Interlude (1968)

[bunniefuu]

INTERLUDE

Now that it's been a long time...

so many years...

since our only meeting...

I want to remind you
that day of spring.

I want you to relive those 6 hours
we lived together.

I was always thinking that

coincidences are the most
important in our lives.

That's why our acquaintance

left me with something
I've never lived before.

Of course you know
as ? also do

that our story didn't become
a big love.

It didn't become a story
like those in books.

Nothing thrilling happened in
those 6 hours of train's delay.

I don't know about you.

I don't even know
where you are now.

I don't even know if you
remember that I existed.

I have thought many times
in my every-day life

of what this interlude
might have meant to you.

I never made it to find an answer...

Now that it's been a long time,

so many years

since our only meeting...

I'm coming to remind you
that day of spring...

We were both returning from a trip.

You had gone to a provincial town
to deliver some architectural drawings.

I was coming back
from some distant relatives

The train would reach
your town soon.

I would continue my trip
returning to my husband,

to another town.

We talked.
You didn't ask my name

neither did I.

That's how we met.

And we had a light conversation

with words like those
in every beginning,

words that travellers
say in trains...

Everyone can say those words,
when nothing goes on after.

And then, they forget them.

Now I'm thinking of what
can happen in a moment.

Sometimes, this moment

can bring you to
the end of the world.

I watched you pause for a while...

and you were looking at me.

I felt my heart strangely stop.

Like then, in my childhood...

when a blond boy was waiting for me
in the corner.

The train was reaching your town.

You asked me if you could
send me a card.

Then right at that moment
before I answer in time...

It was announced that instead
of the normal 10-minute stop,

the train would remain
in your town for 6 hours.

You smiled.

'You can't leave,' you said.

Then you suggested
we pass together those hours.

I knew I didn't have
the right to dream...

but I took the decision.

You were born here.

Everyone's childhood was similar.

At first, the world is your house.

Then, the road

you see from the window.

Then, the neighbourhood.

Something is growing inside you

as you go on from
one road to the other.

The town looks
increasingly big to you.

But instead of knowing it,
you lose it.

And when you start to say
that you get to know it,

you understand it how little
it give away to you its secrets.

How little you got to know her.

Then, you told me
that you decided once

to learn all of its secrets,
its history,

so you can say
you know everything.

You read its history from the books

but only a strange colour remained.

Chronologies that are not fixed.

Buccaneer ships that anchor.

An unreal sea battle.

All that world that passed

tells you again that you tried
in vain to learn about it.

Only that colour remains.

As if you had caressed a cheek

and your fingers had
stopped on a wrinkle.

I understood how much
you love this town.

You talked so much about it.

I didn't ask you why.

Every man has a past
belonging to him.

Let's say, it's been a long time
since we met

and, let's assume, the hours
we passed together were years.

In dreams, everything can happen
in the same moment.

I know that I won't be dreaming of you
when I'll be gone...

neither you will.

So, we're going to live
these few hours

knowing that they will
never come again.

We have a deadline.

Six hours.

We are together.

The great, eternal loves
that become statues and books,

are not like our story.

Its passage through the world
is trivial.

Its story was written
for us two, in 6 hours.

Every love hiddes its own secret

which is unlike any other.

If someone saw you,

If someone saw me,

would he recognise us?

Why I was laughing?
Why I was happy?

Think that neither you nor I
had said our names yet.

You said that tomorrow
we won't both be able

to tell anything about all these

either to ourselves or to others.

A secret will be born from these 6 hours,

we are going to cherish.

It was a nice day indeed.

And when I asked you
where we're going, you said

'To the end of the world...'

Then, I wanted to tell you a word
to take it with you.

To have it with you, tomorrow.

Maybe the day
after tomorrow, too.

A word to keep you company
at the dawns.

Why do you always turn
and look into my eyes?

We can delude ourselves
whenever we want.

Yet, might this delusion be the truth?

Something you said to me aloud...

Something you said to me...

You recalled the summer moon

and a song of the road
in the sunrise.

That's how you gave me
a slice of your life.

You didn't say anything more.

