I saw her hair, tied in two thick plaits, with loose strands on either side, her cheeks blown by the wind. I saw for the first time in my life how beautiful she was, and how beautiful and dreamlike the play of the wind in her delicate hair, how beautiful and provocative the fall of her thin blue dress over her young limbs; and just as the bitter spice of the chewed bud coursed through me with the whole dread pleasure and pain of spring, so the sight of the girl filled me with the whole deadly foreboding of love, the foreboding of woman. In that moment was contained the shock and the forewarning of enormous possibilities and promises, nameless delight, unthinkable bewilderments, anguish, suffering, release to the innermost and deepest guilt.
Ikusi nuen, lehenengoz bizitzan, zein polita zen neska hau, zein polita eta amesgarria zen haizearen jolas hau bere ile xamurretan, zein polita eta desiragarria bere soineko urdin sotilaren erorketa soin gaztearen gainean, eta mastekaturiko pinportaren keru mikatzarekin batera udaberriko atsegin eta antsia gozo lotsakor guztia gailendu zitzaidan bezala, neska ikustean gainditu zitzaidan maitasunaren susmo hilgarri guztia, emakumearen susmoa, posibilitate eta eskeinte izugarrizkoen, esanezinezko atseginen, pentsaezinezko nahasmendu, antsia eta saminen, barneneko salbazioaren eta sakoneneko erruaren aitzingusturik eraginkorrena.