And so I would often lie until morning, dreaming of the old days at Combray, of my melancholy and wakeful evenings there; of other days besides, the memory of which had been more lately restored to me by the taste-by what would have been called at Combray the 'perfume'-- of a cup of tea; and, by an association of memories, of a story which, many years after I had left the little place, had been told me of a love affair in which Swann had been involved before I was born; with that accuracy of detail which it is easier, often, to obtain when we are studying the lives of people who have been dead for centuries than when we are trying to chronicle those of our own most intimate friends, an accuracy which it seems as impossible to attain as it seemed impossible to speak from one town to another, before we learned of the contrivance by which that impossibility has been overcome.
Honela egon ohi nintzen sarritan goizaldera arte, Combrayko garaiaz gogoetatzen, lorik gabeko arrats goibel haietaz, beste hainbat egunez ere bai, zeinen irudia itzuli berria baitzidan te-kikara baten zaporeak-"lurrinak", Combrayn esango zuketen bezala-, eta, baita ere, oroitzapenen elkarketaz, herrixka hura utzi eta urte askotara, Swannek ni jaio baino lehen izana zuèn amodio bati buruz jakin nuenaz, zenbaitetan duela zenbait mende hildako pertsonen bizitzari buruz gure lagunik onenenari buruz baino eskuragarriagoa izan ohi den xehetasun-zehaztasun horretxekin jakin ere, ezinezkoa badirudi ere, hala nola ezinezkoa baitzirudien herri batetik bestera hitz egin ahal izateak, geroztik ezintasun delako hori zer bilakatu den pentsatu ezean. Oroitzapen horiek guztiek, batzuk besteei elkar gainkaturik, masa bat eratzen zuten, anabasa bat, baina ez hain nahasia non ezinezkoa baitzatekeen oroitzapenon artean-antzinakoenen eta berrienen, hau da, lurrin batetik sortutakoen eta, bestalde, beste pertsona batengandik jasoak nituelako nekizkienen artean-bereiztea, alegia, ez arrakalarik edo benetako arraildurarik, baina bai gutxienez halako zain batzuk, halako kolore-nabardura batzuk, zenbait haitzetan, marmoletan batik bat, jatorri-, adin-, eta "eraketa"-aldeak adierazten dituztenen modukoak.