She remains for me the girl I have always dreamed of, the bride who has ever waited for me, the maiden whose sacred head gleams like a goddess’s through death’s rain of ashes, through the silent, trickling mist of ashes that fall from the volcanoes in the realm of the dead; she remains the one woman, unique and radiant, transfigured and indestructible for all eternity.

— Alexander Lernet-Holenia