La Révolution Surréaliste 1925
A Dream
By Michel Leiris
Source: La Révolution Surréaliste, year 1, no. 4, July 15, 1925;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2012.
- I am dead. I see the sky become powdery, like the cone of air in a movie theater penetrated by the rays of the projector. Several luminous globes of a milky white are lined up deep in the heavens. Coming out of each of them is a long metallic branch, one of which completely pierces my breast without my feeling any pain. I advance towards the globes of light, sliding gently along the branch, and in my hand I hold other men who, like me, are ascending to the heavens, each following the rail that perforates them. The only sound we hear is the grinding of the steel in our breasts.
- I so clearly see the relationship between the rectilinear displacement of a body and a palisade perpendicular to this movement that I give out a sharp cry.
- I imagine the rotation of the earth in space, not in an abstract and schematic fashion, the axis of the poles and the equators rendered tangible, but in its reality. The roughness of the earth.
- André Masson and I move through the air like gymnasts. A voice cries out to us: “International acrobats, will you both come down soon?” Upon hearing this we flip ourselves over the horizon and fall into a concave hemisphere.