Transcriptions of "Farewell Performance"
Transcriptions of Manuscripts 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 Verso, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17, 20, 25, 32
These transcriptions may be read with the images of the manuscripts opened in a separate browser window. The manuscripts appear at the "Manuscripts" link in the left margin. Since it will be apparent from the images, no attempt is made to make the transcriptions correspond exactly to the spacing of the manuscripts. In the case of printed manuscripts with handwritten revisions, the location of the revisions is indicated by line numbers, or stanza and line numbers.
Not all manuscripts have been transcribed at this stage in the project. We have transcribed the ones we consider the most significant. Many manuscripts revise the same passages of the poem, and the transcriptions here should clarify the words in other manuscripts.
Words that seem indecipherable are indicated by [word] or [words]. A conjectural reading of a word is indicated by, for example: swan[?]. These transcriptions should be considered rough drafts. Many words that seem indecipherable to one reader will be clear to another. Pease suggest your own corrections to Timothy Materer or Erica Kao.
Transcription of Handwritten Passages in Manuscript 1
Eager to face their
pride & [join] to join their troupe — let a friend enroll us
when the it's time. --But [word]
Back the dancers came. The A rotating brilliance
held us upright. Pity & terror like the
spindled program done with, we jostled forward,
eager to know them,
more, to join the troupe. & (let a friend enroll us
on that far-off distant day.) But their head-on[?] triumph performance
left them bowing, [word], humble, with downcast eyes, that
with eyes downcast]
begged our forgiveness.
cosmos
As their cyclorama ends brilliance
Back the dancers come. A rotating pattern
system
held us upright. Pity & terror like our
spindled program done with, we jostled forward
eager to
* As While their [word]
Held us upright (pity & terror like a
Spindled program done with) we jostled forward
eager to cyclorama
upheld us all
a spindled program.
Fear & pity done with
hard-won triumph
But their years of training
grand tradition
Kept them
Keep them humble, bowing with downcast eyes that
beg our forgiveness.
Transcription of Handwritten Passages in Manuscript 2
like the our
holds us upright. Terror, self-pity, spindled
programs
Spindled Programs each lets fall drop as we jostle forward,
Eager to show love,
Yes, More, to join their troupe if a friend enrolls us
When the time comes—
Transcription of Handwritten Passages in Manuscript 3
Stanza / Line
1.1 a
2.2 Skyful
3.2 Oh to join their troop.
Bottom Margin
staring eyes But the dancers / will not meet them. Their own are
lowered. They
Bow & bow.
round & had kept as the scene revolving
overjoyed Dread
Fear
[word] Kept us upright. grief and self pity,
fallen
Spindled program dropped as we jostled forward
Eager to meet their
if a friend we love were
(when the time came, if a
Eyes to join their troupe with let a
Friend enrolled us — Ah but their eyes are downcast.
Left Margin
overjoyed
[word Skyful?]
Transcription of Handwritten Passages in Manuscript 5
Top Right Margin 22 viii.
Left Column
3 coarse but feebly glinting precipitate of
palace days, books, music. The lover eager
just to 'be good friends,' which a 1000 phone calls
sought to make light of,
4 this is what we [now] two in our borrowed dinghy
dispersing has
now must cope with. Peter set about returning. As Peter grasped a the buoy mooring
Mooring I submerge the & invert the bag.
I invert the it Plunge the plastic box underwater
Over turn the the
empty its contents
into live
You who died in spite of their [letters]
Right Column
line 5: like ,
line 12: lovers wanting eager
faithless lovers
line 14: turned daily
Transcription of Handwritten Passages in Manuscript 7 Verso
Left Margin:
Dread & much a
Terror self-pity, The spindled program
Fear for you, and pity, with which today dawned playbill
Cheers echoing, we emerged then
Left behind, to cheers fading, I to
In to life without you It was a night of Oh heart,
Crowds if we but knew were
Left behind what crowds had already meekly
Walked the aisle
Right Margin:
Fear & much self pity, like spindled programs
dread
Their glances we cannot underfoot . . . We cheer & attempt to meet their
Eyes but those are fixed on the [word] last [word]
End of the season.
