Translated by A. Z. Foreman - Juan de Mairena: A Childhood Memory lyrics

Till he hears soft falling footsteps, and hears a latchkey churned about, this bad bad little boy won't dare budge his body, or breathe out. Little John the lonely boy, mind in a fugue of mice and clocks, hears the woodworm in the closet, the grease-moth in the cardboard box. Jailbird John the little man listens to time that will not stop, to the groaning of mosquitoes in the droning spinning-top. The boy is in his room and dark, the door latched shut by mother's key. He is the poet, the pure poet who sings: "It's time! It's time and me."