Jun 21, 2011
Actually, in my opinion, a man didn't have to be insane to be sensitive. There were people who could be wounded by trifles and whom a single hard word could kill. I gave her to understand that I was that sort of a person.
The unnamed protagonist from Knut Hamsun's Hunger.
Note: I preferred Bly's—over Lyngstad's definitive—translation of this passage, and I added the emphasis. It's fitting to mention that the character could also be saved from complete madness, self-annihilation, by a single 'word': kuboa.