On pp. 178-80 of John Crowley's new novel THE TRANSLATOR, there is a poem (actually the first draft of a translation of a poem) written by a Russian poet in exile during the Cold War which begins:
In some worlds my torturer is but a man as I am
And his bosses are men, as well
And their bosses men like me
And the leader a man, a man I myself could be.
The third stanza is:
In some worlds my torturer is a being not like me
And his father is a fallen angel
whose father is a heedless god
whose father is the abyss to whom the leader bows.
And the fourth stanza ends with the line:
In some he never dies, outlives the sun.
In his LOCUS interview Crowley doesn't mention having read Wolfe; but if he really hasn't read TBOTNS it's a remarkable coincidence.
Incidentally, while I haven't yet finished THE TRANSLATOR, I recommend it highly, although it's quite a bit different from his other novels.
--Adam