11 Νοεμβρίου 1968 είναι η ημερομηνία στην οποία ο Peter Hammill, 20χρονος τότε, έγραψε αυτό το αριστούργημα. Το ακούμε “επετειακά”, σε ζωντανή εκτέλεση [η στουντιακή βερσιόν, εδώ].
November 11, 1968 is the date on which Peter Hammill, 20 years old at the time, wrote this masterpiece. We hear it “on the day”, performed live [here is the studio version]

Day dawns dark
It now numbers
Infinity
Life crawls from the past
Watching in wonder
I trace its patterns in me
Tomorrow’s tomorrow is birth again
Boats burn the bridge in the fens
The time of the past returns to my life
And uses it
Don’t blame me
For the letters that may
Form in the sand
Don’t look in my eyes
You may see all the numbers
That stretch in my sky
And colour my hand
Don’t say that I’m wrong in imagining
That the voice of my life cannot sing
Fate enters and talks in old words
They amuse it
Hands shine darkly and white
Only in dark, they appear
Bless the baby born today (wicked little)
Flying in pitch (Scorpio doomed to die a thousand times)
Flying on fear (before he lives)
They shine in my eyes and touch my face
Where I have seen them placed before
Don’t blame me, please, for the fate that falls
I did not choose it
I did not choose it
I did not
No, no, I did not
I truly did not choose it