WEBVTT

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Now, for the following book,
which is Rivers and Mountains,

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I'm going to read a section
from a very long poem called

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The Skaters, which
is in four parts.

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I'm going to read part of
the second section, which

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kind of stands by itself.

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"Once there was a
point in these islands,

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coming to see where the
rock had rotted away,

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and turning into a tiny
speck in the distance.

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But war's savagery-- even
the most patient scholar,

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now could hardly reconstruct
the old fort exactly as it was.

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That trees continue
to wave over it.

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That there is also a small
museum somewhere inside.

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That the history of costume
is no less fascinating

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than the history of
great migrations.

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I'd like to bugger you
all up, deliberately

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falsify all your
old suck-ass notions

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of how chivalry is being lived.

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What goes on in beehives.

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But the whole filthy
mess, misunderstandings

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included, problems about
the tunic button, et cetera.

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How much of any one
person is there.

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Still, after bananas
and spoonbread

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in the shadow of
the old walls, it

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is cooling to return under
the eaves in the shower that

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probably fell while
we were inside,

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examining bowknots,
old light-bulb sockets,

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places where the whitewash
had begun to flake.

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With here and there an
old map or illustration.

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Here's one for instance--
looks like a weather map--

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or a coil bit of wallpaper with
a design of faded hollyhocks,

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or abstract fruit and
gumdrops in chains--

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But how is it that you are
always indoors peering it

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too heavily canceled stamps
through a greasy magnifying

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glass?

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And slowly the
incoherencies of day

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melt in a general
wishful thinking of night

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to peruse certain
stars over the bay.

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Cataracts of peace pour
from the poised heavens

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and only fear of
snakes prevents us

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from passing the
night in the open air.

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The day is definitely
at an end."

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Excuse me.

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Old heavens, you used to tweak
above us, standing like rain

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whenever a salvo--

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old heavens, you lying there
above the old, but not ruined,

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fort, can you hear,
there, what I am saying?

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For it is you I am parodying,
your invisible denials.

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And the almost
correct impressions

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corroborated by newsprint,
which is so fine.

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I called you there, but I do not
think that you will answer me.

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For I am condemned to drum
my fingers on the closed

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lid of this piano, this
tedious planet, earth

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as it winks to you through the
aspiring, growing distances,

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a last spark before the night.

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There was much to be
said in favor of storms

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but you seem to have abandoned
them in favor of endless light.

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I cannot say that I think the
change much of an improvement.

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There is something
fearful in these summer

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nights that go on forever--

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We are nearing the Moorish
coast, I think, in a bateau.

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I wonder if I will
have any friends there.

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Whether the future will be
kinder to me than the past,

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for example, and am
all set to be put out,

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finding it to be not.

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Still, I am prepared for this
voyage, and for anything else

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you may care to mention.

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Not that I am not afraid, but
there is very little time left.

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You have probably made
travel arrangements,

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and know the feeling.

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Suddenly, one morning,
the little train

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arrives in the
station, but oh, so big

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It is!

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Much bigger and faster
than anyone told you.

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A bewhiskered student
in an old baggy overcoat

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is waiting to take it.

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'Why do you want to go
there,' they all say.

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'It is better in
the other direction.

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And so it is.

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There people are
free, at any rate.

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But where you are
going no one is.

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Still there are parks and
libraries to be visited,

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'La Bibliotheque Municipale,'
hotel reservations and all that

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rot.

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Old American films dubbed
into the foreign language.

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Coffee and whisky
and cigar stubs.

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Nobody minds.

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And rain on the bristly
wool of your topcoat.

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I realized that I never
knew why I wanted to come.

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Yet I shall never return
to the past, that attic,

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its sailboats are
perhaps more beautiful

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than these, these I
am leaning against,

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spangled with diamonds and
orange and purple stains,

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bearing me once again
in quest of the unknown.

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These sails are
life itself to me.

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I heard a girl say
this once, and cried,

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and brought her fresh
fruit and fishes, olives

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and golden baked loaves.

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She dried her tears
and thanked me.

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Now we are both setting sail
into the purplish evening.

