into the
glorious magnificence of her splendid breast, on which her left hand
rested, just touching it very lightly with the tips of her fingers,
like a wind-blown leaf lying for a moment exactly at the point of
junction of two mounds of snow, as if to chide it very gently for
challenging the admiration of the three worlds. And she stood with her
weight thrown on her left foot, so that her right hip, on which her
right hand rested, swelled out in a huge curve that ran down to her
knee, which was bent in, and then turned outwards, ending in a little
foot that was standing very nearly on the tip of its toe.

And so as we stood, gazing at one another in dead silence, all at once
she smiled outright, holding out both her hands. And at that very
moment, the sun sank. And as I strove in vain to move, rooted to the
spot like a tree, she faded away, very slowly, back again into the
dark, growing little by little paler, till she vanished into the
night, leaving nothing but her star, that seemed to glimmer at me from
a great distance, low down on the very edge of a deep-red sky. And I
strove and struggled in desperation to break the spell that held me
chained, and suddenly I woke with a loud cry, and saw before me only
the river, on whose bank I was lying alone.

V

Aye! then for the first time in my life, I knew what it meant, to be
alone, which had been to me but a mere word, without any meaning at
all. For as I sat by the river, I knew I had left my soul behind in
the dream that had disappeared. And my heart was burning with such a
pain that I could only breathe with great difficulty, and tears rose
into my eyes, as it were of their own accord. And I said sadly to
myself: Now, beyond all doubt, I have seen some feminine incarnation
of a fallen star, and unless I can find it somewhere on earth, I shall
lose the fruit of being born at all. So one thing only remains to do,
and that is to look for her, and keep on looking until I find her. For
if only I was sure, that she was absolutely beyond finding, I would
not consent to remain in this miserable body without her, even for a
single moment. But she must be alive somewhere, and able to be found:
for how could such a thing as she was exist only in a dream? For
nobody could possibly have invented her, no, not even in a dream: and
it must be that my soul went roaming about as I slept, and actually
caught sight of her. And if the soul could find her, then, she is
somewhere to b