THE HEART - the lover -

The lover is always resumed to the heart
It engulfs on its own desire, willingly, readily
It appoints a heroic mask to its own madness,
It defines its passion by waiting
It begins but does not ends,
It offers, unwisely, generously the gift of the heart …
            
 
 

1.  To be engulfed  - the gentleness of the abyss

“ …I am dissolved, not dismembered: I fall, I flow, I melt.  Such thoughts – grazed, touched, tested -  can recur. Nothing solemn about them.
That is exactly what gentleness is ...”

2.  The movement of  Desire

“… the heart is the organ of desire ( the heart swells, weakens ,etc., like the sexual organs) …”
“.. .  what will the other  do with my desire? … that is the anxiety in which  are gathered all the heart’s movements, all the heart’s problems …” 

3.  To hide

“ …to impose upon my passion the mask of discretion (of impassivity) …”
“ … I set a mask upon my passion, but with a discreet (and wily) finger I designate this mask … Every passion, ultimately, has its spectator …” 

4. I know I love, because I wait

“  … Am I in love? – Yes, since I am waiting. The other never waits…”

5.  The ghost ship

“ … How does a love end? – Then it does end? ….”
“ … a kind of innocence conceals the end of love conceived, asserted, lived according to eternity …”

6 – The gift - object of the heart

“ … the heart is always constituted into a gift-object -  whether it is ignored or rejected…”
“ … I am not interested in my mind; you are not interested in my heart …”
Performe:r Angela Costa

All the quotes in "" are from 'A lovers discourse fragments' / Roland Barthes
Quotes extracted by Angela Costa