is that of
one born and bred in Ireland,

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are brought into use.

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"The nightwalker is someone who
is taking a walk in a Dublin

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suburb, leaving
home, heading down

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towards the seafront
at Sandycove,

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where as, you may remember, the
Martello tower at the opening

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of Joyce's Ulysses stands.

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And Joyce is, at one section in
the poem, the hero of the poem,

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so to speak.

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And indeed, the method of the
poem, which is essentially

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an interior monologue,
is partly a tribute

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to the method of Ulysses.

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Also in parenthesis,
any curious outbursts

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you may hear towards
the center of the poem

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are quotations from
Finnegans Wake.

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The nightwalker is in
a state of despondency,

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he is reacting to
memories of his day

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and to things and
happenings about him.

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He is also acutely aware
of the sort of thing

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that anybody who had the
same kind of upbringing as I

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have had would be aware of.

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For instance, when things
become significant,

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one thinks of one's history.

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And here the references
are, for instance,

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to the famine which over
100 years ago reduced

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Ireland's population by a
catastrophic percentage.

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Queen Victoria, under whose
reign the famine took place

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and who has left her mark on a
great deal of our way of life

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ever since, the
rebellion of 1916

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and the Civil War
of great brutality

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which followed shortly after.

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Also certain contemporary
facts of life

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which it would be
impossible to ignore,

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living in Ireland at this
time, mainly, curiously,

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the idea of economic
development,

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which in a great sudden burst
of drama and popularity,

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became part of
everybody's consciousness

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about five or six years
ago to such a degree

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that people would
be as likely to talk

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about the gross national product
as they would about say horse

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racing or football in the pub.

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And they are still
as caught up in this.

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The revival of
the Irish language

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is something which is the great
part of our consciousness.

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The official attempt to
revive the Irish language

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as the spoken language of
the majority of the people.

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I doubt myself that this
has any hope of success,

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but anything can happen.

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The mismanagement of the
Abbey theater and so on,

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these are references
which you may catch.

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I hope you will,
but if you don't, I

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don't believe that they will
make a great deal of difference

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to the point of the poem,
which I stress again

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is not really satire,
it's not social comment.

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It is simply what the
nightwalker is most aware of,

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the context of violence
inside and outside

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and it's a sad poem
about violence.

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I only know things
seem and are not good.

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A brain in the dark, unborn,
out exercising shadowy flesh.

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Fitness for the soft
belly, fresh air

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for lungs that take no
pleasure any longer.

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The smell of gardens under
suburban lamplight, clipped,

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private, a wall blotted with
shadows, monsters of ivy,

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squat in lunar glare.

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There above the roof that hangs
like a fat skull or the pearl

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knob of a pendulum at the
outermost reach of its swing,

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motionless.

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It is about to detach its
hold on the upper night

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for the return.

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Yes, I remember talk of
it, though, only a child.

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Not far from here, it
passed through remorseless,

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cratered face swift as
the wind, a bludgeon tears

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free from the world's
bones, spikes breaking off,

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millions of little sharp
limbs, jets of blood

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petrified in terror, jetted
screams, then plunges upward

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far into the darkness.

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It meant little to me
then, though, I remember

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playing in the silence
when the rain of fragments

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dropped in the
streets afterward.

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Bone splinters, silvery
slivers of screams,

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blood splinters rattling
like crimson flint.

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There behind, a mask
of gray dismay sagging

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open in the depths of torture,
moron, voiceless moon.

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That dark area the mark of Cain.

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My shadow twists about
my feet in the light

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of every passing street lamp.

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Will of the wisp in a bay
window, a shadow slumped

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in the corner of a living
room in blue trance

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buried alive two blank eyes.

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On a tiny screen,
mouths open and close,

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and bodies move obliquely
and stoop flickering.

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Embalmers in eerie light
underground, their arms

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toil in silence.

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A laboratory near necropolis.

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It is midnight.

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A shade enters patrolling
the hive of his brain.

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Window after window,
the same unearthly light

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consumes pitiless.

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Surely, we can never
die sick spirits.

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The minions stretch at rest.

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Pale entities wound in a drowsy
humming at the brink of sleep.

