Paraphrase:
L1:
1.Little donkeys thread their way among the throngs of people.
Then as you penetrate deeper into the bazaar, the noise of the entrance fades away, and you come to the muted cloth-market.
They narrow down their choice and begin the really serious business of beating the price down.
He will price the item high, and yield little in the bargaining.
As you approach it, a tinkling and banging and clashing begins to impinge on your ear.
L2:
Serious looking men spoke to one another as if they were oblivious of the crowds about them.
The cab driver’s door popped open at the very sight of a traveler.
The rather arresting spectacle of little old Japan adrift amid beige concrete skyscrapers is the very symbol of the incessant struggle between the kimino and the miniskirt.
I experienced a twinge of embarrassment at the prospect of meeting the mayor of Hiroshima in my socks.
The few Americans and Germans seemed just as inhibited as I was/
After three days in Japan, the spinal column becomes extraordinarily flexible.
I was about to make my little bow of assent, when the meaning of these last words sank in, jolting me out of sad reverie.
I thought somehow I had been spared.
L3:
The prospect of a good catch looked bleak.
He moved his finger back in time to the ice of two decades ago.
Keeps its engines running to prevent the metal parts from freeze-locking together.
Acre by acre, the rain forest is being burned to create fast pasture for fast-food beef
Which means we are silencing thousands of songs we have never even heard.
Considering such scenarios is not a purely speculative exercise.
We are ripping matter from its place in the earth in such volume as to upset the balance between daylight and darkness.
Or have our eyes adjusted so completely to the bright lights of civilization that we can’t see these clouds for what they are
To come to the question another way
And have a great effect on the location and pattern of human societies
We seem oblivious of the fragility of the earth’s natural systems
And this ongoing revolution has also suddenly accelerated exponentially.
L4:
She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand
“no” is a word cthe world never learned to say to her
Johnny Carson has much to do to keep up with my quick and witty tongue.
It seems to me I have talked to them always with one foot raised in flight.
She washed us in a river of make-believe
Burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know
Like good looks and money, quickness passed her by.
A dress to the ground, in this hot weather.
You can see me trying to move a second or two before I make it
Anyhow, he soon gives up on Maggie.
Though, in fact, I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War through the branches.
Every once in a while he and Wangero sent eye signals over my head
Less than that
This was the way she knew God to work.
