The book then is your authoritative guide,
its words like gestures in the dark,
its passages masquerading as proofs
of the indisputable in hieratic script. But here
the translation is uncertain: this word
is most often translated as time, as in
the impossible lifting its right hand to heaven
saying, ‘there shall be time no longer…’—That
in exchange for the ‘gentlest apocalypse imaginable
whose rhythms swing along in intricate patterns
without ever obeying a regular beat…’ Time
beaten on a drum is eradicated in this piece
composed, while Messiaen was under guard, for
himself (piano), Pasquier (cello), Akoka (clarinet)
and Le Boulaire (violin). In 1976, the group Tashi
recorded the definitive version on the RCA label.