Lady Lazarus - Sylvia Plath.mp3

[00:00.004] "Lady Lazarus"
[00:02.825] I have done it again.
[00:04.729] One year in every ten
[00:06.713] I manage it——
[00:07.801] A sort of walking miracle, my skin
[00:10.593] Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
[00:12.878] My right foot
[00:14.075] A paperweight,
[00:15.138] My face a featureless, fine
[00:17.733] Jew linen.
[00:18.832] Peel off the napkin
[00:20.342] O my enemy.
[00:21.956] Do I terrify?——
[00:23.707] Yes Yes herr Professor, it is I
[00:26.383] Can you denied the nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
[00:30.894] The sour breath
[00:32.553] Will vanish in a day.
[00:34.543] Soon, soon the flesh
[00:35.959] The grave cave ate will be
[00:37.724] At home on me
[00:39.382] And I a smiling woman.
[00:41.453] I am only thirty.
[00:43.360] And like the cat I have nine times to die.
[00:47.343] This is Number Three.
[00:49.490] What a trash
[00:50.564] To annihilate each decade.
[00:51.946] What a million filaments.
[00:53.814] The peanut-crunching crowd
[00:56.083] Shoves in to see
[00:57.306] Them unwrap me hand and foot——
[00:59.320] The big strip tease.
[01:01.153] Gentlemen, ladies
[01:02.947] These are my hands
[01:04.116] My knees.
[01:04.963] I may be skin and bone, I may be Japanese
[01:08.552] Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
[01:12.080] The first time it happened I was ten.
[01:15.828] It was an accident.
[01:17.503] The second time I meant
[01:19.430] To last it out and not come back at all.
[01:21.681] I rocked shut
[01:23.561] As a seashell.
[01:25.002] They had to call and call
[01:27.044] And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
[01:30.890] Dying
[01:32.358] Is an art, like everything else.
[01:35.066] I do it exceptionally well.
[01:37.581] I do it so it feels like hell.
[01:40.398] I do it so it feels real.
[01:43.364] I guess you could say I’ve a call.
[01:45.588] It’s easy enough to do it in a cell.
[01:48.591] It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.
[01:51.037] It’s the theatrical
[01:52.568] Comeback in broad day
[01:55.026] To the same place, the same face, the same brute
[01:58.461] Amused shout:
[02:00.187] ‘A miracle!’
[02:01.155] That knocks me out.
[02:03.685] There is a charge
[02:06.186] For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
[02:09.236] For the hearing of my heart——
[02:10.680] It really goes.
[02:12.090] And there is a charge, a very large charge
[02:15.479] For a word or a touch
[02:17.334] Or a bit of blood
[02:18.712] Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.
[02:21.637] So, so, Herr Doktor.
[02:23.950] So, Herr Enemy.
[02:26.137] I am your opus,
[02:28.155] I am your valuable,
[02:30.101] The pure gold baby
[02:32.589] That melts to a shriek.
[02:34.566] I turn and burn.
[02:37.057] Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
[02:41.263] Ash, ash—
[02:42.860] You poke and stir.
[02:44.977] Flesh, bone, there is nothing there——
[02:48.267] A cake of soap,
[02:49.351] A wedding ring,
[02:50.257] A gold filling.
[02:52.890] Herr God, Herr Lucifer
[02:55.489] Beware
[02:56.571] Beware.
[02:58.330] Out of the ash
[02:59.552] I rise with my red hair
[03:02.147] And I eat men like air.