Mme. Swann would have written to me, from a country house, that she would not be in town before February, had I asked her to reconstruct for me the elements of that memory which I felt to belong to a distant era, to a date in time towards which it was forbidden me to ascend again the fatal slope, the elements of that longing which had become, itself, as inaccessible as the pleasure that it had once vainly pursued.
Swann andereak gaztelu batetik ihardetsiko zidakeen esanez ezen otsailera arte, krisantemoen garaia baino franko geroagora arte alegia, ez zela etxeratuko, baldin eskatu banio, arren, lagun ziezadala nire oroitzapen hura atalik atal berreraikitzen, hain urte urrun bati atxikia izaki oroitzapena bera, eta beronetara milimetro bat bera ere hurbiltzea niretzat hain debeku erabatekoa, non desiraren atal guztiak, azken finean, hain eskuraezinak bihurtuak baitzitzaizkidan nola izana baitzen atzemanezina desira hori behiala alferrik jazarria zitzaiòn plazera. Eta ezinbestekoa izango nukeen, halaber, emakume berberak izatea, beraien apaindura hain atsegin ohi nuèn haiexek, zeren, oraindik sinesbera nintzèn garai haietan, nire irudimenak banan-banan hautetsiak eta legenda banaz arnasberrituak baitzituen.