Dia 3

Deixem-me apresentar-vos o meu frigorífico, torpedo nocturno que hoje se aliou aos abutres dos meus sonhos e à invasão de aranhas de que a minha casa foi alvo para me roubar o sono. Resultado, passei a manhã a matar aranhas – numa averiguação obsessiva por todos os cantos da casa –, a investigar a vida dos abutres e a olhar para o frigorífico como quem espera uma erupção vulcânica.



Dos vulcões aos magmas da saudade... Adormeci a ouvir o mestre Bob Dylan – só interrompido pelo torpedo refrigerador. Deixo-vos algumas letras.

... Para bom entendedor, meia palavra basta...
(reflexos do meu processo de aculturação)


"Simple Twist Of Fate"

They sat together in the parkAs the evening sky grew dark

She looked at him and he felt a spark tingle to his bones

It was then he felt alone and wished that he'd gone straight

And watched out for a simple twist of fate.

They walked alone by the old canal

A little confused I remember well

And stopped into a strange hotel with a neon burning bright

He felt the heat of the night hit him like a freight train

Moving with a simple twist of fate.

A saxophone someplace far off played

As she was walking on by the arcade

As the light bust through a-beat-up shade where he was waking up

She dropped a coin into the cup of a blind man at the gate

And forgot about a simple twist of fate.

He woke up the room was bare

He didn't see her anywhere

He told himself he didn't care pushed the window open wide

Felt an emptiness inside to which he just could not relate

Brought on by a simple twist of fate.

He hears the ticking of the clocks

And walks along with a parrot that talks

Hunts her down by the waterfront docks where the sailers all come in

Maybe she'll pick him out again how long must he wait

One more time for a simple twist of fate.

People tell me it's a sin

To know and feel too much within

I still believe she was my twin but I lost the ring

She was born in spring but I was born too late

Blame it on a simple twist of fate.

"You're A Big Girl Now"

Our conversation was short and sweet

It nearly swept me off-a my feet

And I'm back in the rain oh ohA

nd you're on dry landYou made it there somehow

You're a big girl now.

Bird on the horizon sitting on the fence

He's singing his song for me at his own expense

And I'm just like that bird oh ohSinging just for you

I hope that you can hearHear me singing through these tears.

Time is a jet plane it moves so fast

Oh but what a shame if all we've shared can't lastI can change I swear oh oh

See what you can doI can make it through

You can make it too.

Love is so simple to quote a phrase

You've known it all the time I'm learning it these days

Oh I know where I can find you oh ohIn somebody's room

It's a price I had to payYou're a big girl all the way.

A change in the weather is known to be extreme

But what's the sense of changing horses in midstream?

I'm going out of my mind oh ohWith a pain that stops and starts

Like a corkscrew to my heartEver since we've been apart.

"Idiot Wind"

Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press

Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out quick but when they will I can only guess

They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy

She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to meI can't help it if I'm lucky.

People see me all the time and they just can't remember how to act

Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts

Even you yesterday you had to ask me where it was at

I couldn't believe after all these years you didn't know even me better than that

Sweet lady.

Idiot wind blowing every time your move your mouth

Blowing down the backroads heading southIdiot wind blowing every time you move your teeth

You're an idiot babe

It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe

I ran into the fortune-teller who said beware of lightning that might strike

I haven't known peace and quit for so long I can't remember what it's like

There's a lone soldier on the cross smoke pouring out of a boxcar door

You didn't know it you didn't think it could be done in the final end he won the wars

After losing every battle.

I woke up on the roadside daydreaming about the way things sometimes are

Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are making me see stars

You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies

One day you'll be in the ditch, flies buzzing around your eyes

Blood on your saddle.

Idiot wind blowing through the flowers on your tomb

Blowing through the curtains in your room

Idiot wind blowing every time you move your teeth

You're an idiot babeIt's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny which broke us apart

You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn't enough to change my heart

Now everything's a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped

What's good is bad what's bad is good you'll find out when you reach the top

You're on the bottom.I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind

I can't remember your face anymore, your mouth has changed your eyes don't look into mine

The priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone faced while the building burned

I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees while the springtime turnedSlowly into autumn.

Idiot wind blowing like a circle around my skull

From the Grand Coulee Dam to Capitol

Idiot wind blowing every time you move you teeth

You're an idiot babe.It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

I can't feel you anymore, I can't even touch the books you've read

Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishing I was somebody else instead

Down the highway down the tracks down the road to ecstasy

I followed you beneath the stars hounded by your memory

And all you raging glory.

I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I'm finally free

I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me

You'll never know the hurt I suffered not the pain I raise above

And I'll never know the same about you your holiness or your kind of love

And it makes me feel so sorry.

Idiot wind blowing through the buttons of our coats

Blowing through the letters that we wroteIdiot wind blowing through the dust upon our shelves

We're idiots babe

It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.

"Desolation Row"

They're selling postcards of the hanging

They're painting the passports brown

The beauty parlor is filled with sailors

The circus is in townHere comes the blind commissioner

They've got him in a trance

One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker

The other is in his pants

And the riot squad they're restless

They need somewhere to go

As Lady and I look out tonight

From Desolation Row.