Veiled as with guilt. Their bows seem
B Lovely atonement
Bottom Margin:
upright
Proud at last to have taken steps like these
Fear today dawned
Dread & pity dread for you, and pity, with which the day broke
spindled
left behind, like a program program . . .
play bill
only
Yours body was what we had set to scatter
scatter to the
yours was what we’d take the borrowed dinghy
out to scatter.
Transcription of the Handwritten Passages in Manuscript 8
Top Margin
as that turning
Back the dancers came, & the world around them spinning
that spinning
Even we, mute, shaken, revolving 28 viii 86
round them held us; too, in our sorrow upright,
When our own time comes, may a friend or lover,
See that we joined them.
help
Stanza / Line
1.1 their
1.3 back they now come, bowing
2.1 were dead shared
3.1 How we cheered those
4.1 from the
4.3 your
4.4 bowing
5.1 being
5.2 matter
5.3 spirit
5.4 no stay wait — dont! —
Bottom Margin
spin
turned
round & round
Back the dancers came, & the world danced with them
Even we, mute, shaken, on shore stepped proudly
Our place among them. (we agreed on shore) let
ask nothing better us loving partner
When our own time came, that a friend’s hand lead us
home elemented
mute on shore
Grateful, spared[?], secure, we returned to shore
Shaken,
hand us proudly back to the dancing elemental
dance of
anima
loving hands consign us to sea & sunlight
Earth &
When our own time came (we agreed on
shore) let
loving hands consign us to sea &
Tides & —
earthly ebb &
flow, the slow sure steps of a
Transcription of Handwritten Passages in Manuscript 11
29 viii
FAREWELL PERFORMANCE
CURTAIN
Stanza & Line
1.3 asking begging forgiveness
2.3 ten or join these
3.4 invective irony
4.2 derision
4.4 bemusement
5.1 dregs as ‑ suming [?]
5. 2 one
6. 2 blazed burned
7.1 theatre
7.2 kept
7.3. let someone
7.4 I love
Bottom Margin
When I join their troupe,
The hands I love were
I would join their troupe if I trusted hands I
love to enroll me would
free
Peter who grasped the buoy, and
I who held the box underwater,
I submerged
Who held the box underwater, freeing
round & round kept us in our sorrow upright.
When I join their troupe, may the hands I love be
there to enroll me.
with its
just to 'be good friends”, Their The daily phone-call
which a 1000
daily made light of .
sought to make
Transcription of Handwritten Passages in Manuscript 12
Top Margin
and
but giddy
Back the dancers came, and as the spiraling theatre’s dizzy
giddy
held us upright, dread + self-pity like a
fallen
spindled program dropped as we jostled forward awkward
eager to know them,
even enroll us
Yes, to maybe join their troupe (should a friend we love be
when the time came) — ah, but their eyes were downcast.
Bowing, humble—Hadn’t they seen, mine.
They who could read the future enact
Begged our forgiveness. had mined
Stanza / Line
1.4 begging forgiveness. bringing the house down
7.3 a
Transcription of Handwritten Passages in Manuscript 13
Top Margin
1.1 Soirée Gala
bringing the house down.
braving our passion x
Stanza / Line
somebody bowing.
1.4 braving our rapture [word] in our wonder
7.1 a stage revolving
7.2 kept
Bottom Margin:
like
our
dread + much self-pity, the spindled programs,
left behind . . .
