Man. . . the human person. . . the free individual. . . the I. . . at once torturer and victim. . . at once hunter and prey. . . Man -- and man alone -- reduced to a thread -- in the dilapidation and misery of the world -- who searches for himself -- starting from nothing. Exhausted, thin, emaciated, naked. Aimlessly wandering in the crowd. Man anxious about man, in terror of man. Asserting himself one last time in a hieratic attitude of supreme elegance. The pathos of extreme emaciation, the individual reduced to a thread. Man at the stake of his contradictions. No longer crucified. Burned. You are right, dear friend. Man on a pavement like burning iron; who cannot lift his heavy feet.
Francis Ponge

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into onwards