One pursues love even if it kills him, as it well may: “His face was pale, and he was thin and worn, obviously from too much lovemaking.” The other, soberer, seeks “a country without women” where a man can live in peace. The ferry lands, the passengers disembark, and the listener, curious, follows the two friends deep into a wood, to a rude cottage fronted by a “weathered plaque” reading, “Hut of a Sensuous Hermit.” Greeting the young men as welcome visitors is an old bent-backed woman, “to whose face the years had given a refined beauty.” They’ve come for a reason: “Neither of us understands the ways of sensuous love deeply enough yet… You’re so experienced, won’t you please tell us the story of your life?”
Extract — continue reading at the source.
