The Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse Page A

wishing to die, and looked rather like a piece of sculpture which could be called “Transitoriness” or “Decay,” or something similar. On the other hand, the other figure which was joined to mine to make one, was strong in color and form, and just as I began to realize whom it resembled, namely, the servant and President Leo, I discovered a second candle in the wall and lit this also. I now saw the double figure representing Leo and myself, not only becoming clearer and each image more alike, but I also saw that the surface of the figures was transparent and that one could look inside as one can look through the glass of a bottle or vase. Inside the figures I saw something moving, slowly, extremely slowly, in the same way that a snake moves which has fallen asleep. Something was taken place there, something like a very slow, smooth but continuous flowing or melting; indeed, something melted or poured across from my image to that of Leo’s. I perceived that my image was in the process of adding to and flowing into Leo’s, nourishing and strengthening it. It seemed that, in time, all the substance from one image would flow into the other and only one would remain: Leo. He must grow, I must disappear.
    As I stood there and looked and tried to understand what I saw, I recalled a short conversation that I had once had with Leo during the festive days at Bremgarten. We had talked about the creations of poetry being more vivid and real than the poets themselves.
    The candles burned low and went out. I was overcome by an infinite weariness and desire to sleep, and I turned away to find a place where I could lie down and sleep.

Books by Hermann Hesse
    Peter Camenzind
    Beneath the Wheel
    Gertrude
    Rosshalde
    Knulp
    Demian
    Strange News from Another Star
    Klingsor’s Last Summer
    Wandering
    Siddhartha
    Steppenwolf
    Narcissus and Goldmund
    The Journey to the East
    The Glass Bead Game
    If the War Goes On …
    Poems
    Autobiographical Writings
    Stories of Five Decades
    My Belief
    Reflections
    Crisis
    Tales of Student Life
    Hours in the Garden
    Pictor’s Metamorphoses
    Soul of the Age: Selected Letters of Hermann Hesse

THE JOURNEY TO THE EAST . Copyright © 1956 by Hermann Hesse. All rights reserved. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
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    ISBN 0-312-42168-0
    First published in Germany under the title Die Morgenlandfahrt
    eISBN 9781466835092
    First eBook edition: January 2013