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They snuggle in their cells,
faintly luminous like grubs.

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Abdominal body juices and paper
thin shells in their thousands,

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in the smash ball wax old moon.

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Musing thus, I stroll upon
my way, a vagabond tethered.

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My shadow twists at thy feet.

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I must lie down
with them all soon

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and sleep and rise
with them again when

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the new dawn has touched our
pillows and our wet pallor

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and roused us.

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We come scratching
in our waistcoats

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down to the kitchen
for a cup of tea.

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Then with our briefcases
through wind or rain

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passed our neighbors
garden, Melrose Bloomfield,

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to wait at the station,
fluttering our papers,

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assembled for the day's
toil tapping the cool wind.

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Is it not right to serve
our banks and businesses

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and government?

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As together, we
develop our community

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on clear principles
with no fixed ideas.

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And twitching our thin
umbrellas, acceptable.

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But during a
transitional period,

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development should
express itself in forms

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without principle
based on fixed ideas.

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Robed and sputtered iron,
at the harbor mouth,

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she stands,
productive investment,

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and beckons the nation
through our gold half door.

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Lend me your wealth, your
cunning, and your drive,

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your arrogant refuse.

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Let my people serve them
bottled fury in our new hotels,

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while native
businessmen and managers

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drift with them chatting
over to the window

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to show them our
growing city, give them

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a feeling of what is possible,
our labor pool, the tax

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concessions, the
foreign capital, how

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to get a nicer state,
though, German,

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even collect some of our
better young artists.

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Morose condemnation, it is a
weakness and turns on itself.

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Clean bricks are made of mud.

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We need them for our power.

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Spirits skeletons are
straggling into view

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from the day's depths.

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You can pick them
out in the night

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sky with a little patience, pale
influences, the wakeful twins,

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Bruder und Schwester, two young
Germans, I had in this morning

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wanting to transfer
investment income.

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The sister, a
business figurehead.

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Her brother Arthur faced
with exasperated smiles,

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assuming, pressing until
he achieved response.

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And last, I do not exist.

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I cannot take my eyes
from their pallor.

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A red layer plays on their
faces livid with little splashes

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of blazing fire.

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The oven door closes.

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All about and above me, the
officials on the corridors

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or in their rooms
work or overwork

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with mixed motives or none.

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We dwell together in urgency
aborting vague tendencies

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with buttery smiles,
dominate, entering middle age,

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sobs serve.

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Among us, behind locked
doors, the ministers

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are working with a sureness
of touch found early

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in the nation's birth.

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The blood of enemies and
brothers dried on their hide

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long ago.

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Dragging old men, upright
and stately and blind

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are shuffling in the
corridor finding a key.

00:10:39.230 --> 00:10:42.080 align:middle line:90%
Their youth cannot die in them.

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It will be found beating with
violence when their bodies rot.

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What occupies them as
they sit-in their rooms?

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What they already are?

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Shadows life claimed
by pattern still living

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linked into constellations
with their dead.

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Look, the wedding group.

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The groom, the
best man, the fox,

00:11:06.370 --> 00:11:11.170 align:middle line:84%
and their three
ladies, a tragic tale.

00:11:11.170 --> 00:11:12.850 align:middle line:90%
Soon the story tales.

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Enmity sprang up between them,
and the fox took to the wilds.

00:11:18.190 --> 00:11:19.720 align:middle line:90%
Then, to the groom, sorrow.

00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:24.120 align:middle line:84%
His dear friend left
him also vowing hatred.

00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:26.610 align:middle line:84%
So they began destroying
the groom substance.

00:11:26.610 --> 00:11:31.200 align:middle line:84%
And he sent out to hunt the fox,
but trapped his friend instead.

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Morning, he slaughtered him.

00:11:34.760 --> 00:11:36.830 align:middle line:84%
Shortly, in his
term, the groom was

00:11:36.830 --> 00:11:38.750 align:middle line:90%
savaged on a Sunday morning.

00:11:38.750 --> 00:11:41.750 align:middle line:90%
No one knows by whom.

