“To go where you don't know · you have to go through where you don't know”

“To go where you don't know / you have to go through where you don't know” is a verse that helps Marco Carrera accept an uncertain future rather than demand that it first make sense. First remembered from a farewell letter by Luisa Lattes, it becomes a principle for Marco’s decision to support his daughter Adele’s fatherless pregnancy—and, repeated aloud among her friends, a phrase that bridges his doubts and their openness to the future.

Origin and Meaning

Marco recalls the verse from one of the many farewell letters Luisa had sent him over the years. Its wording offers no destination or guarantee: reaching the unknown requires passing through it. For Marco, the line is not an abstract assurance that events will turn out well. It gives him a way to act when he cannot know where his decision will lead.

The verse acquires particular force when Adele tells Marco she will have a child without a father. He wonders whether her decision reflects some unspoken hurt, whether she has inherited her mother’s tendency to retreat from reality, and whether he will again be called upon to answer for damage he cannot repair. He also questions how a twenty-one-year-old mother and a fifty-one-year-old grandfather could raise the child, and how long Adele’s apparent self-sufficiency might last. The verse does not settle these questions; it makes room for proceeding despite them.

A Decision Without Certainty

Marco accepts Adele’s expectation and chooses to believe, at least provisionally, in the possibility of a “man of the future.” His assent is an act of love, but not the disappearance of his unease. He had found Adele’s declaration moving and disturbing at once, and the remembered line allows those reactions to coexist with his decision rather than forcing him to resolve every doubt first.

Afterward, the pregnancy becomes a sequence of practical choices. Marco accompanies Adele to medical checks, agrees to feel the child move, and takes on practical tasks, while respecting her decisions about tests, learning the baby’s sex, and the place and manner of birth. The verse’s logic is enacted in this attention to what comes next: he cannot control the future, but he can accompany his daughter through the stages leading toward it.

Repetition and Shared Outlook

Marco repeats the verse at dinner in front of Adele’s friends, a group whose shared passion for Japan and whose acceptance of her choice make the child’s unknown father seem irrelevant to them. The line makes a strong impression because it fits their philosophy of life and their willingness to meet an uncertain future without treating it as a problem that must first be solved. Yet Marco continues to feel that the matter is more complicated than their ease suggests.

The repetition therefore marks both connection and difference. Marco can voice a principle that resonates with Adele’s circle, but he does not simply adopt their confidence. His version of going through the unknown remains grounded in his responsibility as a father: he accepts Adele’s decision while continuing to weigh its risks and his own role in what follows. The verse’s significance lies in that unresolved passage between uncertainty and commitment, not in a promise that uncertainty will vanish.