Satie: Heures séculaires et instantanées (I’m putting the version by Rogé because I can't find Ciccolini's)
Satie's description of "Heures séculaires et instantanées" is:
1. Venomous Obstacles
This vast part of the world is inhabited by a single human being: a black man.
He is bored to death from laughing.
The shadow of the ancient trees indicates nine seventeen.
The frogs call each other by name.
To think better, the black man holds his little brain with his right hand, fingers apart.
From afar, one might mistake him for an eminent physiologist.
Four anonymous snakes capture him, hanging onto the edges of his uniform, distorted by bitterness and loneliness combined.
On the riverbank, an old mangrove slowly washes its roots, so dirty that they appear disgusting.
It is not the right time for lovers.
2. Morning Twilight (at noon)
The sun has risen early and in good spirits.
It will be warmer than usual because the weather is prehistoric and threatening.
The sun is at its highest point in the sky; it has the look of a good fellow.
But let’s not trust it.
It can still scorch the harvest and give us a nasty blow: a sunstroke.
Behind the shed, an ox eats so much that it is about to get sick.
3. Granitic Panic
The clock of the old abandoned village is about to strike a sharp blow as well: the stroke of the thirteenth hour.
A deluge of rain bursts from clouds of dust; the vast, sneering woods pull at their branches; while the rough granite rocks shove each other, doing everything to be cumbersome.
The thirteenth hour is about to chime, under the symbolic aspect of one in the afternoon.
Alas! It’s not daylight saving time.
