(ou como as conversas nos fazem revisitar certos textos)
Mistah Kurtz - he dead
A penny for the Old Guy
I
We are the hollow men
I
We are the hollow men
We are the
stuffed men
Leaning
together
Headpiece
filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried
voices, when
We whisper
together
Are quiet
and meaningless
As wind in
dry grass
Or rats'
feet over broken glass
In our dry
cellar
Shape
without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed
force, gesture without motion;
Those who
have crossed
With direct
eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember
us-if at all-not as lost
Violent
souls, but only
As the
hollow men
The stuffed
men.
II
Eyes I dare
not meet in dreams
In death's
dream kingdom
These do not
appear:
There, the
eyes are
Sunlight on
a broken column
There, is a
tree swinging
And voices
are
In the
wind's singing
More distant
and more solemn
Than a
fading star.
Let me be no
nearer
In death's
dream kingdom
Let me also
wear
Such
deliberate disguises
Rat's coat,
crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as
the wind behaves
No nearer-
Not that
final meeting
In the
twilight kingdom
III
This is the
dead land
This is
cactus land
Here the
stone images
Are raised,
here they receive
The
supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the
twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like
this
In death's
other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour
when we are
Trembling
with tenderness
Lips that
would kiss
Form prayers
to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are
not here
There are no
eyes here
In this
valley of dying stars
In this
hollow valley
This broken
jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last
of meeting places
We grope
together
And avoid
speech
Gathered on
this beach of the tumid river
Sightless,
unless
The eyes
reappear
As the
perpetual star
Multifoliate
rose
Of death's
twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty
men.
V
Here we go
round the prickly pear
Prickly pear
prickly pear
Here we go
round the prickly pear
At five
o'clock in the morning.
Between the
idea
And the
reality
Between the
motion
And the act
Falls the
Shadow
For Thine is
the Kingdom
Between the
conception
And the
creation
Between the
emotion
And the
response
Falls the
Shadow
Life is very
long
Between the
desire
And the
spasm
Between the
potency
And the
existence
Between the
essence
And the
descent
Falls the
Shadow
For Thine is
the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is
the
This is the
way the world ends
This is the
way the world ends
This is the
way the world ends
Not with a
bang but a whimper.
T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men