Your voice, through the beelike hum, was remote and anxious. It kept sliding into the distance and vanishing. I spoke to you with tightly shut eyes, and felt like crying. My love for you was the throbbing, welling warmth of tears. That is exactly how I imagined paradise: silence and tears, and the warm silk of your knees. This you could not comprehend.
The passage reflects a deep emotional struggle where the speaker experiences a profound yearning for the other person. Their voice, described as a distant, anxious hum, highlights a connection that feels both close and unattainable. The speaker's tightly closed eyes suggest a desire to block out the world, while tears symbolize the overwhelming love they feel, illustrating a mix of joy and sorrow intertwined in their emotions.
Imagining paradise as a place of silence and tears reinforces the intensity of their feelings, emphasizing that true bliss contains pain and longing. The warmth of the imagined closeness, represented by the silk of the other person's knees, further demonstrates an intimate desire that remains unreciprocated or misunderstood. The complexity of love and the depth of longing create a poignant and beautifully tragic moment in the narrative.