00:11:41.750 --> 00:11:44.450 align:middle line:84%
But was known the fox
is a friend of death

00:11:44.450 --> 00:11:47.870 align:middle line:90%
and rules nothing.

00:11:47.870 --> 00:11:51.680 align:middle line:84%
Over here in the same
quarter, the two executioners,

00:11:51.680 --> 00:11:57.980 align:middle line:84%
groom and weasel, 77
turning into each brow.

00:11:57.980 --> 00:12:00.680 align:middle line:84%
And look, the vivid
weasel dared again,

00:12:00.680 --> 00:12:05.350 align:middle line:84%
dancing crookbacked
under the player king.

00:12:05.350 --> 00:12:09.160 align:middle line:84%
A tragic comical tale,
how the fox long after

00:12:09.160 --> 00:12:11.500 align:middle line:84%
found a golden
instrument one day,

00:12:11.500 --> 00:12:16.690 align:middle line:84%
a great complex gold
horn left at his door.

00:12:16.690 --> 00:12:19.030 align:middle line:84%
He examined it with
little curiosity

00:12:19.030 --> 00:12:21.580 align:middle line:90%
wanting no gold or music.

00:12:21.580 --> 00:12:23.140 align:middle line:90%
Observed the mouthpiece.

00:12:23.140 --> 00:12:26.380 align:middle line:84%
Impossible to play
with fox's lips

00:12:26.380 --> 00:12:29.350 align:middle line:84%
and gave it with a dull
humor to his old enemy,

00:12:29.350 --> 00:12:33.880 align:middle line:84%
the weasel, who recognized
the horn of the player king

00:12:33.880 --> 00:12:36.130 align:middle line:90%
and bared his needle teeth.

00:12:36.130 --> 00:12:38.470 align:middle line:84%
He took it, hammered
on it with a stick,

00:12:38.470 --> 00:12:41.530 align:middle line:84%
and pranced about
in blithe pantomime.

00:12:41.530 --> 00:12:45.550 align:middle line:84%
His head cocked to
enjoy the golden clothes

00:12:45.550 --> 00:12:48.610 align:middle line:84%
while the fox, from time
to time, nodded his mask.

00:12:48.610 --> 00:12:52.920 align:middle line:90%


00:12:52.920 --> 00:12:56.220 align:middle line:90%
The human taste grows faint.

00:12:56.220 --> 00:13:01.230 align:middle line:84%
It is gone, leaving a taste
of self and laurel leaves

00:13:01.230 --> 00:13:06.900 align:middle line:84%
and rotted salt. The gardens
begin to smell of soaked sand

00:13:06.900 --> 00:13:10.140 align:middle line:84%
and half stripped
rocks in the dark.

00:13:10.140 --> 00:13:14.700 align:middle line:84%
My bones obey the
sighing of the tide.

00:13:14.700 --> 00:13:17.970 align:middle line:84%
Another turning, a
cast iron lamp standard

00:13:17.970 --> 00:13:20.610 align:middle line:84%
sheds yellow light
on the sea wall.

00:13:20.610 --> 00:13:25.730 align:middle line:84%
Other lamps are lighting along a
terrace of Victorian red brick,

00:13:25.730 --> 00:13:27.760 align:middle line:90%
not a breath of wind.

00:13:27.760 --> 00:13:32.560 align:middle line:84%
Joyce's Martello tower rises
into the dark near the 40 foot

00:13:32.560 --> 00:13:36.700 align:middle line:90%
on a prow frozen to stone.

00:13:36.700 --> 00:13:39.280 align:middle line:84%
Crossing the road, I hear
my footsteps echo back

00:13:39.280 --> 00:13:40.750 align:middle line:90%
from the terrace.

00:13:40.750 --> 00:13:44.320 align:middle line:84%
A sheet of newspaper gleams
yellowish in the gutter.

00:13:44.320 --> 00:13:48.700 align:middle line:84%
The Morning Times, our
new young minister stares

00:13:48.700 --> 00:13:52.810 align:middle line:84%
from a photograph on
horseback in hunting things

00:13:52.810 --> 00:14:00.400 align:middle line:84%
from a low angle haunch on
haunch, snigger, and by God.

