HANOI REFLECTION
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding (1942)
When does one really know a place? Does it take one year? A few? Maybe a lifetime?
Having lived in Hanoi for five years, I’m still trying to make sense of it: venturing out after dusk, going from district to district and alley to alley. This process of looking for light and truth feels familiar by now. Comfortable even. But, serene as the search may be, perhaps it’s time to come to terms with the fact that this city will never truly reveal itself. I see Hanoi’s old scales fall to the ground and new skin appear. But its winter air is translucent at best: it lets the shapes, forms and colors pass through, but leaves many blanks to be filled in.
And so the question keeps lingering in my mind: at the end of all this exploring, will I arrive where I started and know this place for the first time?
Created between December 2019 and February 2020.
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding (1942)
When does one really know a place? Does it take one year? A few? Maybe a lifetime?
Having lived in Hanoi for five years, I’m still trying to make sense of it: venturing out after dusk, going from district to district and alley to alley. This process of looking for light and truth feels familiar by now. Comfortable even. But, serene as the search may be, perhaps it’s time to come to terms with the fact that this city will never truly reveal itself. I see Hanoi’s old scales fall to the ground and new skin appear. But its winter air is translucent at best: it lets the shapes, forms and colors pass through, but leaves many blanks to be filled in.
And so the question keeps lingering in my mind: at the end of all this exploring, will I arrive where I started and know this place for the first time?
Created between December 2019 and February 2020.