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I love it!

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This cruise can never
last long enough for me.

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But once more, office
desks, radiators--

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no!

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That is behind me.

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No more dullness, only movies,
and love and laughter, sex

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and fun.

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The ticket seller is blowing
his little horn-- hurry

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before the window slams down.

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The train we are getting
onto is a boat train,

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and the boats are
really boats this time.

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But I heard they heaven
say-- is it right?

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This continual changing
back and forth?

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Laughter and tears and so on?

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Mightn't just plain sadness
be sufficient for him?

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No!

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I'll not accept that any
more, you bewhiskered

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old caverns of blue!

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This is just right for me.

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I am cozily ensconced in
the balcony of my face

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Looking out over the
whole darn countryside,

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a beacon of satisfaction I am.

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I'll not trade
places with a king.

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Here I am then,
continuing but ever

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beginning my perennial voyage,
into new memories, new hope

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and flowers the way the
coasts glide past you.

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I shall never forget this moment

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Because it consists
of purest ecstasy.

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I am happier now than I ever
dared believe anyone could be.

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And we finger down
the dog-eared coasts--

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it is all passing!

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It is past!

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No, I am here,
bellow the coasts,

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and even the heavens
roar their ascent

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As we pick up a lemon-colored
light horizontally projected

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into the night, the night that
heaven was kind enough to send,

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and I launch into the happiest
dreams, happier once again,

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because tomorrow
is already here.

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Yet certain kernels remain.

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Clouds that drift
past sheds read it

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in the official bulletin.

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We shan't be putting out today.

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The old stove smoked
worse than ever

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because rain was coming
down its chimney.

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Only the bleary eye
of fog accosted one

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through the mended pane.

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Outside, the swamp water
lapped the broken wood step.

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A rowboat was moored in the
alligator-infested swamp.

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Somewhere, from deep in
the interior of the jungle,

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a groan was heard.

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Could it be--?

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Anyway, a rainy
day-- wet weather.

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The whole voyage will
have to be canceled.

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It would be impossible to
make different connections.

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Anyway the hotels are
all full at this season.

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The junks packed with refugees
returning from the islands.

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Sea-bream and flounder abound
in the muddied waters--

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They in fact represent the
backbone of the island economy.

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That, and cigar rolling.

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Please leave your papers at the
desk as you pass out, You know.

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'The Wedding March.'

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Ah yes, that's the way.

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The couple descend the steps
of the little old church.

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Ribbons are flung,
ribbons of cloud

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And the sun seems
to be coming out.

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But there have been
so many false alarms--

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no, it's happened!

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The storm is over.

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Again the weather
is fine and clear.

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And the voyage?

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It's on!

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Listen everybody,
the ship is starting,

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I can hear its whistle's roar!

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We have just time enough
to make it to the dock!

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And away they pour, in
the sulfurous sunlight,

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to the aqua and
silver waters where

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stands the glistening white
ship and into the great vessel

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they flood, a motley and happy
crowd chanting and pouring down

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hymns on the surface
of the ocean--

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Pulling, tugging
us along with them,

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by means of streamers,
golden and silver confetti.

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Smiling, we laugh and
sing with the revelers

00:08:43.570 --> 00:08:46.390 align:middle line:84%
but are not quite certain
that we want to go--

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the dock is so sunny and warm.

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That majestic ship will pull
up anchor who knows where?

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And full of laughter and
tears, we sidle once again

00:08:57.010 --> 00:08:58.660 align:middle line:90%
with the other passengers.

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The ground is
heaving under foot.

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Is it the ship?

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It could be the dock--

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and with a great whoosh
all the sails go up--

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hideous black smoke belches
forth from the funnels

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smudging the gold
carnival costumes

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with the gaiety of
its jet-black soot

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And, as into a tunnel
the voyage starts only,

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as I said, to be continued.

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The eyes of those left
standing on the dock are wet

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but ours are dry.

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Into the secretive, vaporous
night with all of us!

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Into the unknown, the
unknown that loves us,

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the great unknown!

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[APPLAUSE]

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