Collected Poems
Page 39
In the cabarets and bars.
Oh, love, love, love…
‘WE WILL BUILD A BRIDGE TO HEAVEN’
We will build a bridge to heaven,
Build in earnest, not in play;
Night and morning, noon and even,
We will watch and we will pray.
‘WE’LL BE COMING HOME’
We’ll be coming home,
Coming, coming home.
Some day soon,
January or June,
Evening, morning or afternoon –
– So just you stand and wait
By the garden gate
Till my ship comes bouncing o’er the foam.
We’ll be together
For ever and ever,
Never more to roam –
– He’ll be coming,
We’ll be coming,
I’ll be coming home.
We’ll be together
For ever and ever,
Never more to roam –
We’ll be coming home,
Coming, coming home.
Some day soon,
January or June,
Evening, morning or afternoon –
‘MY ADORABLE FRED’
My adorable Fred:
He’s so, so sweet,
From the crown of his head
To the soles of his feet.
He’s my meat.
‘MY DEAD TREE. GIVE ME BACK MY DEAD DEAD TREE’
My dead tree. Give me back my dead dead tree.
Rain, rain, go away. Let the earth be still
Dry. Kick the gods back into the cakey earth,
Making a hole, for that purpose, with a drill.
The northern winds send icy peace,
The southern gales blow balmy.
Pelagius is fond of police;
Augustine loves an army.
‘THIS LOVELY QUEEN, IF I SHOULD WIN HER’
This lovely queen, if I should win her,
Shall have my heart for a medallion.
She’ll never lack a hearty dinner,
This lovely queen, if I should win her.
My fire shall rouse the fire that’s in her,
She’ll ride my sea, a golden galleon,
This lovely queen. If I should win her,
She’ll have my heart for a medallion.
‘HOW COME THAT SUCH A SCHOLAR’
How come that such a scholar
Can put up with such a squalor?
Just gimme hafe a dollar
And I’ll make it spick and span, man.
‘ICH NEM’ EIN’ ZIGARETT’
Ich nem’ ein’ Zigarett’
Un ich fuhl du liebst much nicht mehr
Und ich weiss es ist aus
Un da macht mein Herz so schwer.
Yet
With my cigarette
Thought I give no more than I get
There’s no sigh of regret
At the end of my cigarette.
‘YOU WHOM THE FISHERFOLK OF MYRA BELIEVE’
You whom the fisherfolk of Myra believe
To have power over the sea
Acknowledge a power as old as Eve –
The sea’s goddess, Venus, me!
O tue che a Mira ogni pescatore
Venera pel potere che hai sul mare
Conoscer devi la potenza arcana
Di Vener, dea del mar, me, sovrunmana.
‘WAKING AND SLEEPING’
Waking and sleeping
It’s always the same,
Sleeping and waking
I call on your name.
Sleeping I cry,
Waking I sigh,
Knowing there’s no reply.
We’re versing and voicing
Our heartfelt rejoicing,
Your troubles belong to the past
So nuzzle and nestle,
For you’ve said it, Cecil,
At last.
‘MONEY ISN’T EVERYTHING’
Money isn’t everything –
It’s only board and bed,
The only thing distinguishing
Being living, being dead
(So I’ve heard it said).
‘I’LL CRASH THE MOON’
I’ll crash the moon
To fetch a spoon
Of precious lunar dust.
I’ll fly as high
As heaven’s eye.
I’ll even die
If I must.
Anything at all
I’ll gladly do
To prove a lasting
Love for you.
Each and every task
Beneath the sun:
You only have to ask –
It’s done.
UNE P’TITE SPÉCIALITÉ CALLED L’AMOUR
Meet her at a table
Out side some small café,
Say she’s adorable
In such a Gallic way.
Let your lady fair know
That she is all you see,
Prime her with a Pernod
Or three.
Make the chestnuts blossom
And keep away the rain,
Under the gossamer
Soon you’ll start to eat like an epicure –
Une p’tite spécialité called l’amour.
Take another table
Inside a restaurant,
Somewhere formidable
Where you’ll be très contents.
Comfort her with oysters
In quite the classic style –
Succulent and moist as
Her smile.
See her crack a lobster
And strip it to the buff,
Rough as when a mobster
Gets tough.
Keep the wine cascading and you’ll ensure
Une p’tite spécialité called l’amour.
When you had dined,
You find some boîte
Whereat they’re inclined
To l’érotique.
Keep her close entwined
Till your minds
Grow weak.
When you have danced,
Chance takes you where
The air is entranced
With Paris spring.
