p.24 BETSHEB: [to FRANCIS, with a very thick accent] Stef ’ave cradlepain. [Stef was born diseased.]

p.26 BETSHEB: [murmuring softly]

Rain, rain, go thy way,

Come a back ne’er a day…

[Rain, rain, go away,

Come back again another day…]

p.27 AYRE: ’Airloomin’ fer the child. Wot child? Bellsademon laughin’. Nowt need nowt Herod. We is dead. Goldy dead nowt goldy sow. Nowt tongue, nowt goldy sow, nowt ’istory. [This would have been an heirloom for the child. But what child? The devils are laughing at me. We don’t need King Herod (to kill our children). We are dead. The goldmine is finished, there is no fertile womb or sperm. We have no language, no sperm, and therefore no history.]

So fine. So fine. ‘I shew yer beauty. Beauty so fine yer’ll piss yerself. ’Airloomin’ fer the child.’ [So beautiful. So beautiful. ‘I’ll show you beauty, beauty so wonderful that you’ll piss yourself. An heirloom for the child.’]

Nowt more outcastin’. [Crying out to the sky] Nowt more outcastin’! [No more exile. No more exile!]

p.28 BETSHEB: [pretending to read, turning the pages quickly] Thy word. [This is your book.]

’Ate the olcer sky. No end. No end. Adorate the shiny brocade sky, glommen time. Queenie Ayre say in ancient glommen, King David see the brocade, King Moses see the goldy brocade, lubilashings o’ shiny in ancient glommen. The sky ’e see, is me goldy brocade. See? [I hate the sky when it looks dark and threatening. There seems to be no end to darkness when it’s like that. No end. I adore the shiny, starry sky at night. Queenie Ayre says that back in the old times, King David saw the shiny, starry sky; King Moses also saw the golden stars. There were incredible numbers of stars back in ancient times. The sky they saw is the same golden starry sky I see.]

Me burstin’ brain. Me burstin’ brain. See? [My head feels like it’s exploding. My head feels like it’s exploding. See?]

p.29 BETSHEB: Break ’n’ crack int’ thee. [I want to crack and break your skull and get directly through to you.]

p.30 BETSHEB: Bellsademon kissin’ ’n’ spoonkissin’ in the rye. [Murmuring] The belle she lie droopin’. The gent he lie tongue out. Ho! Spoonfuckin’ in the glommen.

[Let’s kiss like demons and put our tongues down each other’s mouths while we’re here in the grass. The woman lies ready, the boy has his tongue out. Ho! Fucking in the night.]

[smiling, softly] The belle whoopin’, tongue out in the glommen. [The girl is randy, she has her tongue out in the night.]