| [00:14.70] |
I'll tell it as I best know how, |
| [00:17.89] |
And that's the way it was told to me: I |
| [00:22.35] |
Must have been a thief or a whore, |
| [00:24.82] |
Then surely was thrown overboard, |
| [00:28.21] |
Where, they say, |
| [00:29.33] |
I came this way from the deep blue sea. |
| [00:34.70] |
It picked me up and tossed me round. |
| [00:37.87] |
I lost my shoes and tore my gown, |
| [00:41.37] |
I forgot my name, |
| [00:42.57] |
And drowned. |
| [00:44.09] |
Then woke up with the surf a - pounding; |
| [00:47.85] |
It seemed I had been run aground. |
| [00:53.58] |
Well they took me in and shod my feet |
| [00:56.38] |
And taught me prayers for chastity |
| [01:00.45] |
And said my name would be Colleen, and |
| [01:05.46] |
I was blessed among all women, |
| [01:09.47] |
To have forgotten everything. |
| [01:22.53] |
And as the weeks and months ensued |
| [01:25.92] |
I tried to make myself of use. |
| [01:29.27] |
I tilled and planted, but could not produce - |
| [01:31.77] |
not root, nor leaf, nor flower, nor bean; Lord! |
| [01:35.82] |
It seemed I overwatered everything. |
| [01:39.25] |
And I hate the sight of that empty air, |
| [01:42.10] |
like stepping for a missing stair |
| [01:45.95] |
and falling forth forever blindly: |
| [01:50.95] |
cannot grab hold of anything! No, |
| [01:54.48] |
Not I, most blessed among Colleens. |
| [02:07.91] |
I dream some nights of a funny sea, |
| [02:11.33] |
as soft as a newly born baby. |
| [02:14.53] |
It cries for me pitifully! |
| [02:17.31] |
And I dive for my child with a wildness in me, |
| [02:21.91] |
and am so sweetly there received. |
| [02:24.73] |
But last night came a different dream; |
| [02:27.52] |
a gray and sloping-shouldered thing |
| [02:31.36] |
said "What's cinched 'round your waist, Colleen? |
| [02:36.15] |
is that my very own baleen? |
| [02:39.25] |
No! Have you forgotten everything?" |
| [02:52.96] |
This morning, 'round the cape at dawn, |
| [02:56.28] |
some travellers sailed into town |
| [02:59.70] |
with scraps for sale and the saddest songs |
| [03:02.40] |
and a book of pictures, leather-bound, that |
| [03:05.49] |
showed a whale with a tusk a meter long. |
| [03:09.93] |
Well, I asked the man who showed it me, |
| [03:12.52] |
"What is the name of that strange beast?" |
| [03:16.29] |
He said its name translated roughly to |
| [03:21.36] |
He-Who-Easily-Can-Curve-Himself-Against-The-Sky. |
| [03:28.88] |
And I am without words. |
| [03:30.46] |
He said, "My lady looks perturbed. |
| [03:34.53] |
(the light is in your eyes, Colleen.)" |
| [03:39.08] |
I said, "Whatever can you mean?" |
| [03:42.06] |
He leaned in and said, |
| [03:43.87] |
"You ain't forgotten everything." |
| [04:08.85] |
"You dare to speak a lady's name?" |
| [04:11.95] |
He said, "My lady is mistaken. |
| [04:15.53] |
I would not speak your name in this place; |
| [04:18.01] |
and if I were to try then the wind - I swear - |
| [04:21.01] |
would rise, to tear you clean from me without a trace." |
| [04:25.42] |
"Have you come, then, to rescue me?" |
| [04:27.98] |
He laughed and said, "from what, 'Colleen'?" |
| [04:31.81] |
You dried and dressed most willingly. |
| [04:36.79] |
you corseted, and caught the dread disease |
| [04:40.60] |
by which one comes to know such peace." |
| [04:43.84] |
Well, it's true that I came to know such things as |
| [04:46.62] |
the laws which govern property |
| [04:50.41] |
and herbs to feed the babes that wean, |
| [04:55.57] |
and the welting weight for every season; |
| [04:59.03] |
but still |
| [04:59.97] |
I don't know any goddamned "Colleen." |
| [05:12.14] |
Then dive down there with the lights to lead |
| [05:14.68] |
that seem to shine from everything - |
| [05:18.90] |
down to the bottom of the deep blue sea; |
| [05:23.48] |
down where your heart beats so slow, |
| [05:27.85] |
and you never in your life have felt so free. |
| [05:30.63] |
Will you come down there with me? |
| [05:32.45] |
Down were our bodies start to seem like |
| [05:36.77] |
artifacts of some strange dream, |
| [05:41.28] |
which afterwards you can't decipher, |
| [05:44.29] |
and so, soon, have forgotten |
| [05:47.31] |
Everything. |
