When One Has Reached the Age of Eighty-Five

Music: Fugue in Eb from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2.
By J.S. Bach. Sequenced by Yo Tomita.

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When one has reached the age of eighty-five, And years, like mountains crossed, are soft with haze, It is a triumph simply to survive. One is where few have managed to arrive, Where consciousness alone is cause for praise, When one has reached the age of eighty-five. And when one can do more than be alive, Can cope, can comprehend, can turn a phrase, It's still a triumph simply to survive, To breathe, to be satiate, to desire, to derive Solace from the lingering ends of days. When one has reached the age of eighty-five, And memories of infancy revive, And faces long forgotten meet one's gaze, It is a triumph simply to survive, To hold together this one world, to strive To keep what life inevitably betrays. When one has reached the age of eighty-five, It is a triumph simply to survive.