Gregory's Dream
KURT H. WOLFF
I
WONDERED
who I was that Gregory should have come to me with
his dream. To make clear all that can be made clear about this affair
(and it isn't too much), I say that my friend is a German-born Jew
who was expelled by two countries, in addition to Germany, before
he came to the United States. I cannot add much more that would
explain his dream. Here the many things I know about Gregory,
formerly Gottfried, seem irrelevant. In fact, it is possible that his
dream is not so much a thing to be interpreted as to be listened to.
I find my ideas of its evaluation necessarily, as it were, bold and
vague, but the more bold and vague, the more sure I am that
Gregory's dream should be listened to.
Gregory came to me at nine in the morning, unexpectedly. I
was surprised at his visit because I knew that he usually gets up much
later, after his habit of studying un.til early morning. I should also
add that his visit and dream-tale happened only today. After my
surprise at his early appearance, his excitement became contagious.
"I had a dream," he said, immediately upon entering my door, "and
I must tell you before I forget any more. So I start right away. You
help me make sense of it.
"I was travelling from Montauk to New York-this goes back
to my visit to Long Island, you know. The train was like a toy train,
much more so than it is in reality; small wooden carriages that went
through a toy landscape. The cars weren't even of one piece, if I
remember correctly, but had some sort of changing compartments,
that is, I frequently went from one to the other and as soon as I
entered a new compartment, the old one separated itself from the
carriage and fused into the next- but this was natural and part of
the trip. I remember the clatter of the train, especially when we
crossed the channel at Bridgewater (is it?) where you can see the
Atlantic on both sides of the track. The air was lovely and I had tears
in my eyes from its loveliness. It was not absolutely clear, but I
thought the small light clouds rather made the air clearer than
if
the
sky had been a blank. The meadows were green, flocks of ducks were
