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the situation remains (to all appearances) calm, the bigger the
eventual explosion will be, the greater the resulting suffering and
pain that come with the fall will be.
The other who struggles for recognition is the alien, and what
appears embodied in the alien behind the conflict is a third concept,
the radical concept of the alien, which is none other than the enemy.
And if it is a curtain that the different (or the same) and the other
(or I-as-same) are behind, then we must mention one very impor¬
tant story, which can even be taken as paradigmatic in the question
of the same and other. In the case of one of them it is a question
of truth, while in the other case a new Narcissus story emerges.
Curtain or veil. Does it divide or hold together? What does it
cover? What does it hide? What could be behind it? Hegel, after
all, speaks of a curtain. Friedrich Schiller’s ballad about the veil of
Sais (Das verschleierte Bild zu Sais) stages this spectacularly.” A
young man who did nothing in his life but impatiently seek the
truth stands in the middle of an Egyptian temple and sees a giant
shape hidden by a curtain.
Does yonder veil beneath its folds conceal?
“The Truth,” is the reply. — “What,” cried the boy,
Tis nothing else but Truth that I pursue, Tras
And must I find that just that Truth is veiled?*
The truth. It stands before the priests, who have never felt com¬
pelled to yank the veil from the “truth.” They are much wiser. The
essence of the veil of Sais is precisely in the covering. But then what
is the truth? (We can read this question in two ways.) The young
27 Ianalyzed the story in detail in my book titled see Gyenge 2016.
28 Trans. E.P. Arnold-Foster (The Veiled Image at Sais)