Too Loud a Solitude

by Bohumil Hrabal

I can be by myself because I’m never lonely, I’m simply alone, living in my heavily populated solitude, a harum-scarum of infinity and eternity, and Infinity and Eternity seem to take a liking to the likes of me.

because when you’re young you love keeping clean, you love your self-image, an image you still have time to improve.

No, the heavens are not humane, nor is any man with a head on his shoulders.

And as I helped him up, I felt him shake all over, so I asked him to forgive me, without knowing what for, but that was my lot, asking forgiveness, I even asked forgiveness of myself for being what I was, what it was my nature to be.

“Every beloved object is the center of a garden of paradise.”