Dream Galaxy

Literary dream · Transformation

Carving the guardian out of the wood

Tokyo, Japan · 1908

運慶が護国寺の山門で仁王を刻んでいると云う評判だから、散歩ながら行って見ると、自分より先にもう大勢集まって、しきりに下馬評をやっていた。

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

Word was that Unkei was carving the Niō guardians at the gate of Gokokuji, so I strolled over to see; a crowd had already gathered before me, busily trading opinions.

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 — A 12th-century master sculptor appears among Meiji-era onlookers.
Imagery
Temple · Crowd · Tree · Time
Feelings
Wonder · Awe

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Dreams of becoming someone or something else, or of not knowing whether one is awake, have long interested writers on lucid dreaming; Stevenson credited such night work with parts of Jekyll and Hyde.

Stevenson (1888)

Mythological

Metamorphosis is one of mythology’s oldest engines — Ovid’s Metamorphoses gathers hundreds of beings changed into trees, birds and stars.

Ovid, Metamorphoses

Chinese traditions

Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream gave Chinese thought the idea of wuhua, “the transformation of things”, and the phrase “Zhuang Zhou dreams of the butterfly” remains shorthand for the blurred line between self and world.

Zhuangzi, Qiwulun

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images