Read Selected Poems 1930-1988 Online

Authors: Samuel Beckett

Selected Poems 1930-1988 (5 page)

BOOK: Selected Poems 1930-1988
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this clonic earth

see-saw she is blurred in sleep

she is fat half dead the rest is free-wheeling

part the black shag the pelt

is ashen woad

snarl and howl in the wood wake all the birds

hound the harlots out of the ferns

this damfool twilight threshing in the brake

bleating to be bloodied

this crapulent hush

tear its heart out

in her dreams she trembles again

way back in the dark old days panting

in the claws of the Pins in the stress of her hour

the bag writhes she thinks she is dying

the light fails it is time to lie down

Clew Bay vat of xanthic flowers

Croagh Patrick waned Hindu to spite a pilgrim

she is ready she has lain down above all the islands of glory

straining now this Sabbath evening of garlands

with a yo-heave-ho of able-bodied swans

out from the doomed land their reefs of tresses

in a hag she drops her young

the whales in Blacksod Bay are dancing

the asphodels come running the flags after

she thinks she is dying she is ashamed

she took me up on to a watershed

whence like the rubrics of a childhood

behold Meath shining through a chink in the hills

posses of larches there is no going back on

a rout of tracks and streams fleeing to the sea

kindergartens of steeples and then the harbour

like a woman making to cover her breasts

and left me

with whatever trust of panic we went out

with so much shall we return

there shall be no loss of panic between a man and his dog

bitch though he be

sodden packet of Churchman

muzzling the cairn

it is worse than dream

the light randy slut can't be easy

this clonic earth

all these phantoms shuddering out of focus

it is useless to close the eyes

all the chords of the earth broken like a woman pianist's

the toads abroad again on their rounds

sidling up to their snares

the fairy-tales of Meath ended

so say your prayers now and go to bed

your prayers before the lamps start to sing behind the larches

here at these knees of stone

then to bye-bye on the bones 

fix this pothook of beauty on this palette

you never know it might be final

or leave her she is paradise and then

plush hymens on your eyeballs

or on Butt Bridge blush for shame

the mixed declension of those mammae

cock up thy moon thine and thine only

up up up to the star of evening

swoon upon the arch-gasometer

on Misery Hill brand-new carnation

swoon upon the little purple

house of prayer

something heart of Mary

the Bull and Pool Beg that will never meet

not in this world

whereas dart away through the cavorting scapes

bucket o'er Victoria Bridge that's the idea

slow down slink down the Ringsend Road

Irishtown Sandymount puzzle find the Hell Fire

the Merrion Flats scored with a thrillion sigmas

Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour His Finger

girls taken strippin that's the idea

on the Bootersgrad breakwind and water

the tide making the dun gulls in a panic

the sands quicken in your hot heart

hide yourself not in the Rock keep on the move

keep on the move

thrice he came

the undertaker's man

impassible behind his scutal bowler

to measure

is he not paid to measure

this incorruptible in the vestibule

this malebranca knee-deep in the lilies

Malacoda knee-deep in the lilies

Malacoda for all the expert awe

that felts his perineum mutes his signal

sighing up through the heavy air

must it be it must be it must be

find the weeds engage them in the garden

hear she may see she need not

to coffin

with assistant ungulata

find the weeds engage their attention

hear she must see she need not

to cover

to be sure cover cover all over

your targe allow me hold your sulphur

divine dogday glass set fair

stay Scarmilion stay stay

lay this Huysum on the box

mind the imago it is he

hear she must see she must

all aboard all souls

half-mast aye aye

nay

redeem the surrogate goodbyes

the sheet astream in your hand

who have no more for the land

and the glass unmisted above your eyes

asylum under my tread all this day

their muffled revels as the flesh falls

breaking without fear or favour wind

the gantelope of sense and nonsense run

taken by the maggots for what they are

* * *

The lips of her desire are grey

and parted like a silk loop

threatening

a slight wanton wound.

She preys wearily

on sensitive wild things

proud to be torn

by the grave crouch of her beauty.

But she will die and her snare

tendered so patiently

to my tamed watchful sorrow

will break and hang

in a pitiful crescent.

And the number was uneven

In the green of holy Stephen

Where before the ass the cart

Was harnessed for a foreign part.

In this should not be seen the sign

Of hasard, no, but of design,

For of the two, by common consent,

The cart was the more intelligent.

Whose exceptionally pia

Mater hatched this grand idea

Is not known. He or she,

Smiling, unmolested, free,

By this one act the mind become

A providential vacuum,

Continues still to stroll amok,

To eat, drink, piss, shit, fart and fuck,

Assuming that the fucking season

Did not expire with that of reason.

