"Relying on analogies, the memoirist sometimes builds his 'account' on an allegoric construct. The major allegoric theme of such itineraries, suffused with metaphors and symbols (ranging from the proud verticality of the mountain to the protean horizontality of the sea), is condensed in the flaunting comparison of life to a journey and of a journey to life itself. A scholarly refrain, adapted to the continual ritualism of the Journey. Wanderings – of the thought, to 'centuries past,' and of the feet, to the [Trajan's] Column, the Holy Places, etc., are the Romanian versions of this ritualism."
by Florin Faifer
