This is a story by Anais Nin written in late 1929 or early 1930, which was published in 1977. It is only two pages long, but is filled with several words which are not part of my vocabulary:
violaceous - of a violet color
sybaritic - luxurious, sensual, voluptuous
sibilance - having a hissing or hushing sound
paradic - paradise?
sylphidine - sylphide? one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets
refulgent - shining brightly
There was a man standing in the shadows, outside of life. Life was gathered around the fountain, where women carried jugs of water on their heads. This vision caused a myriad of sounds and feelings in his head, and he called it a dance. In the layers of sound, everything became clear to him, and his tears were washed away.
A woman danced within herself, where no one could see her, to music which no one could hear. It became a smooth livingness, "a dance within a dance, a dream within a dream, stretching to infinity, with the perpetual cadence of inviolate dancing, inviolate living."
Is this an awakening? Or a death?
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