In the jungle, during one night in each month, the moths did not come to lanterns; through the black reaches of the outer night, so it was said, they flew toward the full moon.
So it was said. He could not recall where he had heard it, or from whom; it had been somewhere on the rivers of Brazil. He had never watched the lanterns at the time of the full moon; when he remembered it was always the dark of the moon or beyond the tropics. Yet the idea of the moths in the high darkness, straining upward, filled him with longing, and at these times he would know that he had not found what he was looking for, nor come closer to discovering what it was.
Leonard Durso 
beautiful
The whole book is. I’m really enjoying rereading it and revisiting Matthiessen after so many years.
Matthiessen–what a phenomenal writer. Thanks for the reminder to go back and re-read. The Snow Leopard is top of my list!
I’m sure you’ll enjoy re-reading him as much as I have.I did THe Snow Leopard again earlier this year and am now halway through At Play. . .So wonderful to enter his world again after so long. I remember sitting under an umbrella on the beach in the Dominican reading that plus Kesey’s Sometimes A Great Notion one summer on vacation and forgetting to go in the water. Must revisit that Kesey novel, too, soon.
Reblogged this on Leonard Durso.
What a lovely passage and image. I’ll seek him out. Thanks.
Glad you like it. It is an excellent book by an interesting writer.