Because They Were Not Distracted

"They walked through street after street, conversing and laughing; they conversed and laughed to give substance and weight to the most gentle of ecstasies which was the happiness of their thirst. Because of the traffic and crowds, they sometimes touched, and as they touched -- thirst is the grace, but the waters are the beauty of darkness -- as they touched there shown the brilliance of their waters, their throats becoming even more dry in their astonishment. How they marvelled at finding themselves together!

Until everything transformed itself into denial. Everything transformed itself into denial when they craved their own happiness. Then began the great dance of errors. The ceremonial of inopportune words. He searched and failed to see; she did not see that he had not seen, she who was there in the meanwhile. He who was there in the meanwhile.... Everything went wrong, and there was the great dust of the streets, and the more they erred, the more they craved with severity, unsmiling. All this simply because they had been attentive, simply because they were not sufficiently distracted. Simply because suddenly becoming demanding and stubborn, they wanted to possess what they already possessed. All this because they wanted to name something; because they wanted to be; they who were."


Clarice Lispector, The Foreign Legion