They watch watched
we try to meet their eye glances, watch their own smiling
Which are not for us thought they
Underfoot, we try, as we cheer, to meet their / Eyes. But they’re fixed
upward. The chandelier is
Glances, match their grace
humble uprightness. Ah but
Watt by watt dimming
art is life is not art. dimming
Transcription of Handwritten Passages for Manuscript 17
Top Margin
Back the dancers came. While the cyclorama
held us upright, leaving our spindled programs
(pity, dread) far behind — dread, pity, — we jostled forward
underfoot
eager to face them,
more, to join the troupe — let a friend
enroll us
when it’s time. Strange, though. For up close
theirStanza / Line
1.3 come
5.1 sun clear
3 lucid
6.1 lambent
3 mind
7.1 o for the
7.2 our
8.2 When it's time.
3 Strange, though:
Bottom Margin
When the time’s at hand. I
Hush now , Seen close
When it’s time. Hush now, for up close their triumph
Strange, though
left like
holds us upright, pity + terror done with
like our spindled
spindled programs
our
shedding like spindled programs
dread & pity, we
We, on spindled programs of fear & pity
holds us upright, leaving behind like spindled
programs dread & pity,
Transcription of Handwritten Passages of Manuscript 20
Left Top Margin
You, it seems, too strictly observed these
rage bodies'
Thirst for essence.
shared
You it now seems, might have forgave Their lifelong
rage for essence.
Right Top Margin:
You’ve observed too too strictly that yielding up of
Their bodies' yielding —
Their sacrificial
[word] up of essence.
rage for
You don’t applaud them,
you in your own way
Right Margin
Your sect is was empty,
You’d observed too strictly
that sacrificial
rage for essence. Now —
Stanza / Line
1.4 you don't applaud them
4.1 What was this were
2 Now, in
7.1 , till the
2 draws flings
Bottom Margin
too
You [letter] had observed their You had too strictly
strictly their followed the dark rites
closely
rites whereby flesh
You observed too strictly theseir lifelong study : You believed
Yield its essence.
Transcription of Handwritten Passages in Manuscript 25
Top Left Margin
Gasping, & drenched dripping, they humbly
They beg forgiveness.
ask
plead their
Top Right Margin
brows
All in our minds. Humbly, with dripping locks they
Gasp for forgiveness.
All in our minds, Gasping & dripping
all in our minds.
Dripping & weak, they
eyes downcast
The They
They beg forgiveness.
Stanza / Line
1.3-4 Here they are. They [three dots]
2 are
2.3 Dripping they come for the, humbly
3.1 begging forgiveness.
3.4 a joke, this
4.1 This its[?] was all today all This, one arm, we
4.4 what all
5.1-4 They bow,
Dripping, exhausted,
begging forgiveness humble
6.4 This & little more
7.1 all in
7.4 and ing
8.1 glamorous
8.2 nowhere glamor's
8.3 all in our minds
8.4 exhausted, now they They must [word] beg see them
[two words] purely fictive now beg forgiveness
Bottom Margin
Gasping again had
all in our minds. Dripping, subdued, they stand there
disappears, gasping for pardon.
defeated. Brought to their knees, mute
ghastly, stand there
crave Dripping, subdued, they seem to beg our
want beg
need our forgiveness. remission
gasp for indulgence
dismissal.
/ u / / All in our minds? Meek,
They beg forgiveness. dripping,
Transcription of Handwritten Passages in Manuscript 32
l x 86
Look, as
See lights
Art has it heals all ills. When the go down &
Maestro waves his wand: the unfailing sea-change
Swells the heart.
Sets goes to work. Those limber alembics once more
make of our common
at the end close our bravos
portion purest gold. Can their rage[?] have ending?
Call them back, sweat-soldered, leotarded.
Back they come.
unwilling like us to
say that it's over
Bravo! we tell them.
Is it the last time? Think[?]
wont be the last one.
works its wonders.
affliction.
Art. It heals all torment. As lights go down and
Maestro lifts his wand, the unfailing sea-change
End works its wonders. Limber alembics once more
setsto work.
sets in motion make of our the common
weaves its portion purest lot a pure brief gold. At the close our bravos
call them back, sweat soldered & leotarded , m
back, again [letter] hide — [letter] anything not to face the
fact that it's over.