00:14:00.400 --> 00:14:03.670 align:middle line:84%
The tide is drawing back
from the promenade far

00:14:03.670 --> 00:14:07.480 align:middle line:84%
as the lamplight can reach
trickling under the weed

00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:09.910 align:middle line:90%
into night cave.

00:14:09.910 --> 00:14:12.070 align:middle line:90%
Note the silence.

00:14:12.070 --> 00:14:14.620 align:middle line:90%
Light never strays there.

00:14:14.620 --> 00:14:16.780 align:middle line:90%
Nothing has a shadow there.

00:14:16.780 --> 00:14:22.510 align:middle line:84%
When a wind blows there, a
rustle in the gutter, the hair

00:14:22.510 --> 00:14:27.130 align:middle line:84%
stirs stealing over the waters
through the smell of seaweed,

00:14:27.130 --> 00:14:31.210 align:middle line:84%
a spectral stink of
horse and riders' sweat.

00:14:31.210 --> 00:14:33.070 align:middle line:90%
What's that outside the light?

00:14:33.070 --> 00:14:35.920 align:middle line:90%


00:14:35.920 --> 00:14:38.830 align:middle line:84%
Water in the tower,
be with me now

00:14:38.830 --> 00:14:42.010 align:middle line:84%
at your parapet above
the glare of the lamps.

00:14:42.010 --> 00:14:45.670 align:middle line:84%
Turn your milky spectacles
on the sea on unblinking,

00:14:45.670 --> 00:14:49.280 align:middle line:90%
cock your ear.

00:14:49.280 --> 00:14:52.430 align:middle line:84%
A rich darkness
alive with signals.

00:14:52.430 --> 00:14:54.620 align:middle line:90%
Lights flash and wink.

00:14:54.620 --> 00:14:58.700 align:middle line:84%
Little bells clunk in the
channel near the harbor.

00:14:58.700 --> 00:15:00.620 align:middle line:90%
Holt twinkles across the bay.

00:15:00.620 --> 00:15:04.430 align:middle line:84%
Ship lights move by
invisible sea lanes.

00:15:04.430 --> 00:15:07.430 align:middle line:84%
The bailey light flickers
as it sweeps the middle

00:15:07.430 --> 00:15:10.700 align:middle line:90%
of darkness on some commotion.

00:15:10.700 --> 00:15:13.880 align:middle line:84%
A dripping cylinder
big as a ship's funnel

00:15:13.880 --> 00:15:18.140 align:middle line:84%
pokes into sight
picked out by the moon.

00:15:18.140 --> 00:15:23.270 align:middle line:84%
Two blazing eyes,
then a whole head.

00:15:23.270 --> 00:15:27.710 align:middle line:84%
Shoulders of shadowy muscle lit
from within by joints and bones

00:15:27.710 --> 00:15:29.660 align:middle line:90%
of light.

00:15:29.660 --> 00:15:33.980 align:middle line:84%
Another head, animal, with
nostrils straining open

00:15:33.980 --> 00:15:39.590 align:middle line:84%
red as embers, goggle
eyes, a spectral whiny.

00:15:39.590 --> 00:15:42.500 align:middle line:90%
Four hooves scrape up the night.

00:15:42.500 --> 00:15:46.670 align:middle line:90%
A rider grunts and urges.

00:15:46.670 --> 00:15:51.230 align:middle line:84%
Father of authors, it is
himself in silk hat and jowls

00:15:51.230 --> 00:15:53.690 align:middle line:90%
accoutered in stern jodhpurs.

00:15:53.690 --> 00:15:58.460 align:middle line:84%
The son husband coming in
his power mounting to glory

00:15:58.460 --> 00:16:00.710 align:middle line:90%
on his big white hearse.

00:16:00.710 --> 00:16:03.450 align:middle line:90%


00:16:03.450 --> 00:16:07.140 align:middle line:84%
He climbs the dark to
his mansion in the sky

00:16:07.140 --> 00:16:12.090 align:middle line:84%
to take his place in the
influential circle, a new sign,

00:16:12.090 --> 00:16:14.670 align:middle line:90%
fox hunter.

