A thought experiment

a re-interpretation of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Erlebnis

The valley shall be achieved through affect: whether through a silver-grey veil, atomized cologne, or a cloud-sieved moonyet it must not be night. It must not be night no matter the moon. The affected wisps of silver-grey eau, those supposed to define the heretofore valley, serve to muddle every young-enough thought and leave each to stagnate in vague reflection. The sea, born itself of youth-wilted thought, shall weave its sheer veil and sink such thinkers stoneswithout argument, apart from life. Then dark flowers shall arise of wondrous tints; ginger light shall grow from within the weed-stuffed copse, glow in warm streams, here, as topazes glow. A sorrowing tune shall round through the depth of the touched-up scene, as if wholly descended. Thisbecause we have supposed it without knowing; Thiswe shall suppose this is death. It is imagined as music, as sweet, immense longing, impressed with its own dim light, devoted to what, we may suppose... Now, an unintended homesickness will come, will find, in sonar-pings, the soul, which will cry then for life like a man himself would cry, if, driven on beneath great yellow sails, he were to see at once the city, his own he, sailing the sea, darkened towards evening, and the great big clipper ship passing by. He would see there the lanes, would hear the rushing of the fountains, would smell the silver-grey perfume of lilac bushes, he would see himself, as a child, standing on the shore, with child's eyes, fearful and willing to cry, would see through the open window a light in his room, yet the great clipper drags him on, glides still further out on the dark blue water, its movement unheard under alien sails.