The Waste Land
“ Nam Sybillam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum pueri illi dicerent: Στβμλλ τί Θέλεις; respondebat illa: άπσΘνειν Θελω.[1] ” For Ezra Pound[2]
il miglior fabbro.[3]
I. The Burial of the Dead[4]
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering 5
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee[5]
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,[6]10
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch.[7]
And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s,
My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie, 15
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,[8] 20
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,[9]
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock, 25
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust. 30
Frisch weht der Wind
Der Heimat zu,
Mein Irisch Kind,
Wo weilest du?[10]
“You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; 35
They called me the hyacinth girl.”
—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, 40
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Öd’ und leer das Meer.[11]
Notes
- ↑ This epigraph is from Petronius’ Satyricon. Apollo had granted the Sybil immortality, but she had forgotten to ask for perpetual youth, so she still aged. Literally: “I have seen with my own eyes the Sibyl hanging in a jar, and when the boys asked her ‘What do you want?’ She answered, ‘I want to die.’”
- ↑ Pound suggested cuts and edits tot he first manuscript of the poem.
- ↑ “The better craftsman.” From Dante’s Purgatory (26.117)
- ↑ “From the Anglican burial ceremony.” [Eliot’s note.]
- ↑ A lake near Munich, Germany.
- ↑ A public park in the center of Munich.
- ↑ “I am not Russian at all; I come from Lithuania, I am a real German.”
- ↑ Cf. Ezekiel 2:7 (Eliot’s note): “Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.”
- ↑ Cf. Ecclesiastes 12:5 (Eliot’s note): “Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall
be in the way . . . the grasshopper shall he a burden, and desire shall fail.” - ↑
The wind blows fresh
To the Homeland
My Irish Girl
Where are you lingering?— V. Tristan und Isolde, I, verses 5-8. (Eliot’s note) - ↑ Ibid. III, verse 24 (Eliot’s note): “Desolate and empty sea.” The dying Trislan hears this erroneous report as he waits for Isolde's ship in the third act of Wagner’s opera.
