Scene Nº 4

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter — bitter," he answered;

"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."

Stephen Maria Crane, "In the desert".

Scene Nº 3

I climbed the barren mountain,
And my gaze swept far and wide
For the red-lit eaves of my father's home,
And I fancied that he sighed:
My son has gone for a soldier,
For a soldier night and day;
But my son is wise, and may yet return,
When the drums have died away.

[...]

Confucius, "The soldier".

Scene Nº 2

[...]

Worn with the fever of unrest,
And spent with years of eager quest,
Beneath the vaulted heaven they stood,
Pale, haggard eyed, of garb uncouth,
The seekers of the Hidden Good,
The searchers for Eternal Truth!

[...]

Around their dreary winter world
The great ice-kraken dimly curled
The white seas of the frozen zone;
And like a mighty lifted shield
The hollow heavens forever shone
On gleaming fiord and pathless field!
Behind them, in the nether deep,
The central fires, that never sleep,
Grappled and rose, and fell again;
And with colossal shock and throe
The shuddering mountain rent in twain
Her garments of perpetual snow!

[...]

Emma Alice Browne, "In hoc signo vinces!".

Scene Nº 1

With thee, in the Desert—
With thee in the thirst—
With thee in the Tamarind wood—
Leopard breathes —at last!

Emily Dickinson, Nº 209.