'So you don't want me for a husband?'—Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame of Paris (1831) (trans. John Sturrock 1978)
The girl eyed him hard, and said: 'No.'
'For your lover?' Gringoire went on.
She pouted and answered: 'No.'
'For your friend?' Gringoire perservered.
Again she eyed him hard, and after a moment's thought, she said: 'Perhaps.'
This 'perhaps', so dear to philosophers, emboldened Gringoire.
'Do you know what friendship is?' he asked.
'Yes,' answered the gypsy. 'It's being brother and sister, two souls which touch without merging, two fingers on one hand.'
'And love?' Gringoire continued.
'Oh, love!' she said, and her voice trembled and her eye shone. 'That's being two and only one. A man and a woman who merge into an angel. That is heaven.'
Thursday, October 28, 2010
'two fingers on one hand'
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Wow, I love this. And the gypsy much better articulates what I was trying to say about deification. God is Love, three and only one. Jesus is our bridegroom, we are the bride; when we are joined to Christ, we are two and only one...we become what He is without losing who we are--in fact, becoming ever more who we are. That, as she says, is heaven.
ReplyDelete