You designed our home on the sand.

The fence, the entrance gate,
the balcony,

the road, the rose garden,

the sea-view windows

You favoured armchairs
of faint crimson colour,

which makes them look old.

You didn't want hidden lighting.

The lamps would be laid low
on the tables...

and big vases would stand
in the corners.

I'd cut the flowers
from the garden by myself.

Though we knew this house
would never be made for us,

we had already enjoyed it.

We had seen the moon set...

the fireplace smoking
in the corner...

the garden getting green,

and turning pale
in the winter wind.

From that moment on
I kept the dream

untouched into my heart.

We hesitated
at the edge of the forest

We already wanted for a long time
to look at the watch.

The shadow of the quick breakup
had fallen on us.

Time was going by...

The light was getting weaker.

You were looking at me.

You had understood
everything I couldn't tell you...

everything I didn't have
the time to tell you.

Then, I thought that a man

cannot ever draw near to
the loneliness of a woman.

What can a photograph preserve?

Only that moment.

It was my idea to take
photographs together.

In a moment
I would go away.

That was a way to have
something yours.

Something mine.

An unrepeatable moment in the time.

We agreed not to show them anywhere

To be only for us.

On winter evenings I would pick them
out of the drawer and gaze at them

and the memory of that spring day
would flutter inside me.

Nothing gets forgotten or changes
with the photographs.

I wanted to have always with me
a little of the 6 hours...

to remember you
at the moments of loneliness..

When I will be nowhere for you,

you will still be close to me.

You mustn't feel sad.

Don't look at me.

In a few moments we will part.

Don't be sad.

I can see you stand alone here
at another day

a long time from today

I won't be anywhere for you, then.

I always wanted to
fly above the clouds.

They didn't let me.

No one allowed me ever.

Everyone called happiness
this continuity,

the everyday life.

And now, you...

in these 6 hours...

you gave me the change.

The flight.

Thank you.

Your home was in this street.

You asked me to come up
if I wanted.

I looked at you...

like, then, in my first love

for which I didn't want
to tell you anything about...

Then, you went on
and walked up the stairs.

No, maybe it was a mistake
we got as far as here.

Maybe it was a mistake
even that we met.

But I wasn't neither stronger
nor weaker than you.

I was like you.

I knew that nothing will remain
from this meeting

but a shadow.

No, I wouldn't come up.

I knew that tomorrow
we wouldn't be together

since we would lose
one another forever.

But if something
was moving inside me,

this wasn't for that moment,

but for tomorrow when
you wouldn't be close to me.

No, it shouldn't end like this.

You understood that...

without telling me.

When we left your house,

I remembered another one, mine.

Another time.
Another spring.

It was a date
with someone I loved.

I was late

and I run to meet him
at the large dock.

I waited for him.
He hadn't showed up yet.

The time was going by.

And then, I thought that I saw him,
and I ran to him.

I was waving to him
from a distance.

When I reached him, I realized
it wasn't him, but someone else.

My chest felt heavy.

The stranger went away,
and I stayed there.

A light rain began to fall.

Then I ran to another place
in the forest to find him.

But he wasn't there either.

Then, you told me about a night

a night you spent
browsing through books

and wandering in the streets
of your town.

It was a night of loneliness

and, the same time,
a night of sheer happiness

It was a night of looking for
the knowledge of others in the books.

and of looking for what
happiness meant to other people.

And the only thing
you understood was

that real happiness can be
found outside ourselves, too,

far away and very close to us.

Here, at the edge of the sea,
the interlude of the 6 hours was ending.

If I look into myself,

I will hear the same heartbeat
of my time of youth.

Why do we need to seek confirmation?

We've reached something
both of us could not imagine before.

So, was it a game that wasn't game?

What can be measured by time?

Who can say this 'something,'
given to us by chance,

wasn't something great?

Now that the dream passed
right through us,

it became reality.

Don't run to catch up with it.

Don't say farewell to it.

Yes.

For me, this interlude
was the most important in my life.

The time went by.

6 hours went by.

The interlude closed.

We were over.

I said goodbye to you,
near to the sea.

