WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.570 align:middle line:90%


00:00:07.570 --> 00:00:09.970 align:middle line:84%
And gifted young
geniuses go in and out

00:00:09.970 --> 00:00:15.370 align:middle line:84%
of advertising and movies
and things like that.

00:00:15.370 --> 00:00:20.800 align:middle line:84%
They burn out just as concert
musicians and dancers do so.

00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.600 align:middle line:90%


00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:25.865 align:middle line:84%
Here's an "Elegy
for a Gifted Child."

00:00:25.865 --> 00:00:30.360 align:middle line:90%


00:00:30.360 --> 00:00:31.725 align:middle line:90%
"Elegy for a gifted child.

00:00:31.725 --> 00:00:34.560 align:middle line:90%


00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:37.860 align:middle line:90%
Ephemeron, it's over.

00:00:37.860 --> 00:00:41.040 align:middle line:84%
All the scales of
the clock faces

00:00:41.040 --> 00:00:44.310 align:middle line:84%
are so heavy with
life, so loaded

00:00:44.310 --> 00:00:48.030 align:middle line:84%
to capacity with
eyelids and lashes

00:00:48.030 --> 00:00:53.610 align:middle line:84%
that they have come around
again to zero midnight.

00:00:53.610 --> 00:01:00.630 align:middle line:84%
Since you were no Faust at noon,
no Mephistopheles at midnight,

00:01:00.630 --> 00:01:04.470 align:middle line:84%
we'll reward your
prayers with hell

00:01:04.470 --> 00:01:07.590 align:middle line:90%
and its continuous distractions.

00:01:07.590 --> 00:01:10.440 align:middle line:90%
It's just all over, Ephemeron.

00:01:10.440 --> 00:01:12.960 align:middle line:90%


00:01:12.960 --> 00:01:15.570 align:middle line:90%
Counter elegy.

00:01:15.570 --> 00:01:17.160 align:middle line:90%
Oh no.

00:01:17.160 --> 00:01:23.250 align:middle line:84%
I go on doing what I have
to do because I do it.

00:01:23.250 --> 00:01:28.770 align:middle line:84%
I sat and sat there
counting 1 plus 1 plus 1

00:01:28.770 --> 00:01:32.640 align:middle line:84%
while all the rest were
somewhere else playing

00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:39.480 align:middle line:84%
in the tripe of a living horse
and stroking its great eyes.

00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:41.970 align:middle line:90%
This took time.

00:01:41.970 --> 00:01:46.680 align:middle line:84%
Then at the end of that
eternity they gave me

00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:51.970 align:middle line:84%
60 bucks, less taxes
and dues and said,

00:01:51.970 --> 00:01:57.390 align:middle line:84%
come back tomorrow there
is always work to do.

00:01:57.390 --> 00:01:59.920 align:middle line:90%
It was night.

00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:04.050 align:middle line:84%
I got stewed,
screwed, and tattooed.

00:02:04.050 --> 00:02:09.509 align:middle line:84%
My skin read, I love
my mother, in a heart,

00:02:09.509 --> 00:02:12.870 align:middle line:90%
pierced by a naked sword.

00:02:12.870 --> 00:02:18.600 align:middle line:84%
Weak in the needling it
was therefore all lifelong

00:02:18.600 --> 00:02:22.680 align:middle line:90%
in the bent branch of my arm.

00:02:22.680 --> 00:02:28.240 align:middle line:84%
You think I just went off
like a bomb and was all over.

00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:34.560 align:middle line:84%
But it has seemed long to
me, slow as the explosion

00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:40.770 align:middle line:84%
of the whole life of the tree
in which the birds evolved,

00:02:40.770 --> 00:02:44.450 align:middle line:90%
each one singing out its song."

00:02:44.450 --> 00:02:53.000 align:middle line:90%