“What I have seen is going to disappear, since I shall do nothing with it.”

The Inferno (1917), Ch. XVII
Context: What I have seen is going to disappear, since I shall do nothing with it. I am like a mother the fruit of whose womb will perish after it has been born.
What matter? I have heard the annunciation of whatever finer things are to come. Through me has passed, without staying me in my course, the Word which does not lie, and which, said over again, will satisfy.

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Henri Barbusse 197
French novelist 1873–1935

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