There is a passage in the Mozart K.
511 Rondo in A Minor,Measures 98 through 101,
And focused on measure 100, where there areAt least four different melodies, or fragments
Of melodies, together and apart,Resolving themselves, or unresolving themselves,
With enigmatic sweetness, or melancholy;Or distant memories of victories,
Personal, royal, or mythic over demonsOr sophisticated talking about ideas;
Or moments of social or sexual concord; orOf parting though with mutual regret;
Or differences and likenesses of natures;It was what you said last night, whoever you are,
That told me what your nature is, and didn’t;It was the way that you said the things you said;
Grammar and syntax, agents of our fate;Allusions to disappointments; as also to
An unexpected gift somebody gaveTo someone there in the room behind the music;
Or somebody else working out a problemAt a table under the glowing light of a lamp;
Or the moment when the disease has finallyProceeded to its foregone working through,
Leaving behind it nothing but the questionOf whether there’s a heaven to sing about.
David Ferry, “Measure 100”, in Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations