And so even to-day in any large provincial town, or in a quarter of Paris which I do not know well, if a passer-by who is 'putting me on the right road' shews me from afar, as a point to aim at, some belfry of a hospital, or a convent steeple lifting the peak of its ecclesiastical cap at the corner of the street which I am to take, my memory need only find in it some dim resemblance to that dear and vanished outline, and the passer-by, should he turn round to make sure that I have not gone astray, would see me, to his astonishment, oblivious of the walk that I had planned to take or the place where I was obliged to call, standing still on the spot, before that steeple, for hours on end, motionless, trying to remember, feeling deep within myself a tract of soil reclaimed from the waters of Lethe slowly drying until the buildings rise on it again;
Eta gaur egun ere, baldin, probintziako hiri handiren batean edo Parisen bertan gaizki ezagutzen dudan auzoren batean, bidazti bide-erakusleren batek urrunera, norabidearen erakusgarri, ospitaleren bateko gailur-talaia seinalatzen badit, edo komenturen bateko kanpandorrea bere bonet eliztarraren punta goratzen ari, esanez hango kantoiko kalea dela hartu behar dudana, aski izaten da nire oroimenak halakoari denik-eta antzekotasun ilunik ttipiena aurkitzea irudi kuttun eta suntsituarekiko, bidaztia, burua jiratzen badu galbideratzen ari ez naizela ziurtatzearren, zur eta lur gera dadin, ikusten bainau, gogoko egurasteari edo premiazko erosteari etena emanez, hantxe lotzen naizela, kanpandorrearen aitzinean, orduak eta orduak, geldirik, oroitze-ahaleginetan, neure baitan ahanzturari ebatsitako hainbat lurralde nola zimeltzen eta berriro eraikitzen diren adi, neure bide bila noski, are egonezin handiagoz bila ere arestian norabidea argi ziezadan galdetu diodanean baino, karrika-kantoia jiratuz...