There you’ll hear her whisper
The thing
You’ll want to hear till
All the city sparrows
Are chirping to the sun,
Market stalls and barrows
Say morning has begun.
Light as gold as taffy
Is sugaring the day
While you drink your café
Au lait.
Bite into a croissant
And smile upon your love;
Hear the larks en passant
Above.
They make it ev’ry day in
Their own Parisian way:
Paris may be sinful, but one thing’s pure –
It’s une p’tite spécialité called l’amour.
CABBAGE FACE
CABBAGE
FACE: Cabbage Face.
If you were in Paris, you
Might be called mon petit choux,
But you’re in a different place,
So I call you Cabbage Face.
NATHAN’S SONG
David’s people we,
Seeking David’s town.
A simple shepherd he
Who acquired a crown.
David, kind of Israel,
Wish well.
‘THY MOUTH, A FIG, THY TEETH’
Thy mouth, a fig, thy teeth
Troops in ivory array.
Of the treasures ranged beneath
I may yet nothing say.
Must I wait till the nuptial day?
‘MY LOVE LAY ACROSS THE WATERS’
My love lay across the waters,
Twenty leagues away,
Fairest of fifteen daughters
So they used to say.
I’ll go back to her some day.
‘FISH GREY, FISH BROWN’
Fish grey, fish brown,
Will you come up, or must we go down?
Fish silver, fish white,
Will you permit us to eat you tonight?
Fish green, fish red,
How on earth can the people be fed?
Fish dull, fish bright,
Will you permit us to catch you tonight?
THE PRODIGAL SON
There was a man who had two sons,
And he loved them both in equal measure.
He put aside, so the story runs,
Gold for both from his ample treasure.
Oh, the prodigal son.
‘Father, father, the time is come’,
So said the younger son one day,
‘To give to me my promised sum.
Thank you, father’. And he went away.
Oh, the prodigal son.
He wasted his gold on whores and wine,
And very soon the gold was gone.
A famine came to Palestine
And it did not spare this spendthrift one.
Oh, the prodigal son.
So he became, against his will,
A swineherd, far from Galilee.
He would have eaten of the porkers’ swill,
Had he not been something of a Pharisee.
Oh, the prodigal son.
‘My father’s men have bellies full
With bread and wine and roasts to carve.
They are snug and warm in leather and wool,
While I must shiver and I must starve.’
Oh, the prodigal son.
He has left the swine, he has left the trough,
He has left the foul hut wherein he slept.
His father saw him a good way off
And ran to him, kissed him, laughed and wept.
Oh, the prodigal son.
‘Father, I’m but a worthless thing,
I am not fit to be your son.’
But his father gave him a costly ring
And the finest robe that was ever spun.
Oh, the prodigal son.
‘Bring out the fatted calf’, he cried.
‘Let us eat and drink and stamp the ground,
For he is alive that I deemed had died.
Rejoice, for he that was lost is found.’
Oh, the prodigal son.
The elder was an angry one,
He would have no part in feast or song.
‘All these years I have been a good son,
Asking no favour, doing no wrong,
Never a prodigal son.’
THE GOOD SAMARITAN
There was a man of Israel,
A brother of our faith and blood.
He bought and sold and his work went well.
Like us, he was neither bad nor good.
He travelled one day from Jerusalem
To do some business in Jericho.
He fell among thieves and was stripped by them
And beaten with many a savage blow.
He lay at the side of the road near dead.
A priest of the temple came riding by.
A dying man, to himself he said.
What can I do but let him die?
A man of the Levites rode on his way,
Yea, one of Moses’ and Aaron’s race.
His horse said nothing but he said nay,
And they cantered on at a merry pace.
Now who should come next but a foreign man,
A son of a race that the Jews despise,
Yes, as you guess, a Samaritan,
But he halted and pity flooded his eyes.
He cared for this wretch all blood and rage,
He washed his wounds in wine and oil,
He tore white linen from his saddlebags,
He did not scorn the surgeon’s toil.
He set him tenderly on his steed,
Rode to a nearby inn, and then
His only care was to tend and feed
And bring that wretch to life again.
‘Landlord, landlord, I must go away.
Care for this sick man, I pray.
Whatever the cost I will gladly pay.
I will be back in a week and a day.’
Now who was the kindly neighbour here
In the eyes of that robbed and wretched man –
The Levite, to the Lord most dear,
The priest he had been taught to revere,
Or the despised Samaritan?
PASSOVER HYMN
He showed the power of that mighty hand
And out of its bondage Israel came,
From bondage to the promised land.
Blessed be his holy name.
Alleluia alleluia.
Blessed be his holy name.
