Dream Galaxy

Literary dream · Death & the departed

Wait for me a hundred years

Tokyo, Japan · 1908

「死んだら、埋めて下さい。大きな真珠貝で穴を掘って。そうして天から落ちて来る星の破片を墓標に置いて下さい。そうして墓の傍に待っていて下さい。また逢いに来ますから」……「百年待っていて下さい」

Original text — Ten Nights of Dreams, First Night, Natsume Sōseki

"When I die, bury me. Dig the grave with a large pearl shell. Then set a fragment of a fallen star upon it as a marker. And wait beside the grave. I will come to see you again." … "Wait for me a hundred years."

Translation · Editorial translation (draft)

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Source
Ten Nights of Dreams, First Night — Natsume Sōseki, 1908
Rights
Public domain (author died 100+ years ago)
Record type
Literary dream
Place
Tokyo, Japan · Japanese
Date
1908
Uncertainty
Moderate — Literary dream sequence, each night opening with "I dreamed this dream." In the end a white lily grows from the grave.
Imagery
Stars · Grave · Flower · Sun · Partner
Feelings
Longing · Tenderness · Grief

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Dreams of the dead returning are widely reported after bereavement. Ellis noted how such dreams often move, over years, from disbelief to quiet acceptance; many people describe them as comforting rather than frightening.

Ellis (1911), ch. VIII

Mythological

In Homer, dreams pass through gates of horn and ivory; across many cultures the dead were believed to visit the living in sleep, and dreams were a place where the two could meet.

Odyssey XIX

Chinese traditions

Chinese poets wrote dreams of the departed as acts of remembrance: Su Shi’s “Ten years, living and dead” and Du Fu’s “My old friend entered my dream” are read to this day as elegies.

Su Shi (1075); Du Fu (759)

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

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