She could sense it very clearly: for me, no less than for her, the past counted far more than the present, remembering something far more than possessing it. Compared to memory, every possession can only ever seem disappointing, banal, inadequate … She understood me so well! My anxiety that the present ‘immediately’ turned into the past so that I could love it and dream about it at leisure was just like hers, was identical. It was ‘our’ vice, this: to go forwards with our heads forever turned back.

She could sense it very clearly: for me, no less than for her, the past counted far more than the present, remembering something far more than possessing it. Compared to memory, every possession can only ever seem disappointing, banal, inadequate … She understood me so well! My anxiety that the present ‘immediately’ turned into the past so that I could love it and dream about it at leisure was just like hers, was identical. It was ‘our’ vice, this: to go forwards with our heads forever turned back.

– Giorgio Bassani –

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