there was a prince, who was dying, and he was carried up the tower at pisa so he could die with a view of the tuscan hills. am i that prince?
what was all the banging? were you fighting rats or the entire german army?
before you find too many uses for these books would you read some to me?
my book? the herodotus? yes, we can read him.
thank you.
the plumness of this plum.
what's that?
candaules
i'm not laughing at you. go on, please.
yes. dropping off.
i can already see.
not the window - i can't bear the light anyway - no, i can see all the way to the desert. i've found the lost fossils.
zerzura, the white city of acacias, the oasis of little birds. as me about the scent of acacia - it's in this room. i can smell it. the taste of tea so black it falls into your mouth. i can taste it. i'm chewing the mint. is there sand in my eyes? are you cleaning sand from my ears?
i can see my wife in that view.
could i have a cigarette?
why are you so determined to keep me alive?
why? can he lay eggs?
why are people always so happy when they collide with someone from the same place? what happened in montreal when you passed a man in the street - did you invite him to live with you?
me? he can't. i'm already disturbed.
finally! so you're our canadian pickpocket?
i understand you were in africa. whereabouts?
all over? i kept trying to cover a very modest portion and still failed. are you leaving us? now's our opportunity to swap war wounds.
i think anybody she ever loves tends to die on her.
me? you've got the wrong end of the stick, old boy. so - caravaggio - hana thinks you invented your name.
i told her you would never invent such a preposterous name.
am i being interrogated? you should be trying to trick me. ask me about tottenham hotspur. or buckingham palace. about marmite - i was addicted. or make me speak german, which i can, by the way.
no.
you tell me. i remember a lot of things. i remember a garden, plunging down to the sea - the devil's chimney we called it - and there was a cottage at the bottom, right on the shore, nothing between you and france.
or my wife's.
i think so. although i believe that to be true of a number of germans. might i have a glass of water?
thank you. look - my lungs are useless - i've got this much lung. the rest of my organs are packing up - what could it possibly matter if i were tutankhamun? i'm a bit of toast, my friend - butter me and slip a poached egg on top.
yes?
your friend?
just go off. i'll be quite all right.
well then - yes. of course.
please, don't waste your time on pleasantries -
i'm going to sing. if i sing i shan't hear anything.
something smells so rich. my stomach is heaving -
that's a different dress.
do i recognize him? i recognize what he is. i like him. he's canadian. he can read italian. he can catch rabbits.
could i ask you to move? i'm sorry - but when you turn, the sheets, i can't really bear the sheets moving over me. sorry.
k is for katharine.
are you outside?
i don't even know if it is my book. the bedouin found it in the plane, in the wreckage. it's mine now. i heard your breathing and thought it might be rain. i'm dying for rain - of course i'm dying anyway - but i long to feel rain on my face.
moose.
i don't know. paper. is it? paper? i don't remember.
i have come to love that little tap of the fingernail against the syringe. tap.
sikh. if he wears a turban, he's a sikh.
really? that's sudden.
why? is he staying?
we should charge! doesn't anyone have a job to do?
in that case, i suppose we can't charge.
what?
irving berlin.
top hat.
i've been told that before.
#name? natives called the lahore museum.
so what do you really object to - the writer or what he's writing about?
hana, we have discovered a shared please - the boy and i.
condensed milk - one of the truly great inventions.
you like him, don't you? your voice changes.
i don't think it's indifference.
hana was just telling me that you were indifferent -
#name?
careful - careful!
this is wonderful!
i'm still here.
don't depend on it. will you? that little bit of air, each day there's less of it, which is al right, which is quite all right.
i've been talking to caravaggio - my research assistant - there's meant to be a ghost in the cloisters. i can join him!
it's the boy.
hana! hana! kip! hana!
there was a general who wore a patch over a perfectly good eye. the men fought harder for him. sometimes i think i could get up and dance. what's under your bandages?
why don't you go? you should sleep.
i've had a drink. fatal.
very true!
who knows the bosphorus hug?
that was a dance we invented at the international sand club.
what?
hana tells me you're leaving.
we shall miss you.
me?
i see.
and you thought you'd come and settle the score?
i had to get back to the desert. i made a promise. the rest meant nothing to me.
the rest meant nothing to me.
thousands of people did die, just different people.
is that what you thought? that i betrayed the british? the british betrayed me. the british betrayed me.
so yes. she died because of me. because i loved her. because i had the wrong name.
yes, i got back there finally to keep my promise. to come back for her. and then of course i couldn't.  i couldn't even do that properly.
you can't kill me. i died years ago.
kip?
what are you talking about?
go on, do it. i don't need to hear any more.
thank you. thank you.
read to me, will you? read me to sleep.