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I was a blackened corpse among the living, and in this hour
I am the fire of life and my flame burns up the darkness in the world.
My face must be whiter than the glowing white face of the moon.
…
Do you see my face?
Do you see the light that shines out of me?
Ah! Love kills!
But no one dies without having known love!
– Richard Strauss's Elektra,
– trans. Holland and Chalmers
… the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet moon.
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
– "Frost at Midnight"