Cinderella, she seems so easy"It takes one to know one," she smiles

And puts her hands in her back pockets

Bette Davis style

And in comes Romeo, he's moaning"You belong to Me I Believe"And someone says, "You're in the wrong place, my friend

You better leave"And the only sound that's left

After the ambulances goIs Cinderella sweeping up

On Desolation Row.

Now the moon is almost hidden

The stars are beginning to hide

The fortunetelling lady

Has even taken all her things inside

All except for Cain and Abel

And the hunchback of Notre Dame

Everybody is making love

Or else expecting rain

And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing

He's getting ready for the show

He's going to the carnival tonight

On Desolation Row.

Now Ophelia, she's 'neath the window

For her I feel so afraid

On her twenty-second birthday

She already is an old maid

To her, death is quite romanticShe wears an iron vest

Her profession's her religion

Her sin is her lifelessness

And though her eyes are fixed upon

Noah's great rainbow

She spends her time peeking

Into Desolation Row.

Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood

With his memories in a trunk

Passed this way an hour ago

With his friend, a jealous monk

He looked so immaculately frightful

As he bummed a cigarette

Then he went off sniffing drainpipes

And reciting the alphabet

You would not think to look at him

But he was famous long ago

For playing the electric violin

On Desolation Row.

Dr. Filth, he keeps his world

Inside of a leather cup

But all his sexless patients

They're trying to blow it up

Now his nurse, some local loser

She's in charge of the cyanide hole

And she also keeps the cards that read"Have Mercy on His Soul"

They all play on penny whistles

You can hear them blow

If you lean your head out far enough

From Desolation Row.

Across the street they've nailed the curtains

They're getting ready for the feast

The Phantom of the Opera

In a perfect image of a priest

They're spoonfeeding Casanova

To get him to feel more assured

Then they'll kill him with self-confidence

After poisoning him with words

And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls"Get outa here if you don't know"

Casanova is just being punished for going

To Desolation Row.

At midnight all the agentsAnd the superhuman crew

Come out and round up everyone

That knows more than they do

Then they bring them to the factory

Where the heart-attack machineIs strapped across their shoulders

And then the keroseneIs brought down from the castles

By insurance men who go

Check to see that nobody is escaping

To Desolation Row.

They be to Nero's Neptune

The Titanic sails at dawn

Everybody's shouting"Which side are you on ?"

And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot

Fighting in the captain's tower

While calypso singers laugh at them

And fishermen hold flowers

Between the windows of the sea

Where lovely mermaids flow

And nobody has to think too much

About Desolation Row.

Yes, I received your letter yesterday

About the time the door knob broke

When you asked me how I was doing

Was that some kind of joke ?All these people that you mention

Yes, I know them, they're quite lame

I had to rearrange their faces

And give them all another name

Right now I can't read too good

Dont send me no more letters no

Not unless you mail them

From Desolation Row.

"Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands"

With your mercury mouth in the missionary times

And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes

And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes

Oh, who do they think could bury you ?

With your pockets well protected at last

And your streetcar visions which you place on the grass

And your flesh like silk, And you face like glass

Who among them do they think could carry you ?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands

Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes

My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums

Should I put them by your gate

Oh, sad-eyed lady, should I wait ?

With your sheets like metal and your belt like lace

And your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace

And your basement clothes and your hollow face

Who among them can think he could outguess you ?

With your silhouette when the sunlight dims

Into your eyes where the moonlight swims

And your match-book songs and your gypsy hymns

Who among them would try to impress you ?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands

Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes

My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums

Should I put them by your gate

Oh, sad-eyed lady, should I wait ?

The kings of Tyrus with their convict list

Are waiting in line for their geranium kiss

And you wouldn't know it would happen like this

But who among them really wants just to kiss you ?

With your childhood flames on your midnight rug

And your Spanish manners, and your mother's drugs

And your cowboy mouth and your curfew plugs

Who among them do you think could resist you ?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands

Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes

My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums

Should I leave them by your gate

Oh, sad-eyed lady, should I wait ?

Oh, the farmers and the businessmen they all did decide

To show you the dead angels that they used to hide

But why did they pick you to sympathize with their side ?

How could they ever mistake you ?

They wished you'd accepted the blame for the farm

But with the sea at your feet and the phony false alarm

And with the child of a hoodlum wrapped up in your arms

How could they ever, ever persuade you ?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands

Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes

My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums

Should I leave them by your gate

Oh, sad-eyed lady, should I wait ?

With your sheet-metal memory of Cannery Row

And your magazine-husband who one day just had to go

And your gentleness now, which you just can't help but show

Who among them do you think would employ you ?

Now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole

With your holy medallion which your fingertips fold

And your saintlike face and your ghostlike soul

Who among them do you think could destroy you ?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands

Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes

My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums

Should I leave them by your gate

Oh, sad-eyed lady, should I wait ?