The title means “encounter,” and that’s exactly what happens: the speaker unexpectedly sees someone who once mattered deeply. Before this moment, the speaker’s heart felt numb and passionless, almost worn out. But that glimpse of the person jolts it back to life. What returns isn’t simple joy, though. Along with the leap of feeling comes years of stored-up grief and regret, flooding in all at once. The heart the speaker thought was finished with feeling wakes up only to break again.
The mood is intense and bittersweet—there’s a rush of longing, but it’s tangled with sorrow. It’s that painful moment when seeing someone from the past reopens a wound you thought had healed or gone numb.