Goldberg Street Read Online Free

. . . ) And as bees are separated by their traits, so are we— ( Pause .) One, so, for this . . . Another for that . . . Building, planning, ( Pause. ) Dreaming. In this hell in which we live. Where we have warped, where a warped, with . . . ( Pause .) all turned to one—the sole gift which we . . . I will not say endorse, for it goes so, so far be . . . accept. And the rest, we say the test of life, the final: THE WILL TO EXPLOIT.
    We, that, not only we say the excellent man, but, but we all . . . whomever does not possess this must die, because there is too little. In a more leisurely, in a historically, or an imaginary realm, or that realm of the mind—in a book or a phantasy, a perfect spot, a spot of rest.
    But not here.
    And I can not choose to do it. Much as I . . .
    And I do not.
    Two
    C: The galleon.
    D: Was . . . ?
    C: Where was I . . . ?
    D: About the . . .
    C: Alright. The galleon, a man in . . .
    D: The Escorial.
    C: With papers. Sitting in the, say, half dark not, if you've never been there, in the dusk. An oblique . . .
    D: . . . a half-light.
    C: A slanting light.
    D: You, well, it is. It is red. And you can, you can, as much as they . . . You can smell it, and it is the same as the . . .
    C: As the manuscripts.
    D: Today, when everything, when paper, most of all, yousee, the idea that it cannot decompose is monstrous.
    C: It is monstrous.
    D: In the . . . ? You were . . . ?
    C: The Escorial. A map proclaiming, fifteen forty-two, The Croja Abajo. En route to Spain, en route to, coming home to Spain. Laden with, as they conquered them. As they were conquered, and you can not read between the lines, and, curiously . . . ( Pause. ) Curiously . . .
    D: You're saying?
    C: Because they had enslaved, is what I came to—that terror, suppressed which we felt. We saw it as boredom, even among the ruins, though, and stricken by a majesty, and one can not suppress an awe, a modern awe, of archi . . . or, we say, “construction” even then, the piety we feel for Greece was not there. Only dread, and it was hidden, I say, for the thought was: “If it . . . ” "As it happened to them, so to us . . . ” the obverse of the coin, then, was, of course . . .
    D: It was Madrid.
    C: I say it was. It was Madrid, for sitting in that room, there was no terror. There was scholarly . . .
    D: . . . yes . . .
    C: . . . And repose, but no, and so we look back. And we say they could not feel, Nor know, Five hundred years ago. Four hundred years ago . . . and, perhaps, ( Pause .) No . . .
    D: You were going to say that it was cursed.
    C: I don't know that I . . . The. The land. For, if they could, then so could we, but in the heat. In the dusk, we could not, and the walls were of stone, you know.
    The lattice . . . ( Pause. ) As I sit here—I see a pattern on the page, and the old tints. The drawings on the map. Old script.
    D: . . . you had electric light.
    C: Of course, and it was, green glass shades. It threw, it threw . . . there . . . ( Pause .)
    D: Croja Abajo.
    C: Lost it, quite right, and it was, too. It, lost in the, yes, we, in the ( Pause .) "In the year of . . . ”
    In fifteen forty-three. The lading bill—the . . . papers that she had. A copy of her . . .
    D: What?
    C: Of her . . . what? Of her sailing orders. Four years earlier. It all . . . I'm sure that it will disappear. It all was there. Through all the . . . ( Pause .) They've kept it. For whom? For whom? But for me—I asked myself. Who after me? Who before? ( Pause .)
    Who before me?
    The records that we keep.
    The latitudes. What were you going to learn? Plotted positions of her captain ?
    Why?
    There was, this was the . . . ( Pause .) The . . . this, this . . . this . . . the hurricane the dates said, the direction of her, that is to say, she, en route to her final port-of-call . . . how did it catch her, if the dates did not conform, and how were, the winds, where did she, where did she try to run, for it said that she did, where did she seek that shelter?