Now through the city spreads apace

The cry: A thought has taken place!

A human thought! Ochone! Ochone!

Purissima Virgo! We're undone!

Bitched, buggered and bewilderèd!

Bring forth your dead! Bring forth your dead!

1

why not merely the despaired of

occasion of

wordshed

is it not better abort than be barren

the hours after you are gone are so leaden

they will always start dragging too soon

the grapples clawing blindly the bed of want

bringing up the bones the old loves

sockets filled once with eyes like yours

all always is it better too soon than never

the black want splashing their faces

saying again nine days never floated the loved

nor nine months

nor nine lives

2

saying again

if you do not teach me I shall not learn

saying again there is a last

even of last times

last times of begging

last times of loving

of knowing not knowing pretending

a last even of last times of saying

if you do not love me I shall not be loved

if I do not love you I shall not love

the churn of stale words in the heart again

love love love thud of the old plunger

pestling the unalterable

whey of words

terrified again

of not loving

of loving and not you

of being loved and not by you

of knowing not knowing pretending

pretending

I and all the others that will love you

if they love you

3

unless they love you 

offer it up plank it down

Golgotha was only the potegg

cancer angina it is all one to us

cough up your T.B. don't be stingy

no trifle is too trifling not even a thrombus

anything venereal is especially welcome

that old toga in the mothballs

don't be sentimental you won't be wanting it again

send it along we'll put it in the pot with the rest

with your love requited and unrequited

the things taken too late the things taken too soon

the spirit aching bullock's scrotum

you won't cure it you won't endure it

it is you it equals you any fool has to pity you

so parcel up the whole issue and send it along

the whole misery diagnosed undiagnosed misdiagnosed

get your friends to do the same we'll make use of it

we'll make sense of it we'll put it in the pot with the rest

it all boils down to blood of lamb

elles viennent

autres et pareilles

avec chacune c'est autre et c'est pareil

avec chacune l'absence d'amour est autre

avec chacune l'absence d'amour est pareille

they come

different and the same

with each it is different and the same

with each the absence of love is different

with each the absence of love is the same

être là sans mâchoires sans dents

où s'en va le plaisir de perdre

avec celui à peine inférieur

de gagner

et Roscelin et on attend

adverbe oh petit cadeau

vide vide sinon des loques de chanson

mon père m'a donné un mari

ou en faisant la fleur

qu'elle mouille

tant qu'elle voudra jusqu'à l'élégie

des sabots ferrés encore loin des Halles

ou l'eau de la canaille pestant dans les tuyaux

ou plus rien

qu'elle mouille puisque c'est ainsi

parfasse tout le superflu

et vienne

à la bouche idiote à la main formicante

au bloc cave à l'oeil qui écoute

de lointains coups de ciseaux argentins

à travers la mince cloison

ce jour où un enfant

prodigue à sa façon

rentra dans sa famille

j'entends la voix

elle est émue elle commente

la coupe du monde de football

toujours trop jeune

en même temps par la fenêtre ouverte

par les airs tout court

sourdement

la houle des fidèles

son sang gicla avec abondance

sur les draps sur les pois de senteur sur son mec

de ses doigts dégoûtants il ferma les paupières

sur les grands yeux verts étonnés

elle rode légère

sur ma tombe d'air

entre la scène et moi

la vitre

vide sauf elle

ventre à terre

sanglée dans ses boyaux noirs

antennes affolées ailes liées

pattes crochues bouche suçant à vide

sabrant l'azur s'écrasant contre l'invisible

sous mon pouce impuissant elle fait chavirer

la mer et le ciel serein

ainsi a-t-on beau

par le beau temps et par le mauvais

enfermé chez soi enfermé chez eux

comme si c'était d'hier se rappeler le mammouth

le dinothérium les premiers baisers

les périodes glaciaires n'apportant rien de neuf

la grande chaleur du treizième de leur ère

sur Lisbonne fumante Kant froidement penché

rêver en générations de chênes et oublier son père

ses yeux s'il portait la moustache

s'il était bon de quoi il est mort

on n'en est pas moins mangé sans appétit

par le mauvais temps et par le pire

enfermé chez soi enfermé chez eux

encore le dernier reflux

le galet mort

le demi-tour puis les pas

vers les vieilles lumières

again the last ebb

the dead shingle

the turning then the steps

towards the lights of old

à mi-hauteur

je débraye et béant de candeur

expose la plaque aux lumières et aux ombres

puis repars fortifié

d'un négatif irrécusable 

BOOK: Selected Poems 1930-1988
3.96Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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