imagination and time

Eros may seem to take effect simultaneously with the first glimpse of the other person (love at first sight is by no means necessarily neurotic or to be relegated to the immature). The suddenly beloved elicits a composite image from our experiences in our past or in our dreams of our future; we spontaneously experience him or her in relation to our personal "style of life" which we form and carry with us all our lives and which becomes clearer the more fully we know ourselves. But it takes time for the integrating process to take place, time for eros to be interwoven with the multitude of memories, hopes, fears, aims, ad infinitum which form the pattern we recognize as ourselves.

当第一眼看到对方的时候，爱欲似乎同时出现了（一见钟情肯定是神经官能症或者不成熟的表现）。这一瞬间的倾心或者基于过去的经验或者按着我们对未来的期待编织出一副图景；我们自发地感觉到他、她与我们个人的生活方式发生了联系，我们对自己了解越全面，这种生活方式就会越清晰，这种生活方式我们将实践终生。但是这个整合过程的发生需要花费时间，将爱欲与我们的记忆、希望、恐惧、目标以及其他我们借以辨识自己的模式交织在一起，这个过程需要花费时间。