He was worn out by clamour and by words, by alien syllables drained of knowing,
by memory of a spine worn thin, that never lifted its siege, night or day.
The world tore open with laughter and friction, stripped the enamel, aimed beneath the ribs,
and every shift of the hot crust struck the temples with a muffled hammer.
Then he pressed his eyelids shut and stepped - not into distance, but into the locked interior,
there where earthly weight is lost and the hammering of blood falls quiet.
I went down to the bottom, shedding words that sagged like another's skin.
I went down to the bottom, shedding words... that sagged like another's... skin...
He settled lower with each long breath, growing into a chainmail of collarbones.
Thoughts that until now had cut in two now drifted like half-sleeping fish -
powerless, dulled, hushed by the water. On shallows burnt out by the sun
names showed black, and outlines and dates, and memories that hung upon the shoulders.
Here the softness of the dark held sway; directions, roads and channels were lost,
only a fall into weightlessness lay ahead, a slow sinking into being.
I went down deep, washing off words that had built up for years like scale.
I went down deep, washing off words... that had built up for years... like scale...
And then a bared edge appeared on the voiceless shoreline of time,
where even the unceasing echo had sunk in warm and heavy haze.
This was no punishment, no desert, no concrete cell of solitude -
only a living, dark grey mass, steeped in the presence of being.
In this abyss, where the least stir could set space trembling like a string,
he understood: beneath him is firm ground, the one bottom that will not push away.
I went into shadow, erasing words, accepting the embrace of the depth.
I went into shadow, erasing words... accepting the embrace... of the depth...
From the core, from under the foundations, an ancient Eye slowly opened.
No iris, no contour, no form - it was a dense radiance of dark.
Bottomless, woven out of pure nothing, it was unconditionally eternal.
It demanded no repentance, set no terms and asked no questions,
revealed no secrets, promised no truths as reward,
but simply wrapped him in its watching, the way night listens to a sleeping forest.
And I stood still, having given up all words, looking into the gaze of blindness.
And I stood still, having given up all words... looking into the gaze... of blindness...
Speech flowed apart from vibration, without the tremor of dense ether.
This Eye drew out from the bones a rusted weariness clenched into a knot.
It took in the sickly noise, animal fear, the spasms and the paralysis,
drank guilt, despair and grievance, the way dry earth swallows a downpour.
Without scars, without incisions, without trace - it freed clean spirit from its husk,
and returned to inexhaustible substance all he had carried blindly through the ages.
And I kept silent, where words had burnt out, taking in the quiet sacrament of dark.
And I kept silent, where words had burnt out... taking in the quiet sacrament... of dark...
Armour smouldered softly and fell away. Consciousness released the optic nerve.
He was dissolving in a voiceless womb, in this first warmth,
having gained unshakeable, whole agreement with all that is, has happened, and will come.
He became all that he had gazed into, became this Eye and the very core.
No one was left who is afraid. Nothing was left that hurts.
Only a monolithic calm without beginning and beyond all measure of an end.
I simply am, where all words have vanished, dissolved in the pulse of endlessness.
I simply am, where all words have vanished... dissolved in the pulse... of endlessness...