NPPR "fainting fit": lines 146-156

[Michael Joseph]

>From Mircea Eliade's "Autobiography. Vol I: 1907-1937" p. 4-5.

     "I think that I was four or five years old, and was clinging to my
grandfather's hand as we walked down Strada Mare one evening, when I
noticed among the trousers and dresses that were passing us a girl about
my own age, also holding her grandfather's hand. We gazed deeply into each
other's eyes, and after she had passed I turned to look at her again and
saw that she too had stopped and turned her head. For several seconds we
stared at each other before our grandfathers pulled us on down the street.
I didn't know what had happened to me; I felt only that something
extraordinary and decisive had occurred. In fact, that very evening I
discovered that it was enough for me to visualize the image from Strada
Mare in order to feel myself slipping into a state of bliss I had never
known, and which I was able to prolong indefinitely. During the months
that followed, I would call up that image several times a day at least,
especially before falling asleep. I would feel my whole body draw up into
a warm shiver, then stiffen; and in the next moment everything around me
would disappear. I would remain suspended, as if an unnatural sigh
prolonged to infinity. For years the image of the girl on Strada Mare was
a kind of secret talisman for me, because it allowed me to take refuge
instantly in that fragment of incomparable time."




Michael