1906. Time stands at ease .
Having one letter in common with
his subject, Freud adds to our bookshelf
preparing the century for itself.
On the whole, Europeans become much nicer
to each other: in Africa. Still, the Kaiser
when asked of the growth of his navy , lies.
The Japs, for some reason, nationalize
their railroads of whose existence none ,
save several spies, had known .
Along the same, so to speak cast-iron
lines , aping the rod of Aaron,
the Simplon Tunnel opens to hit your sight
with a smoking non-stop Vis-a.-vis . Aside
from that, the civilized world condemns
night shifts (in factories though) for dames .
Prime ministers are leapfrogging in
Russia, as though they've seen
in a crystal ball that the future keeps
no room for these kinds of leaps.
The French Government warily says "pardon"
to Captain Dreyfus, a Jew who's done
ten years in the slammer on the charge of treason .
Still, this distinction between a prison
and a Jew has no prophetic air.
The U.S . troops have a brief affair
with the Island of Cuba : their first tete-a.-tete .
Samuel Beckett is born . Paul Cezanne is dead .
The man of the year is Herr von Pirquet.
He stings like a honey-bee .
The sting screams like Prince Hamlet's sick parakeet :
TB or not TB .
(Dr. Clement von Pirquet)
"What I call allergy, you call rash.
I'll give you an analogy : each time you blush ,
it shows you're too susceptible to something lurid ,
obscene and antiseptical to hope to cure it .
