Who are these shadows about me—my neighbors, my nearest, the jostler whom I felt at my elbow? I—I who have gazed into the eternities and can in a glance pierce the curtains of Time, Who have watched through this night the endless procession into being and beyond that (The cry in the womb, the release, the hasty scud across earth, the thud in the Pit!) ; The screams in the dark, seen in a vision the Wheel go around and around and the writhing, pain-gutted images clinging to the blood-smeared spokes.— I—what have I to do with this black, seething Now and its shadows?
Surge around me, ye humans, ye water-gymnasts; The tide's running out, the present is ever-dissolving and the morn bringeth death to ye all. But I who plash in the eternal waters and stray to the pallid horizon Will return on the day of your silence, the Same, ever the Same.
Publication History
The Shadow-Eater [1915/17 and 1923]
1923 Edition Text Changes
- around and around and > around and around ⁋ And
- ever the Same. > ever the Same!