Chapter XIV: Book II: Soul-Fire

“‘... Yes, who am I? God wot!
How often have I prayed to Heaven to tell me!—
Who am I, God?—But Heaven itself is mute.
Yet this I do know: whatsoe’er I be,
Hero or weakling, demigod or beast,
I am the outcast child of the bright Sun
That longs for home!—
A bundle of sorrow, weeping for the light
That stretches out its radiant arms in vain
And yearns for me!’”

—GERHARDT HAUPTMANN, “The Sunken Bell,” Act V.