Meaning

This line captures a particular kind of longing that is both personal and philosophical. The speaker is not missing a place or time he once knew; he is mourning something he never experienced at all, a version of the world that may have existed before him or that simply never was. It speaks to a deep sense of displacement, a feeling that one belongs somewhere or sometime other than where one finds oneself, even if that other place cannot be precisely named or located.

Context

This reflection appears in The Motorcycle Diaries, which chronicles the journey Guevara took as a young medical student across South America in the early 1950s. The trip was a formative experience that brought him into close contact with poverty, suffering, and the vast human and geographical diversity of the continent. The book has the quality of a young man discovering the world and himself at the same time, and moments of philosophical wonder like this one sit alongside more political observations. The question reads as genuine, the confusion of someone becoming aware of a longing he cannot fully explain.

About the author

Ernesto "Che" Guevara wrote The Motorcycle Diaries as a record of a journey he undertook with a friend before he became known as a revolutionary figure. The book was published posthumously and introduced many readers to a more personal, introspective side of Guevara. He was born in Argentina in 1928, trained as a doctor, and went on to become one of the central figures of the Cuban Revolution before his death in Bolivia in 1967.