The English Patient - Katharine’s Letter

[Hana]
My darling, I'm waiting for you. How long is the day in the dark? Or a week? The fire is gone now, and I'm horr- horribly cold.

[Katharine]
I really ought to drag myself outside, but then there'd be the sun. I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings and on writing these words. We die.

[Hana]
We die. We die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have entered and swum up like rivers.

[Katharine]
Fears we've hidden in, like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. We're the real countries. Not the boundaries drawn on maps, the names of powerful men. I know you'll come and carry me out into the palace of winds. That's all I've wanted, to walk in such a place with you, with friends. An Earth without maps.

[Hana]
The lamp's gone out and I'm writing in the darkness.