[00:17.160]We caught the tread of dancing feet,
[00:21.161]We loitered down the moonlit street,
[00:24.413]And stopped beneath the harlot's house.
[00:28.911]Inside, above the din and fray,
[00:33.164]We heard the loud musicians play
[00:36.162]The "Treues Liebes Herz" of Strauss.
[00:42.163]Like strange mechanical grotesques,
[00:45.662]Making fantastic arabesques,
[00:48.914]The shadows raced across the blind.
[00:52.913]We watched the ghostly dancers spin
[00:55.663]To sound of horn and violin,
[00:58.413]Like black leaves wheeling in the wind.
[01:03.913]Like wire-pulled automatons,
[01:07.163]Slim silhouetted skeletons
[01:09.914]Went sidling through the slow quadrille.
[01:14.664]They took each other by the hand,
[01:17.414]And danced a stately saraband;
[01:20.914]Their laughter echoed thin and shrill.
[01:26.164]Sometimes a clockwork puppet pressed
[01:29.915]A phantom lover to her breast,
[01:32.915]Sometimes they seemed to try to sing.
[01:37.165]Sometimes a horrible marionette
[01:39.916]Came out, and smoked its cigarette
[01:42.916]Upon the steps like a live thing.
[01:48.916]Then, turning to my love, I said,
[01:51.916]"The dead are dancing with the dead,
[01:55.416]The dust is whirling with the dust."
[01:59.417]But she--she heard the violin,
[02:03.417]And left my side, and entered in:
[02:06.667]Love passed into the house of lust.
[02:44.669]Then suddenly the tune went false,
[02:48.420]The dancers wearied of the waltz,
[02:51.170]The shadows ceased to wheel and whirl.
[02:55.670]And down the long and silent street,
[02:58.920]The dawn, with silver-sandaled feet,
[03:02.421]Crept like a frightened girl.