Always surprising and rewarding to dip one’s madeleine in this tea—which by necessity calls up elusive feelings.
D.J. Enright translates: in search of lost time. Faithful and true.
But perdu and recherche are each more subtle than any single English word can render.
Perdu also suggests “past” and “waste”—and by extension even “ruined” or “hopeless.” It comes from the same root as the English “perdition.”
And though recherche sounds like its English correlative “research,” the two are far apart. Proust’s recherche is far from a conscious act of will.