00:16:14.670 --> 00:16:18.770 align:middle line:84%
Subjects will find the
going hard but rewarding.

00:16:18.770 --> 00:16:21.920 align:middle line:84%
You may give offense,
but this should pass.

00:16:21.920 --> 00:16:23.165 align:middle line:90%
Marry the boss's daughter.

00:16:23.165 --> 00:16:27.410 align:middle line:90%


00:16:27.410 --> 00:16:29.930 align:middle line:84%
The newspaper settles
down in the gutter again.

00:16:29.930 --> 00:16:32.330 align:middle line:90%
The archbishop on marriage.

00:16:32.330 --> 00:16:35.310 align:middle line:84%
New moves to restore
the language.

00:16:35.310 --> 00:16:38.120 align:middle line:90%
The new Ireland.

00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:40.940 align:middle line:84%
Still awkward in the
saddle but able and willing

00:16:40.940 --> 00:16:42.860 align:middle line:90%
for the foul ditch.

00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:46.970 align:middle line:84%
You'll sit as well as any
of the killed, dark brother.

00:16:46.970 --> 00:16:51.580 align:middle line:84%
What matter what iron
Fausts open the gates?

00:16:51.580 --> 00:16:55.990 align:middle line:84%
It has begun, the curs mill
and yell at your heels,

00:16:55.990 --> 00:17:00.340 align:middle line:84%
bite snapping and grinning,
they eye your back.

00:17:00.340 --> 00:17:03.540 align:middle line:90%
Watch the smile of the dog.

00:17:03.540 --> 00:17:06.089 align:middle line:84%
They wait your signal
the kick of dirt

00:17:06.089 --> 00:17:09.390 align:middle line:84%
and the teeth to turn
them in the old miracle

00:17:09.390 --> 00:17:11.760 align:middle line:84%
to a pack of lick
spittles running as one.

00:17:11.760 --> 00:17:15.720 align:middle line:90%


00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:21.180 align:middle line:84%
The foot of the tower, an angle
where the darkness is complete.

00:17:21.180 --> 00:17:22.650 align:middle line:90%
The parapet is empty.

00:17:22.650 --> 00:17:25.980 align:middle line:84%
A backdrop of
constellations crudely done

00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:28.410 align:middle line:90%
and mainly unfamiliar.

00:17:28.410 --> 00:17:32.310 align:middle line:84%
They are arranged to suggest
the chart of the brain.

00:17:32.310 --> 00:17:35.210 align:middle line:90%
Music far off.

00:17:35.210 --> 00:17:37.820 align:middle line:84%
In the part of the little
harbor that can be seen,

00:17:37.820 --> 00:17:41.330 align:middle line:84%
the moon is reflected
in low water

00:17:41.330 --> 00:17:44.960 align:middle line:90%
beyond the lamps on the terrace.

00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:49.610 align:middle line:84%
The music fades
snuggled into the skull.

00:17:49.610 --> 00:17:52.850 align:middle line:84%
Total darkness wanders
among my bones.

00:17:52.850 --> 00:17:54.530 align:middle line:90%
Long tips flutter.

00:17:54.530 --> 00:17:57.140 align:middle line:90%
Wavelets lap the shingle.

00:17:57.140 --> 00:18:01.460 align:middle line:84%
From the vest darkness
smell of my body,

00:18:01.460 --> 00:18:06.260 align:middle line:84%
chalk dust and flowers
faint brutality.

00:18:06.260 --> 00:18:08.990 align:middle line:90%
Shoes creak in peace.

00:18:08.990 --> 00:18:14.420 align:middle line:84%
Brother Burke flattens his
suit hand against the desk.

00:18:14.420 --> 00:18:17.450 align:middle line:84%
But the authorities use
the national schools

00:18:17.450 --> 00:18:21.550 align:middle line:84%
to try to conquer the
Irish national spirit,

00:18:21.550 --> 00:18:23.470 align:middle line:84%
at the same time,
exterminating what

00:18:23.470 --> 00:18:27.550 align:middle line:84%
they call our jargon, the
Irish language, in which St

00:18:27.550 --> 00:18:33.460 align:middle line:84%
Patrick, St Brigid, and St
Colmcille taught and prayed.

