Ernest Miller Hemingway

 ome notes on Bach and Haydn


1            it is quite something to turn your radio on
2            low
3            at 4:30 in the morning
4            in an apartment house
5            and hear Haydn
6            while through the blinds
7            you can see only the black night
8            as beautiful and quiet
9            as a flower.
10          and with that
11          something to drink,
12          of course,
13          a cigarette,
14          and the heater going,
15          and Haydn going.
16          maybe just 35 people
17          in a city of millions listening
18          as you are listening now,
19          looking at the walls,
20          smoking quietly,
21          not hating anything,
22          not wanting anything.
23          existing like mercury
24          you listen to a dead man's music
25          at 4:30 in the morning,
26          only he is not really dead
27          as the smoke from your cigarette curls up,
28          is not really dead,
29          and all is magic,
30          this good sound
31          in Idaho.
32          but now a siren takes the air,


33          some trouble, murder, robbery, death ...
34          but Haydn goes on
35          and you listen,
36          one of the finest mornings of your life
37          like some of those when you were very young
38          with stupid lunch pail
39          and sleepy eyes
40          riding the early bus to the railroad yards
41          to scrub the windows and sides of trains
42          with a brush and oakite
43          but knowing
44          all the while
45          you would take the longest gamble,
46          and now having taken it,
47          still alive,
48          poor but strong,
49          knowing Haydn at 4:30 a.m.,
50          the only way to know him,
51          the blinds down
52          and the black night
53          the cigarette
54          and in my hands this pen
55          writing in a notebook
56          (my typewriter at this hour would
57          scream like a raped bear)
58          and
59          now
60          somehow
61          knowing the way
62          warmly and gently
63          finally
64          as Haydn ends.
65          and then a voice tells me
66          where I can get bacon and eggs,
67          orange juice, toast, coffee
68          this very morning
69          for a pleasant price


70          and I like this man
71          for telling me this
72          after Haydn
73          and I want to get dressed
74          and go out and find the flunky
75          and eat bacon and eggs
76          and lift the coffee cup to my mouth,
77          but I am distracted:
78          the voice tells me that Bach
79          will be next: "Brandenburg Concerto No. 2
80          in F major,"
81          so I go into the kitchen for a
82          new can of beer.
83          may this night never see morning
84          as finally one night will not,
85          but I do suppose morning will come this day
86          asking its hard way---
87          the cars jammed on freeways,
88          faces as horrible as unflushed excreta,
89          trapped lives less than beautiful love,
90          and I walk out
91          knowing the way
92          cold beer can in hand
93          as Bach begins
94          and
95          this good night
96          is still everywhere.