A passage and a lyric a week (18 May 2012) 

about time and hope and desire

When the shadow of the sash appeared on the curtains it was between seven and eight oclock and then I was in time again, hearing the watch. It was Grandfather's and when Father gave it to me he said I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; it's rather excruciatingly apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his father's. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.
(William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, 1929)


The town clock in the market square
stands waiting for the hour
when its hands they both turn backwards
and on meeting will devour
both themselves and also any fool
who dares to tell the time
(Homburg, 1967, Words by Keith Reid) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt1zGKDOZIo 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4dWfQ7Vhvo&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLBEF2293EAE784669
(a memorable modern version)