00:18:33.460 --> 00:18:36.820 align:middle line:84%
Edmund Ignatius Rice
founded our order

00:18:36.820 --> 00:18:41.740 align:middle line:84%
to provide schools that were
national in more than name.

00:18:41.740 --> 00:18:43.870 align:middle line:84%
Pupils from our schools
played their part,

00:18:43.870 --> 00:18:46.270 align:middle line:84%
as you know, in the
fight for freedom.

00:18:46.270 --> 00:18:48.580 align:middle line:84%
And you will be called
in your different ways

00:18:48.580 --> 00:18:52.450 align:middle line:84%
to work for the native language
to show your love by working

00:18:52.450 --> 00:18:54.510 align:middle line:90%
for your country.

00:18:54.510 --> 00:18:57.240 align:middle line:84%
Today, there are Christian
brothers, boys, everywhere

00:18:57.240 --> 00:18:58.290 align:middle line:90%
in the government.

00:18:58.290 --> 00:19:03.800 align:middle line:84%
The present Taoiseach sat where
one of you is sitting now.

00:19:03.800 --> 00:19:07.400 align:middle line:84%
It wasn't long before Her
Majesty gave us the famine,

00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:10.610 align:middle line:84%
the starvation as Bernard
Shaw, a godless writer,

00:19:10.610 --> 00:19:13.660 align:middle line:90%
called it more accurately.

00:19:13.660 --> 00:19:16.300 align:middle line:90%
A hand is laid on my brow.

00:19:16.300 --> 00:19:18.040 align:middle line:90%
A voice breathes.

00:19:18.040 --> 00:19:22.840 align:middle line:84%
You will ask, are we struck
down by the unsimplifiable.

00:19:22.840 --> 00:19:28.810 align:middle line:84%
Take these, bread of certainty,
scalding soup of memories

00:19:28.810 --> 00:19:30.970 align:middle line:90%
from my drowsy famine.

00:19:30.970 --> 00:19:34.150 align:middle line:84%
Markers in a dish
of scalding tears.

00:19:34.150 --> 00:19:38.995 align:middle line:84%
Food of dragon men and my
own dragon half, fierce pity.

00:19:38.995 --> 00:19:41.510 align:middle line:90%


00:19:41.510 --> 00:19:45.440 align:middle line:84%
The blessed Virgin smiles
from her wax pedestal

00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:47.810 align:middle line:90%
like young Victoria.

00:19:47.810 --> 00:19:53.810 align:middle line:84%
A green snake wriggled under her
heel beside a vase of tulips.

00:19:53.810 --> 00:19:59.210 align:middle line:84%
Adolescents, celibates, we offer
up our vows to God and Ireland

00:19:59.210 --> 00:20:02.300 align:middle line:84%
in her name, grateful
that by our studies

00:20:02.300 --> 00:20:08.230 align:middle line:84%
here, they may not lack civil
servants in a state of grace.

00:20:08.230 --> 00:20:13.240 align:middle line:84%
A glass partition rattles in the
draft rain against the windows.

00:20:13.240 --> 00:20:17.200 align:middle line:84%
A shiver clothes the
flesh bittersweet.

00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:22.990 align:middle line:84%
A sea mew passes over
hinging era, era.

00:20:22.990 --> 00:20:24.730 align:middle line:90%
Is there none to here?

00:20:24.730 --> 00:20:27.780 align:middle line:90%
Is all lost?

00:20:27.780 --> 00:20:29.130 align:middle line:90%
Not yet all.

00:20:29.130 --> 00:20:31.530 align:middle line:90%
A while still, your voice.

00:20:31.530 --> 00:20:35.640 align:middle line:84%
Alas, I think I will dash
myself at the stones.

00:20:35.640 --> 00:20:39.810 align:middle line:84%
I will become a wind on the
sea or a wave of the sea again

00:20:39.810 --> 00:20:42.360 align:middle line:90%
or a sea sound.

00:20:42.360 --> 00:20:46.890 align:middle line:84%
At the first light of the
sun, I stood on my rock.

