... Infinity is that it is only for an already established ‘I’ that the other arises. The separated I, the subject, is put in question by the other but it is only with the somewhat prob- lematic analysis ... alterity of the I that takes itself for another may strike the imagination of the poet precisely because it is but the play of the same: the negation of the I by the self is precisely one of the modes ... hypoth- esis. This is the meaning of the sentence, ‘It is through the condition of being a hostage that there can be pity, compassion, pardon, and proximity in the world – even the little there is, ...