Il Vecchio E Il Bambino

An old man and a child held hands
And they walked together toward the evening
The red dust rose in the distance
And the Sun shone with an untrue light

The immense plain seemed to reach
As far as a man's eye could see
And all around there was no one
Only the gloomy outline of towers of smoke

The two walked, the day was falling
The old man spoke and cried softly
With an absent soul, with wet eyes
He followed the memory of past myths

Old people suffer the injuries of the years
They cannot distinguish truth from dreams
Old people do not know, in their thoughts
To distinguish falsehood from truth in dreams

And the old man said, looking into the distance
Imagine this field covered with wheat
Imagine the fruits and imagine the flowers
And think of the voices and think of the colors

And in this plain, as far as it goes
The trees grew and everything was green
The rain fell, the suns marked
The rhythm of man and the seasons

The the child stood still, his gaze sad
And his eyes looked at things he'd never seen
And then he said to the old man in a dreamy voice
I like fairy tales, tell me more!