Les Trois Ombres

The three shades by Auguste Rodin. Bronze cast at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Photo By Yair Haklai - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19752923

The soul that’s torn against itself
and torn against itself and torn
against itself stands on a shelf
of rock.  The gate of wisdom born
opens below: Abandon hope
and drag your bitter self downslope.

There is no other now.  Alone
and meeting only with itself
the heart of iron, heart of stone,
of adamant, looks down at death
and never lifts its eyes above,
nor ever remembers aught of love.

Alas, it needs no implements,
no rack to ruin heaven’s part.
Our torture is that we ourselves
make shards of our divided hearts
but join in nothing but despair.
Abandon hope, who enter there.

Mercy, O Godhead one in three:
Three out of one are torn in shreds.
See this unholy trinity;
have mercy on our divided selves!
Save us—oh, save the fractured soul.
O Unity, save and make us whole!

On a Rodin sculpture, The Three Shades, made to top his sculpture of the Gates of Hell. This set of three figures has been enlarged to be a freestanding sculpture on his own, which I saw at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Fascinatingly, the three figures are all the same figure, turned slightly and gathered around the same point.