Rufus Wainwright's Dream Requiem - Darkness IV by Meryl Streep @ Maison de la Radio | 14.06.2024
Poem by Lord Byron :
I had a dream, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wonder darkling in the eternal space, Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went - and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation, and all hearts
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light; And they did live by watchfires - and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings - the huts The habitations of all things which dwell, Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed,
And men were gather'd round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other's face; Happy were those who dwelt within the eye
Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch;
A fearful hope was all the world contain'd; Forests were set on fire - but hour by hour
They fell and faded - and the crackling trunks
Extinguish'd with a crash - and all was black.
The brows of men by the despairing light Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them, some lay down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil'd,
And others hurried to and fro, and fed Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd up With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world, and then again With curses cost them down upon the dust,
And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds shriek'd
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd
And twin'd themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless - they were slain for food.
And War, which for a moment was no more,
Did glut himself again: a meal was bought With blood, and each sate sullenly apart Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left;
All earth was but one thought - and that was death
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang Of famine fed upon all entrails - men
Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were devour'd, Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead
Lur'd their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan, And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand Which answer'd not with a caress - he died.
27 авг 2024
