Two small glass candle holders sit side by side, one smoking and the other burning with a tall golden flame.

Original artwork, not a still

The Island of the Day Before  ·  1994

Umberto Eco

Absence is to love as wind to fire; it extinguishes the little flame, it fans the big.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Wind can put out a small fire or make a large one burn more strongly. Distance is said to act the same way on love. The contrast suggests that time apart reveals the strength of a bond by either weakening or deepening it.

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