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Metamorphoses

A reading of lines 31-42 of The Waste Land

Translation restating from watching to
waiting.  The wind blows fresh for home.

Translation substitution from dessert to
ocean.  The sea is waste and drear.

Translation swapping poison with potion
prince to flower boy to girl.  My Irish
child where tarriest thou?

Translation transition speech to silence
sight to blindness darkness to light.
Io non mori 'e non rimasi vivo.

We translate when we can't identify.
We recompose the script to comprehend.
We read to see ourselves.  We correlate

To see it through, if not to reason why;
To do or die, if not to understand.
We translate when we can't identify

But if we want to live more than to wait
Or when we wait to die but find we can't
We read to see ourselves. We correlate.

We fight against the fight, to make reply
To what we do not know.  We contemplate.
We translate when we can't identify.
We read to see ourselves.  We correlate.

(Frisch weht der Wind der Heimat zu
Oed' und leer das Meer.
Mein Irisch Kind, wo weilest du?
I did not die, and I alive remain-ed not.)

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