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and was afraid of its black
dazzle,
pure altitude and looming foam.
a shining vault that could not
stay
its own iridescence,
an ocean devoured by its
crest.
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I
thought of the pit which used to
be right next to the building,
the bottomless pit that had
inspired shivers of fear at
night, not only in me but in all
the pretty children, girls, and
adults who lived on all the
floors.... They were afraid of
the secret inside themselves as
if fearful of a past sin that
could not stay buried in the past
for all eternity. Eventually they
forgot about the pit, its
memories and secrets as well as
what it contained, like
instinctive animals who scratch
some dirt to conceal their
disgrace. One morning, waking up
from a black nightmare that
seethed with human faces, I
discovered that the pit had been
covered over. It was then that I
understood with horror, gripped
by the same nightmarish feeling,
that the pit had been turned
inside out, and it now rose out
of the site that was once called
the pit. They had a new way of
referring to this new space that
brought mystery and death up to
our very windows; they called
this dark well the air
shaft.
Orhan
Pamuk
from The Black
Book
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