The ridiculous dream

"And if this is the sun, if this is indeed our sun," I cried, "then where is the earth?" My companion pointed out to me a little star that glowed green in the darkness. We flew straight for it.

"Is there something exactly like it in the universe? Is this really the law of nature? ... If this was another Earth, would it be exactly like our Earth... Is it exactly the same as our unhappy, poor, yet precious, eternally lovely earth, which arouses bitter love for it even in the most ungrateful of our children? ..." I cried out in great excitement, with an unquenchable longing for the original earth I had left behind. The figure of the poor little girl I had rejected flashed before me.

"You will see everything," replied my companion. There was a note of sadness in his words. As we approached the planet rapidly, the planet grew larger and larger in my eyes, and I discerned the outline of the sea and Europe, a strange sense of great and pure envy suddenly rose up in my heart: "How can there be exactly the same thing? And for what? I love, and can only love, the earth from which I left, and on which I spilled my blood when this ungrateful man shot his heart to end his life. But at no time, at no time, did I interrupt my love for that Earth, and on that night I left it, perhaps more than ever. Is there pain on this new earth? On our Earth, we really can only love with pain, and we don't know any other way to love it. I am willing to suffer for love. I would, I long to kiss the earth I left with tears at this very moment, I will not, will not accept to be raised on any other earth! ..."

But my companion had left me behind. It was as if, without feeling it, I was suddenly on another Earth -- an earthly paradise on a sunny day. It was as if I were standing on one of the islands of the Greek archipelago of our earth, or somewhere along the coast of the continent that abuts them. Oh, everything was exactly like our earth, except that there seemed to be a festive atmosphere everywhere, a joy of greatness, of holiness, of victory at last. The soft, green sea lapped gently against the shore and kissed it with an undisguised and almost single-minded love. The trees were tall and beautiful, and the soft, intimate rustling of their leaves made me feel as if they were saying words of love to welcome me. The thick grass was in full bloom, full of fragrant flowers. Flocks of birds flew across the sky, landing fearlessly on my shoulders and hands, shaking their lovely little wings and beating me happily. I finally met and got to know the people of this Promised Land. They came up to me and hugged me and kissed me. They are the children of the sun, the children of their own sun -- oh, how handsome they are! I have never seen anyone so beautiful on our Earth. Perhaps only in our children, in their early years, can we find such distant, if vague, traces of beauty. The eyes of these happy people shone brightly, their faces shone with wisdom and composure, and all were cheerful; Their words and voices were full of innocent joy. Oh, look at them, and I see it all at once! It is a pure land untainted by evil, and in it live a few pure men, who live in this paradise, where, according to tradition, our sinners had lived before us, except that it is full of heaven. People laugh, they flock to me, they kiss me, they take me home, they comfort me. Ah, they don't ask me anything, but they seem to know everything, and I think they want to get the pain out of my face as quickly as possible.