The Dreams

Dream 127

In this villa’s garden we spent merry evenings together in complete freedom. But then the villa’s owner suddenly changed and arbitrarily imposed his will on everything: he dictated the place where we sat, the topic of conversation, and the food and drink, as well.

We took it as a joke, but he persisted, and we became alarmed — though we concealed our feelings from him out of deference for his position. Yet one of us could not hide his emotions forever. One night his suppressed rage exploded; he began screaming and pulled out a pistol, pointing it toward us with a trembling hand.

We split up in terror as he ran through the garden, chasing us with insults and curses.