ashes and diamonds

"So often are you a blazing torch with flakes of burning hemp about you. Flaming, you know not if flames bring freedom or death, consuming all that you most cherish. Will only ashes remain, and chaos, whirling into the void... Or will the ashes hold the glory of a starlike diamond, the Morning Star of everlasting triumph?"

(a poem by Cyprian Norwid adapted for the movie Ashes and Diamonds, and a relief etching print by Beatrice Haines)