In the snowstorm you came close to wild animals and they were not afraid. They travelled across country not knowing where they were and the deer stood sometimes in the lee of the cabin. In a snowstorm you rode up to a moose and he mistook your horse for another moose and trotted forward to meet you. In a snowstorm it always seemed, for a time, as though there were no enemies.
Somehow it was taken for granted that an American could not have aficion. He might simulate it or confuse it with excitement, but he could not really have it. When they saw that I had aficion, and there was no password, no set questions that could bring it out, rather it was a sort of oral spirital examination with the questions always a little on the defensive and never apparent, there was this same embarassed putting the hand on the shoulder, or a "Buen hombre." But nearly always there was the actual touching. It seemed as though they wanted to touch you to make it certain.
To understand is to forgive. That's not true. Forgiveness has been exaggerated. Forgiveness is a Christian idea and Spain has never been a Christian country. It has always had its own special idol worship within the Church. 'Otra Virgen más'. I suppose that was why they had to destroy the virgins of their enemies. Surely it was deeper with them, with the Spanish religion fanatics, than it was with the people. The people had grown away from the Church because the Church was in the government and the government had always been rotten. This was the only country that the reformation never reached. They were paying for the Inquisition now, all right.
If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
Különben ne kicsinyeld le azt az érzést, hogy szeretsz valakit. Kevés emberrel esett meg az a szerencse, hogy megszeretett valakit. Te eddig nem ismerted a szerelmet, most meg az öledbe hullt. Mindegy, hogy holnapig vagy holnaputánig, vagy életed végéig tart ez az érzés Maríával, mindenképp a legnagyobb dolog, ami az emberrel történhetik. Mindig lesznek emberek, akik azt hiszik, hogy nincs szerelem, mert ők nem ismerték meg.