It comes across as something of an admonition not to sentence oneself to the fate of Sisyphus, to perpetually roll the ball of chain of past sins and pains against nature (gravity), as the forced position is unstable and the past will not stay where it is so forcably put. Your past will always remain behind you, whether you spend all your energies rolling it around or not. Be true to yourself, do what you feel and know is right, and thus put your own face on all of your actions and your past, and it won't seem so heavy any more, because it fits, it's right, it's you.
"If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are!"
Just my offhand impressions...
It comes across as something of an admonition not to sentence oneself to the fate of Sisyphus, to perpetually roll the ball of chain of past sins and pains against nature (gravity), as the forced position is unstable and the past will not stay where it is so forcably put. Your past will always remain behind you, whether you spend all your energies rolling it around or not. Be true to yourself, do what you feel and know is right, and thus put your own face on all of your actions and your past, and it won't seem so heavy any more, because it fits, it's right, it's you.
"If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are!"