When you wept it was just over yourself and not because of the marvelous impossibility of reaching her through the difference that separates you.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the self-centered nature of grief, suggesting that our emotions often stem from our own experiences rather than truly empathizing with others.
In this quote, Marguerite Duras highlights the complexity of emotions in relationships, particularly grief. It suggests that when we mourn or weep, it often arises from our own feelings and disappointments rather than a genuine emotional connection to the other person. The 'marvelous impossibility' indicates the deep chasm that can exist between individuals, making full emotional connection difficult, if not impossible.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of emotional pain in relationships.
Alcohol doesn't console, it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God. It doesn't comfort man. On the contrary, it encourages him in his folly, it transports him to the supreme regions where he is master of his own destiny.
What she said was always strange. It had happened long ago. It seemed insignificant. And yet it was something you remembered forever. The words as well as the story. The voice as much as the words.
I'm still there, watching those possessed children, as far away from the mystery now as I was then. I've never written, though I thought I wrote, never loved, though I thought I loved, never done anything but wait outside the closed door.
Perhaps someone will have seen mine, the one I’m waiting for, just as I saw him, in a ditch when his hands were making their last appeal and his eyes no longer could see. Someone who will never know what that man was to me; someone whose name I’ll never know.
Stormy skies, says Ernesto. He grieved for them. Summer rain. Childhood.
A prolonged silence ensues. The reason for the silence is our growing interest one for the other. No one is aware of it, no one yet; no one? am I quite sure?
The way that same-sex marriage should reach the federal level is that it absolutely should be decided by the Supreme Court as quickly as possible. It's a 14th Amendment issue. There's no argument about it.
It is well known to all great men, that by conferring an obligation they do not always procure a friend, but are certain of creating many enemies.
How easy it was to lie to strangers, to create with strangers the versions of our lives we imagined.
The question is always whether all of Baltimore will rise together or whether we will leave some behind.
I’ve been rereading your story. I think it’s about me in a way that might not be flattering, but that’s okay. We dream and dream of being seen as we really are and then finally someone looks at us and sees us truly and we fail to measure up. Anyway: story received, story included. You looked at me long enough to see something mysterioso under all the gruff and bluster. Thanks. Sometimes you get so close to someone you end up on the other side of them.
Nobody until very recently would have thought that their husband was supposed to be their best friend, confidante, intellectual soul mate, co-parent, inspiration.
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