Thursday 14 February 2008

A love letter from Dr Iannis on Valentine's day

When Dr Iannis's beloved daughter, Pelagia, returns from a meeting with Captain Corelli, she tries to pretend to her father that she hasn't met Corelli. But she knows that her father knows that she has. Dr Iannis doesn't talk about his daughter's love for Corelli directly; he simply says this:

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision.
You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is.
Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion.
That is just being 'in love', which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground and, when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.
I love these words: they ring so true with me. They go straight to my heart.

2 comments:

Peta said...

Wow - I'd forgotten how amazing that quote is and how wise and lovely Dr Iannis is. Thanks.

Angela Young said...

Thank you, Peta. He is both wise and lovely, I agree. (And so, perhaps, is his creator.) And as for John Hurt's interpretation in the film ... it was outstanding.