00:20:46.890 --> 00:20:51.270 align:middle line:84%
I have seen the sun go down
at the end of the world.

00:20:51.270 --> 00:20:56.690 align:middle line:84%
Now, I fly across
the face of the moon.

00:20:56.690 --> 00:21:01.620 align:middle line:84%
A dying language echoes
across a century of silence.

00:21:01.620 --> 00:21:06.440 align:middle line:84%
It is time, lost soul,
I turned for home.

00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:13.130 align:middle line:84%
Sad music steals over the scene
hesitant, cogitating, exit.

00:21:13.130 --> 00:21:16.630 align:middle line:90%


00:21:16.630 --> 00:21:21.220 align:middle line:84%
Home and beauty, her
dear shadow on the blind.

00:21:21.220 --> 00:21:25.990 align:middle line:84%
The bread knife, she was slicing
and buttering a loaf of bread.

00:21:25.990 --> 00:21:27.760 align:middle line:90%
My heart stopped.

00:21:27.760 --> 00:21:31.450 align:middle line:90%
I starved for speech.

00:21:31.450 --> 00:21:35.350 align:middle line:84%
I believe now that love is
half persistence, a medium

00:21:35.350 --> 00:21:41.920 align:middle line:84%
in which from change to change,
understanding may be gathered.

00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:46.780 align:middle line:84%
The return, virgin most
pure, bright in the dregs

00:21:46.780 --> 00:21:51.520 align:middle line:84%
of the harbor, moon of
my dismay, quiet as oil,

00:21:51.520 --> 00:21:55.240 align:middle line:90%
enormous in her shaggy pool.

00:21:55.240 --> 00:21:58.570 align:middle line:84%
Her brightness reflected
on Earth in heaven

00:21:58.570 --> 00:22:00.700 align:middle line:90%
consumes my sight.

00:22:00.700 --> 00:22:03.400 align:middle line:84%
Gradually as my brain
at a great distance

00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:07.690 align:middle line:84%
swims into steady
light, scattered notes,

00:22:07.690 --> 00:22:11.140 align:middle line:84%
scraps of newspaper,
photographs begin

00:22:11.140 --> 00:22:16.000 align:middle line:84%
to flow unevenly toward the
pool and gather into a book

00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:18.550 align:middle line:90%
before her stare.

00:22:18.550 --> 00:22:23.095 align:middle line:84%
Her mask darkens as she
reads to my faint terror,

00:22:23.095 --> 00:22:28.000 align:middle line:84%
but she soon brightens a
little and smiled warmly.

00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:31.990 align:middle line:84%
It was a terrible time,
nothing but sadness and horrors

00:22:31.990 --> 00:22:34.330 align:middle line:90%
of one kind and another.

00:22:34.330 --> 00:22:36.340 align:middle line:90%
We came to take the waters.

00:22:36.340 --> 00:22:39.700 align:middle line:84%
The sun shone brightly,
which was very pleasant

00:22:39.700 --> 00:22:41.590 align:middle line:90%
and made it less gloomy.

00:22:41.590 --> 00:22:45.880 align:middle line:84%
But my tears flowed
again and again.

00:22:45.880 --> 00:22:51.340 align:middle line:84%
When I drank, I felt my
patience and trust coming back.

00:22:51.340 --> 00:22:55.510 align:middle line:84%
From time to time, it seems that
everything is breaking down,

00:22:55.510 --> 00:22:58.610 align:middle line:90%
but we must never despair.

00:22:58.610 --> 00:23:02.740 align:middle line:84%
There are times it is all part
of a meaningful drama that

00:23:02.740 --> 00:23:05.710 align:middle line:84%
begins in the gray
mists of antiquity

00:23:05.710 --> 00:23:09.010 align:middle line:84%
and reaches through the
years to unknown goals

00:23:09.010 --> 00:23:14.230 align:middle line:84%
in the consciousness of
men which is very soothing.

00:23:14.230 --> 00:23:15.790 align:middle line:90%
A wind sighs.

00:23:15.790 --> 00:23:19.090 align:middle line:84%
The pool shivers the
tide at the turn.