We agreed you won't walk me
to the station.

It would be easier that way.

I knew I won't see you again.

I would return to my home
and you would stay in your town.

Then you said you wanted to give me
something to remember you.

You searched...

but you didn't find anything.

And then, you said one word.

One single word.

Goodbye.

I didn't admit that we are over.

No. I didn't admit that.

As the train was leaving, I didn't see you.
That's what we agreed.

I only, little by little,

started dreaming of
coming back to your town

and living our interlude again
but now in winter.

It's a long time since that day.

How is the street?

The sea?

The forest?

The sky?

It's like a sudden pain
that burns the eyes.

No, I didn't find you again.

But the interlude that
brought us together returned.

You are with me again.

We speak together again.

We went together near
to your childhood dreams.

I had already thought of
asking you this, back then.

To write each other a letter,
before we part.

I had paper and envelopes in my bag.

I gave some to you
and I myself took some too.

'We're going to write a letter,'
I told you,

as if the years had passed.

Then we exchanged them.

What did you write?

'My dear,

You will set to go tonight.

You will go away.

Our breakup will come
and there's nothing to go on.

You can imagine that you
won't exist for me any more...

and that for you I won't exist too.

I won't know the town
where you will go.

I won't come.

I won't come there
looking for you.

I won't be able to remember you.'

You ask me
if I remember your house.

No. It wasn't that.

The door doesn't look alike.

We walked together till I find it.

It's so nice to be with you.

Everything seems great
and important to me.

How could a story
that lasted a few hours,

fill up a whole life?

And yet...

it left a deep mark on me.

A night, years before,
I heard them talking about a woman.

She had a romance.

A love affair.

Someone asked her something.

A silence followed.

A cold silence.

He refused to believe it.

A love affair?
A romance?

What about me?
He said.

And then?

No, he didn't learn the details.

In these stories,
there are no details.

A short while ago,
it was different.

We could speak about breakup.

About memories.

Now, the distance is getting larger.

And right before the end,

the separation came first.

I want to remember something...

something.

We were left alone
in the snowy forest.

And we decided to find something.

Something to replace us.

That way, separating
would be easier.

We walked into the snow.

Both of us separately though of that.

And then...

we returned to the same place.

For me nothing could
take your place.

You said the same.

Tell me that distances can disappear...

that the moment we lived
will be back.

Now that I'm looking for you,

I want to drive away the shadow
cast by the coming end.

But whatever I do,

the dream itself keeps distance.

Do you remember what you told me?

We can see each other
even when we won't be together.

When we separately
remember each other

the story we changed
will be already dead.

That's what you told me.

Did I look sad to you?

I wasn't.

Happiness flood my heart.

You understood that.

You speak to me again
about favourite places...

long trips... bygone joys.

You speak to me again
about you and me.

In the winter cold you speak to me
about summer moons...

about songs you hear
coming from the sea...

and you ask me if I can also
see these all...

if I can hear them as well.

I see you on the horizon
as if you were shrouded in fog....

watching with the same eyes

other days, other joys...

You speak to me like you did then.

As if you had found me again, too,

as if you had been looking for me.

I feel that the winter dream
comes to an end.

These are the last moments

and our last noon.

But let's assume
that this is our start,

and let's make the big table.

as if we were waiting for guests...

as if it was a feast.

Don't be sad
because I'm going away.

Don't be sad
because we're left alone.

If you hadn't come...

If I hadn't met you...

everything would
have been different.

I would have been back
in another life...

where I belong to.

You stopped talking anymore.

We are becoming the dream
of all those who are watching us.

Maybe they laugh
because they don't believe.

They don't believe that we exist,
because they can't imagine it.

Maybe, all these things are true...

I feel that I'm losing you.

You didn't hurt me.

You didn't fooled me.

You didn't forget me.

The moments are playing their last game.

The interlude ended.

So, was it a lie?

Do you believe it?

Say that we will continue.

That the interlude of the 6 hours
will be all our life.

And let's separate.

What is it?

I can't hear you anymore.

The time goes by.

I'm losing you.

Give me your hand.

Give me your hand.