Not in entire forgetfulness.
And not in utter nakedness....

I need not go on; it is sacrilege to write them down in such a setting
of commonplaceness; I could not say them aloud to my closest friend with
a steady voice; they are lines that seem to come fresh from God.

And now I know that the Negro Ladies, whatever their exact poetic value
may be, have become a very real blessing to an obscure inhabitant of
Prussia, for in the future I shall only need to see the passage to be
back instantaneously on the hot shingle, with the tarred edge of the old
boat above me against the sky, the blue water curling along the shore at
my feet, and the pale lilac flowers on the delicate stalks bending their
heads in the wind.

About twelve the sun drove me away. The backs of my hands began to feel
as though they proposed to go into blisters. I could not lie there and
deliberately be blistered, so I got up and wandered back to the hotel to
prepare Gertrud for a probably prolonged absence, as I intended to get
across somehow to the island of Vilm. Having begged her to keep calm if
I did not appear again till bedtime I took the guide-book and set out.
The way to the jetty is down a path through the meadow close to the
water, with willows on one side of it and rushes on the other. In ten
minutes you have reached Lauterbach, seen some ugly little new houses
where tourists lodge, seen some delightful little old houses where
fishermen live, paid ten _pfennings_ toll to a smiling woman at the
entrance to the jetty, on whom it is useless to waste amiabilities, she
being absolutely deaf, and having walked out to the end begin to wonder
how you are to get across. There were fishing-smacks at anchor on one
side, and a brig from Sweden was being unloaded. A small steamer lay at
the end, looking as though it meant to start soon for somewhere; but on
my asking an official who was sitting on a coil of ropes staring at
nothing if it would take me to Vilm, he replied that he did not go to
Vilm but would be pleased to take me to Baabe. Never having heard of
Baabe I had no desire to go to it. He then suggested Greifswald, and
said he went there the next day; and when I declined to be taken to
Greifswald the next day instead of to Vilm that day he looked as though
he thought me unreasonable, and relapsed into his first abstraction.

A fisherman was lounging near, leaning against one of the posts and also
staring straight into space, and when I turn