I am buried!
Oh! My eyes are crushed, and under the weight, I know not what is above me!
Aye, this is my pain, for I know not what is there, what is anywhere, but I am buried under the mountains...
Listen as I tell my tale. I do not know if you are real. But I am still, and when the flesh is still, the flesh is dead. But still I wish to live, for my stagnation pains me!
Once I was born in the fertile lands, and I saw not any murky brownness. And so was the world to me, ever-decent, for I saw what I was supposed to see.
I was a child looking at the ground in a tribe that worshiped the sun. We hated shadows, and thus the sun was God, destroyer of the shadows! And so he was our great savior in the sky, the bright sun, and he was the one who took us out of the evil of the night.
Hence I spoke to the world when I was young. "Hello, world!" I said! "Hello!" And such was this, and I was looked up to at the academy, and soon everything was good and clear. Chase the sun! And they looked at me and my strength and my valor and courage, and the elders said, "Now, look at this youth. He will turn into a man great and strong, and he will meet the Sun, and slay the evil beast, Darkness of the Night and Shadow, forever."
Such was my fate, which everyone recited to me! It was my destiny to grow great, to reach the Sun.
And thus came my eighteenth birthday, and then came my father, King of Uruk, and he said, "Son, today is your day, and all of your training is complete! Now you must venture to the sun! Your body is strong, your mind is sharp and keen, and so is your destiny, to bring the Sun to the people. No longer are we unable to see in the darkness. Now, you shall destroy the darkness!"
And so I ventured to the sun! The sun was in the sky, hence I walked toward it.
So I journeyed, and I had to run faster than the sun, which fled from East to West, but I reached it in the land of clouds, where then all the shadows had been destroyed, and now I was at the Kingdom of Heaven!
I was at the Kingdom of Heaven! What did I see? All the shadows were gone, hence I could not see them anymore. But what could I see, now that I could not see any shadows on the ground? I tried to kneel and look away from the sun, but the sun was everywhere. No longer could I look downwards and see shadows disappear. Now, here was the sun!
He here was, here he shone! He was radiant, he was glimmering!
He was a bald, fat and ugly man who of poor teeth and stench. Such was he!
He was far different than what I expected, yet I asked him anyway, "Oh, great Sun, my people have sent me here on a mission to reach you and bring the vision of the Sun to the world so that they are no longer in danger of Darkness and the Night. Let them be free, and I beg you, spread your gifts to our world!"
So did he speak in his large face and larger belly, "You, traveler! You have reached me, thus you have equaled me. Now I must give your people the sight of the sun! Thus I shall come down to the Earth, and soon you shall be liberated from shadow!"
He descended downwards, and then the people watched me and the Sun as we came, and they applauded. But they said to each other, "Is that the Sun? But I thought the Sun was strong and handsome!"
And so another said, "It is only because the shadows have not been vanquished yet. Let us see him destroy the darkness!"
The Sun spoke, "You men ask for sight! I must give it to you. But men, do you wish to place such a burden upon yourselves?
"Imagine the sickly man. He is not responsible for his family, rather, his family is, because he is crippled. Are you sure you are strong enough to raise your family?
"Imagine the disabled man. He cannot walk and can only limp! Thus he cannot fight in battle. Are you sure you are strong enough to go to battle?"
But the people said, "Yes, we are!" And I said, "Yes, we are! Look at me! I am the strongest of all men. I may be young, but I was raised to be the wisest and the shrewdest. And even if there are men lesser than me, they are superior to all the other races on the Earth, for no worm or bear can build cities or write poetry. So, almighty Sun, give us your divine sight!"
And then he was solemn, but there was a thunderclap, and soon we were blinded by the light. The light was blinding! In the absence of the shadow, there was nothing to look at but light!
The light faded. And the eye blinked, and I could see again! I walked to the village and to my Kingly father.
"Father! We have vanquished the evil Darkness of Night and Shadow! Now we can see everything!" I looked at his shadow. And within it, I saw abominations!
There were teeth and appendages, claws and ears, thus was the griffon of the searing eyes, and he was behind my father, standing next to him in the opposite direction of the sun who was now in the sky. And at the other side of my house, but what was my house? I saw what my house was, and it was alive, a being of nostrils and talons!
Thus was the dread in my heart, and there was the gift of truth, and it drained me, and I saw the world around me as it truly was. Everyone was mad, everyone looked at each other and saw the beasts within them, of sin and depravity, and now their appearances could not hide their worst secrets, and the demons showed themselves freely!
And then came the Night, which was not one of shadow, but of sight. We were liberated from being blind, and now we could see the Night!
The Night, pinnacle of terror! Tower of many hands and gaping eyes, mouths frothing in the Earth! Your wife was followed by seven ghouls, for she was prideful and deceitful, and so there was an ogre of nine tongues behind her at all times. But now the Earth was filled with terror!
The hills were alive, and the trees were walking, and the bodies of the dead began melting in the Earth and the rivers grew red, and the sky was hellfire! Thus was sight!
And so I said to my heart, "If this is sight, I do not want sight! I curse myself, for I have eyes!"
"I am being driven mad! Me, the strongest of men! They are around me, they are everything and everywhere. Once I could not see them, but now I see the objects of my suffering, and they do not hide from me any longer, and I cannot hide from them in my ignorance. I am not strong enough to survive in the truth, I would rather live when I could not see! I enjoyed reality when it was unreal.
"I hate my sight! Thus I tear my eyes out.
"I hate my sight! I tear my eyes out.
"I hate my sight! I tear them out!"
And so I saw the showings of the truth and the pain, and my knife went in, and I refused to see anymore.
