Quotes About Longing

I gazed at Albertine's cheeks as she spoke, and wondered what might be the perfume, the taste of them: that day they were not cool but glowed with a uniform pink, violet-tinted, creamy, like certain roses that have a waxy gloss. I felt a passionate longing for them such as one feels sometimes for a particular flower.

Pero yo seguía diciéndole: - Ven a la alcoba a darme un beso -aterrorizado al ver cómo ascendía por la pared el reflejo de la bujía de mi padre, pero utilizando su inminente aparición como un medio de intimidación.

Fiquei a olhá-la, a princípio com esse olhar que não é mais que o porta-voz dos olhos, mas à janela do qual se inclinam todos os sentidos, ansiosos e petrificados, olhar que desejaria tocar, capturar, trazer consigo o corpo que está mirando, e com ele a alma.

Because I seemed to recognize the same sorts of sadness I had experienced in connection with Gilberte—or on those occasions in Combray when Mama had not stayed in my room, and also when I recalled certain pages of Bergotte

but the pleasures that we have chosen can be a long way off if their advent is certain and if, while we await them, we can give ourselves over in the meantime to an idle seeking to attract and to an incapacity for love.

Die Erinnerung an ein bestimmtes Bild ist wehmutsvolles Gedenken an einen bestimmten Augenblick; und Häuser, Straßen, Avenuen sind flüchtig, ach! Wie die Jahre.

Amava-a, lamentava não ter tido tempo nem a inspiração de ofendê-la, de fazer-lhe mal, de forçá-la a se lembrar de mim. Achava-a tão linda que desejaria retroceder para gritar-lhe, erguendo os ombros: "Como a acho feia, ridícula, como você me repugna".

We find desiring innocent, and hideous that the other should desire.

Je pouvais bien prendre Albertine sur mes genoux, tenir sa tête dans mes mains, je pouvais la caresser, passer longuement mes mains sur elle, mais, comme si j'eusse manié une pierre qui enferme la salure des océans immémoriaux ou le rayon d'une étoile, je sentais que je touchais seulement l'enveloppe close d'un être qui par l'intérieur accédait à l'infini.

Le désir fleurit, la possession flétrit toutes choses

Ma seule consolation, quand je montais me coucher, était que maman viendrait m'embrasser quand je serais dans mon lit. Mais ce bonsoir durait si peu de temps, elle redescendait si vite, que le moment où je l'entendais monter, puis où passait dans le couloir à double porte le bruit léger de sa robe de jardin en mousseline bleue, à laquelle pendaient de petits cordons de paille tressée, était pour moi un moment douloureux.

Without being ready to fix a date, I longed to put an end to this existence which I blamed for making me renounce not so much work as pleasure. It would happen also, however, that the habits which bound me were suddenly abolished, generally when some former self, full of the desire to live a merry life, took the place of what was my self at the moment.

There must be something inaccessible in what we love, something to pursue; we love only what we do not possess, and soon I began once more to realize that I did not possess Albertine.

Having had time to come, Albertine must have arrived. I went straight to Françoise: "Is Mlle Albertine here?" "No one has come." Good God, did that mean that no one would be coming? I was in torment, Albertine's visit now seeming all the more desirable for being less certain.

The only true paradises are the paradises that we have lost.

The constant vision of this imaginary happiness helped me to bear the ruining of my real happiness. With a woman who does not love us, as with someone who has died, the knowledge that there is nothing left to hope for does not prevent us from going on waiting.

For, if unduly prolonged, the rapture of waiting for Eulalie became a torture,

even while deceiving him, she loved him. How often we sacrifice the fulfillment of a possible happiness to our impatience for an immediate pleasure!

28. Comment j'aimerais mourir. — Meilleur et aimé. 29. État présent de mon

He knew himself so little that he doubtless imagined that he was in love with her, perhaps indeed that he would be in love with her always

But above all my anguish was incomparably stronger this time, for many reasons, of which the most important was not perhaps that I had never tasted sensual pleasure with Mme de Guermantes or with Gilberte, but that since I did not see them every hour of every day and had no opportunity, and consequently experienced no need, to do so, my love for them lacked the all-powerful element of Habit.

Pois desde que se está enamorado, todos os pequenos privilégios desconhecidos que a gente possui, desejaria poder divulgá-los à mulher a quem ama, como fazem na vida os deserdados e os importunos. Sentimos que ela os ignore, procuramos consolar-nos dizendo conosco mesmos que, justamente porque não são jamais visíveis, talvez ela acrescente à ideia que tem de nós essa possibilidade de vantagens desconhecidas.

love which, ever unsatisfied, lives always in the moment that is about to come)?

We dream a great deal of paradise, or, rather, of numerous successive paradises, but they are all, long before we die, paradises lost, in which we would feel lost.