在我年轻的时候，我只见过三四次欢乐岛，然后它们就被雾气、低气压、冷锋、逆风和逆潮迷失了……我把它们误认为是成年后的样子。假设它们是我一生航程中的固定特征，我忽略了记录它们的纬度、经度和接近程度。年轻红润的傻瓜。为了一张永远不变的不可言喻的地图，我现在不会付出什么？可以说，拥有一本云图册。
(Three or four times only in my youth did I glimpse the Joyous Isles, before they were lost to fogs, depressions, cold fronts, ill winds, and contrary tides … I mistook them for adulthood. Assuming they were a fixed feature in my life's voyage, I neglected to record their latitude, their longitude, their approach. Young ruddy fool. What wouldn't I give now for a never-changing map of the ever-constant ineffable? To possess, as it were, an atlas of clouds.)