When galaxies collide, they pass right through

The expression “When galaxies collide, they pass right through” turns an astronomical image into a private consolation: the narrator imagines that even an encounter of immense significance may leave one of the people involved untouched. Its return near the book’s ending makes the image resonate beyond the moment when he first uses it, linking love’s intensity with distance, absence, and the hope of home.

The Image in the Street

After walking toward Isobel Martin’s college, the narrator sees her across the street. She does not see him. The disparity is stark: for him, the sight carries overwhelming significance; for her, the moment passes without notice. He recalls that when galaxies collide they pass right through, an analogy that frames their near-encounter as a meeting that produces no mutual recognition.

The comparison gives the narrator a way to steady himself, but not to diminish what he feels. He can barely breathe as he watches Isobel, and he does not notice the rain beginning. The cosmic scale of the image sits against the physical immediacy of his response: an immense universe, and one person whose presence fills his attention.

Absence and Everyday Closeness

The expression belongs to a scene in which distance sharpens rather than extinguishes attachment. The narrator reflects that absence has intensified his longing for the ordinary life of being with Isobel: a mundane conversation about their days and the quiet comfort of simply coexisting. Against that desire, the image of galaxies passing through one another captures the possibility that closeness may be one-sided—that a moment can be immense to one person and almost nothing to another.

Recurrence Near the Ending

The phrase returns as a standalone heading near the book’s end, after “A very brief hug” and before “Home.” This recurrence gives the earlier comparison a second life: what first articulates the ache of seeing Isobel without being seen becomes part of a closing sequence shaped by contact, beauty, and belonging. The image remains unresolved. It offers the narrator a way to think about separation, but does not make his longing less real or guarantee that two lives will meet.