ENDNOTES
1. An Essay On Censorship. Previously unpublished. Poem dated 10 April 1989.
2. The Creation of the World. Previously unpublished variant text. Same title as in ABBA ABBA, Based on a second draft that does not have the title, but is otherwise the same. This draft version uses the word ‘his’ instead of ‘us’, presumably erroneously. See also ABBA ABBA (London: Faber, 1977), p. 92.
3. The Earthly Paradise of the Beasts. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘The Beastly Paradise’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 92. Some differences in line indentation. The ABBA ABBA version uses the phrase ‘roughish fun was rife’. The last three lines have no space before them in the ABBA ABBA version.
4. Back to the Roots. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Origins’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 93. Some variations in indentation.
5. Man. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Adam’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 93. Variations in indentation. The spaces between ‘om nip o tence’ are not present in the published version. ‘Say’ was originally typed, but corrected to ‘prove’ in line 4.
6. His Own Image and Likeness. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Image and Likeness’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 93. Variations in the indentation. ‘Old Nick’ appears in the published version, and ‘Satan’ is used in line 8. This is a hand correction on the typed MS, which was originally ‘The devil’. Line 14 has ‘fucking’ in the published volume, changed from ‘bloody’ in the MSS.
7. All About Eve. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘About Eve’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 95. Some variations in indentation. Word substitutions in this MS version include: ‘divil’ (which became ‘divvle’); ‘handkerchief’ (which became ‘snotrag’); ‘She’ in the last stanza (which became ‘who’). The MS shows that Burgess put ‘Mother’ in as an afterthought.
8. A Reply. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Another Point of View’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 95. Some variations in indentation. The first line in the published version was ‘But some say: Scorn her not. Remember, she’.
9. The First Mouthful. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Greed’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 96. Some variations in indentation.
10. Adam’s Sin. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Original Sin’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 96. Variations present in the indentation, and also in use of italics (for ‘why’).
11. The First Clothes. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Knowledge’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 97. Some variations in indentation.
12. The State of Innocence (1). Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘What Might Have Been’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 97. Some variations in indentation.
13. The State of Innocence (2). Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘A Problem’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 98. Some variations in indentation. A cancelled version of line three begins: ‘And spuds –’ The first line of stanza two uses commas instead of the brackets used in the final version. Likewise, collective pronouns are used in lines 13 and 14, in place of what would become the personal ‘I’ in the published version.
14. Holy Starvation. Previously unpublished variant. Has the same title as in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. ‘Yes’ and ‘O ye’ are heavily overwritten on the MS in ink (the previous words are illegible). An em
dash in the penultimate line is used in the typescript, whereas a semi-colon appears in the published version. See ABBA ABBA, p. 98.
15. Cain and the Lord. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Cain 1’ in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. The MS version uses ‘hell’ instead of the ‘fuck’ of the published version. See ABBA ABBA, p. 99.
16. Cain’s Crime. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Cain 2’ in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. See ABBA ABBA, p. 99.
17. The Second Sin. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘Cain 3’ in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. See ABBA ABBA, p. 100.
18. The Universal Deluge. Previously unpublished variant. Is called ‘The Ark 1’ in ABBA ABBA. Some variations in indentation. See ABBA ABBA, p. 100.
19. Noah’s Ark. Previously unpublished variant. Titled ‘The Ark 2’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 101. Some variations in indentation. Honey for the Bears is the title of Burgess’s 1963 novel, written around nine years before this sequence. ‘Parmiggiano’ becomes ‘gorgonzola’ in the published version.
20. The New Wine. Variant text. Titled ‘Noah on Land’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 101. Some variations in indentation.
21. The Age of Man. Variant text. Titled ‘Age’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 102. Some variations in indentation.
22. The Tower. Variant text. Same title in ABBA ABBA, p. 102. Some variations in indentation.
23. Abraham’s Sacrifice (1). Unpublished variant. Titled ‘Abraham 1’ in ABBA ABBA, p. 104. Some variations in indentation. This is sonnet 25 in the published version. Burgess re-wrote the sestet twice. The first (deleted) version reads:
And called to Isaac: ‘Pack the bags and
This donkey, get the boy to bring a nice
Sharp axe, kiss mum goodbye, no you won’t need your
Best shirt. Fetch my hat, let’s take the road.
The blessed Lord requires a sacrifice.
The time has come to teach you the technique.
This variant may have been abandoned due to its complex indentations. The second previously unpublished MS version is hand-corrected in ink, substituting ‘then kiss’ for ‘and kiss’, and ‘Bring coats and hats we’re’ for ‘At sunrise we are’. The final line was originally ‘The time has come to teach you the technique.’