All that city
You just couldn' t see the end to it
The end? Please? You please justshow me where it ends? It was all very fine on that gangway
And I was grand too,in my overcoat
I cut quite a figure
And I was getting off
Guaranteed
There wasno problem
It wasn' t what I saw that stopped me, Max
It was what I didn' t see
You understand that? What I didn't see
In all that sprawling city there was everythingexcept an end
There was no end
What I did not see was where the whole thing cameto an end
The end of the world
Take a piano
The keys begin, the keys end
You know there are eighty-eight of them,nobody can tell you any different
They are not infinite
You are infinite
And onthese keys the music that you can make is infinite
I like that
That I can live by
You get me up on that gangway and you' re rolling out in front of me
a keyboard ofmillions of keys, millions and billions of keys that never end,
and that' s the truth,Max
That they never end
That keyboard is infinite
And if that keyboard is infinite
then on that keyboard there is no music you can play
You' re sitting on the wrongbench
That's God' s piano
Christ! Did, did you see the streets? Just the streets
There were thousands of them!
And how do you do it down there? How do you choose just one? One woman, one house
one piece of land to call your own, one landscape to look at, one way to die
All that world is weighing down on me, you don' t even know where
it comes to an end,and aren' t you ever just scared of breaking apart
at the thought of it? The enormity of living it?
I was born on this ship, and the world passed me by, but two thousand people at atime
And there were wishes here, but never more than fit between prow and stern
You played out your happiness, but on a piano that was not infinite
I learned tolive that way
Land? Land is a ship too big for me
It's a woman too beautiful; it' s a voyage toolong, a perfume too strong
It' s a music I don' t know how to make
I could neverget off this ship
At best, I can step off my life
After all, I don' t exist foranyone
You're an exception, Max, you're the only one who knows I'm here
You're a minority, and you better get used to it
Forgive me, my friend, but I'm notgetting off
This is the way the world endsNot with a bang but a whimper