And I am still alive-what though, my damnation is eternal. A man who deliberately mutilates himself is truly damned, is he not? I believe that I am in hell, therefore I am.

As I descended into impassable rivers I no longer felt guided by the ferrymen.

Life is the farce which everyone has to perform.

I found I could extinguish all human hope from my soul.

I went out under the sky, Muse! and I was your vassal.

One evening I sat Beauty on my knees – And I found her bitter – And I reviled her.

And from that time on I bathed in the Poem Of the Sea, star-infused and churned into milk, Devouring the green azures; where, entranced in pallid flotsam, A dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down.