00:23:19.090 --> 00:23:22.210 align:middle line:90%
Odor of love light sour soil.

00:23:22.210 --> 00:23:26.140 align:middle line:84%
The seabed passes
like a ghost the hem

00:23:26.140 --> 00:23:29.470 align:middle line:90%
of her invisible garment.

00:23:29.470 --> 00:23:34.810 align:middle line:84%
Our mother rules on high,
queenlike, pale with control.

00:23:34.810 --> 00:23:40.240 align:middle line:84%
Hatcher of peoples, incline
from your darkness into mine.

00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:42.520 align:middle line:90%
I stand at the ocean's edge.

00:23:42.520 --> 00:23:48.870 align:middle line:84%
My head fallen back heavy with
your control and oppressed.

00:23:48.870 --> 00:23:50.820 align:middle line:90%
That mad stare.

00:23:50.820 --> 00:23:53.370 align:middle line:90%
The pulse hisses in my ear.

00:23:53.370 --> 00:23:57.420 align:middle line:84%
I am an arrow piercing
the void unevenly

00:23:57.420 --> 00:24:02.220 align:middle line:84%
as I correct and correct
but swiftest thought.

00:24:02.220 --> 00:24:04.890 align:middle line:84%
I arrive enveloped
in blinding silence.

00:24:04.890 --> 00:24:07.570 align:middle line:90%


00:24:07.570 --> 00:24:11.260 align:middle line:90%
No wind stirs on the dust floor.

00:24:11.260 --> 00:24:14.680 align:middle line:84%
Far as the eye can
see, rock needles

00:24:14.680 --> 00:24:16.990 align:middle line:90%
stand up from the plane.

00:24:16.990 --> 00:24:22.720 align:middle line:84%
The horizon, a ring of sharp
mountains like broken spikes.

00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:28.150 align:middle line:84%
Hard bluish light beats down
to kill any bodily thing,

00:24:28.150 --> 00:24:31.690 align:middle line:84%
but a million dead voices
hide from it in the dust

00:24:31.690 --> 00:24:34.660 align:middle line:90%
without hope of peace.

00:24:34.660 --> 00:24:36.670 align:middle line:90%
A cloud bursts from the ground.

00:24:36.670 --> 00:24:41.780 align:middle line:84%
Rock fragments scatter in
total silence, a true desert

00:24:41.780 --> 00:24:44.720 align:middle line:90%
naked to every peril.

00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:46.610 align:middle line:90%
The shadows are alive.

00:24:46.610 --> 00:24:49.640 align:middle line:84%
They scuttle and flicker
among the rock needles,

00:24:49.640 --> 00:24:54.560 align:middle line:84%
squat and suck the dry juice,
inspect the eggs of shadow

00:24:54.560 --> 00:24:59.720 align:middle line:84%
beneath the surface twitching
madly in their cells.

00:24:59.720 --> 00:25:06.050 align:middle line:84%
The Earth at the full hangs
in blue splendor in the sky.

00:25:06.050 --> 00:25:09.590 align:middle line:84%
I believe I have
heard of this place.

00:25:09.590 --> 00:25:11.720 align:middle line:90%
In the mind, darkness tosses.

00:25:11.720 --> 00:25:13.730 align:middle line:90%
The light deceives.

00:25:13.730 --> 00:25:19.760 align:middle line:84%
A vivid ghost sea quivers
and dazzles for miles.

00:25:19.760 --> 00:25:23.840 align:middle line:84%
Let us take the waters,
stoop down, run the fingers

00:25:23.840 --> 00:25:26.330 align:middle line:90%
along the brink.

00:25:26.330 --> 00:25:30.710 align:middle line:84%
It has a human taste,
but sterile, odorless.

00:25:30.710 --> 00:25:36.350 align:middle line:84%
Massed human wills, a
dust plain flickering.

00:25:36.350 --> 00:25:38.900 align:middle line:84%
I think this is the
sea of disappointment.

00:25:38.900 --> 00:25:45.800 align:middle line:90%


00:25:45.800 --> 00:25:49.150 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:25:49.150 --> 00:25:58.000 align:middle line:90%