Over the years I'd lodged him in the permanent past, my pluperfect lover, put him on ice, stuffed him with memories and mothballs like a hunted ornament confabulating with the ghost of all my evening. I'd dust him off from the time to time and then put him back on the mantelpiece. He no longer belongs to earth or to life. All I was likely to discover at this point wasn't just how distant were the paths we'd taken, it was the measure of loss that was going to strike me - a loss I didn't mind thinking about in abstract terms but which would hurt when stared at in the face, the way nostalgia hurts long after we've stopped thinking of things we've lost and may never have cared for.
---中譯修訂---
這麼多年來，我一直將他寄居在永恆的過去，屬於我過去完成式的愛人，將他冰封，以回憶及樟腦丸填滿他，就像在每個夜晚中與陰影合而為一的狩獵標本。我偶爾會為他撣去灰塵，再將他放回壁爐架上。他不再屬於塵世或生活。此時我可能發現的不僅僅是我們所選擇的道路將相距多遠，而是我所失去的將會傷害我有多深。我不介意用抽象的術語去思考，但事實擺在眼前時仍然心痛。在很久以後，在我們停止想念我們所失去及或許從未在乎的事物，緬懷往事仍然令人心痛。
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