Gus: The Theatre Cat - T.S.Eliot.mp3

[00:00.000] 作曲 : T.S.Eliot
[00:02.769]Gus: The Theatre Cat
[00:06.418]Gus is the Cat at the Theatre Door.
[00:09.783]His name, as I ought to have told you before,
[00:12.580]Is really Asparagus. That's such a fuss
[00:16.223]To pronounce, that we usually call him just Gus.
[00:19.872]His coat's very shabby, he's thin as a rake,
[00:23.784]And he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake.
[00:27.421]Yet he was, in his youth, quite the smartest of Cats--
[00:31.345]But no longer a terror to mice and to rats.
[00:35.266]For he isn't the Cat that he was in his prime;
[00:38.357]Though his name was quite famous, he says, in its time.
[00:42.284]And whenever he joins his friends at their club
[00:45.365](Which takes place at the back of the neighbouring pub)
[00:49.010]He loves to regale them, if someone else pays,
[00:53.213]With anecdotes drawn from his palmiest days.
[00:57.410]For he once was a Star of the highest degree--
[01:01.049]He has acted with Irving, he's acted with Tree.
[01:04.973]And he likes to relate his success on the Halls,
[01:08.049]Where the Gallery once gave him seven cat-calls.
[01:11.970]But his grandest creation, as he loves to tell,
[01:16.179]Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell.
[01:21.510]'I have played,' so he says, 'every possible part,
[01:25.715]And I used to know seventy speeches by heart.
[01:29.627]I'd extemporize back-chat, I knew how to gag,
[01:33.543]And I knew how to let the cat out of the bag.
[01:37.185]I knew how to act with my back and my tail;
[01:40.553]With an hour of rehearsal, I never could fail.
[01:44.481]I'd a voice that would soften the hardest of hearts,
[01:48.116]Whether I took the lead, or in character parts.
[01:51.471]I have sat by the bedside of poor Little Nell;
[01:55.115]When the Curfew was rung, then I swung on the bell.
[01:59.604]In the Pantomime season I never fell flat,
[02:02.968]And I once understudied Dick Whittington's Cat.
[02:07.175]But my grandest creation, as history will tell,
[02:11.668]Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell.'
[02:16.445]Then, if someone will give him a toothful of gin,
[02:20.919]He will tell how he once played a part in East Lynne.
[02:25.400]At a Shakespeare performance he once walked on pat,
[02:29.311]When some actor suggested the need for a cat.
[02:33.513]He once played a Tiger--could do it again--
[02:36.312]Which an Indian Colonel purused down a drain.
[02:40.236]And he thinks that he still can, much better than most,
[02:44.457]Produce blood-curdling noises to bring on the Ghost.
[02:48.921]And he once crossed the stage on a telegraph wire,
[02:52.282]To rescue a child when a house was on fire.
[02:55.642]And he says:'Now these kittens, they do not get trained
[03:01.532]As we did in the days when Victoria reigned.
[03:05.740]They never get drilled in a regular troupe,
[03:09.099]And they think they are smart, just to jump through a hoop.'
[03:13.021]And he'll say, as he scratches himself with his claws,
[03:17.235]'Well, the Theatre's certainly not what it was.
[03:21.438]These modern productions are all very well,
[03:25.646]But there's nothing to equal, from what I hear tell,
[03:29.286]That moment of mystery
[03:31.245]When I made history
[03:33.205]As Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell.'