Derry Dol, Indeed

[Rimbaud]

Eä is itself only creation and therefore can not only not be assumed to have a full understanding of itself at any time of its existance, but it also cannot be plausible that there could be a perfect simulacrum of itself in itself; in a very peculiar, fixed form (Tom) on top of that.
A painting neither knows how it was painted, nor knows how it looks to the beholder; nor is music able to comprehend itself.

Purely on this point, Old Man, I find myself in disagreement. There are many things of Eru's creation that 'comprehend themselves', arguably imperfectly, but nevertheless so. Elves, Men and Dwarves et al are sentient along with much more of Tolkien's world than our own; Legolas tells us even the rocks have memories.