***
Out we creep from the arch of the currant leaves,
out into a wider world.
The true order of things—this is our perpetual illusion
—is now apparent.
Thus in a moment, in a drawing-room,
our life adjusts itself
to the majestic march of day across the sky.
—Our friends, how seldom visited, how little known
—it is true; and yet,
when I meet an unknown person,
and try to break off, here at this table,
what I call "my life", it is not one life that I look back upon;
I am not one person; I am many people;
I do not altogether know who I am
—Jinny, Susan, Neville, Rhoda, or Louis;
or how to distinguish my life from theirs.
from The Waves (1931)
***
Out we creep from the arch of the currant leaves,
out into a wider world.
The true order of things—this is our perpetual illusion
—is now apparent.
Thus in a moment, in a drawing-room,
our life adjusts itself
to the majestic march of day across the sky.
—Our friends, how seldom visited, how little known
—it is true; and yet,
when I meet an unknown person,
and try to break off, here at this table,
what I call "my life", it is not one life that I look back upon;
I am not one person; I am many people;
I do not altogether know who I am
—Jinny, Susan, Neville, Rhoda, or Louis;
or how to distinguish my life from theirs.
from The Waves (1931)
***
