When a young man is asleep, his arms stretched out, he holds in a circle around him the chain of the hours, the sequence of years and worlds. He consults them in his dream but their fragile ranks can break, become entangled. Whether his sleep caused him to turn abruptly onto his side, or whether he is not lying in his usual position, suddenly myriads of stars fall to earth and are extinguished, even though it is still only early in the night and they are shining at their very brightest in the heavens. And if he wakes up at that moment he will imagine that it is morning already. But towards morning on the other hand, after a period of insomnia, if sleep comes upon him while he is lying in a position that is quite different from the one in which he usually sleeps, he has only to lift his arm to arrest the sun and turn it back in its course, and when he opens his eyes again, before he can see very clearly, he will think that he has only just gone to bed. But if he dozes off in an even more awkward position, one that is totally bizarre, sitting in an armchair after dinner in the drawing-room for example, then the overturning of the worlds from out of their orbits will be complete. The magical armchair will cause him to leap through leagues and days in an instant and on waking he will think it is several months earlier and that he is at the seaside.
Created 15.11.19