Je ne puis peindre mon désespoir; nul mot de la langue humaine ne rendrait mes sentiments. J’étais enterré vif, avec la perspective de mourir dans les tortures de la faim et de la soif." - Meaning and context.">
To describe my despair would be impossible. No words could tell it. I was buried alive, with the prospect before me of dying of hunger and thirst.
 • Ch. XXVII: Lost in the bowels of the earth

Je ne puis peindre mon désespoir; nul mot de la langue humaine ne rendrait mes sentiments. J’étais enterré vif, avec la perspective de mourir dans les tortures de la faim et de la soif.

— Jules Verne

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Je ne puis peindre mon désespoir; nul mot de la langue humaine ne rendrait mes sentiments. J’étais enterré vif, avec la perspective de mourir dans les tortures de la faim et de la soif." in the context of "To describe my despair would be impossible. No words could tell it. I was buried alive, with the prospect before me of dying of hunger and thirst.
 • Ch. XXVII: Lost in the bowels of the earth" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Jules Verne" (Quotes, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864): Voyage au Centre de la Terre. Trans. Frederick Amadeus Malleson (1877). French text here. English text here.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Jules Verne

About Jules Verne

Jules Verne (8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French writer best known as a pioneering author in science fiction.