A visit to Don Otavio

[theholyinnocent]

On the lake, the night was very clear, and filled with shooting stars. The mild water sparkled, phosphorescent, around our prow. Fish leaped, shone, and fell again. The shore lay softly, peaceful, half-divined. I was in that as it were tertiary state of fatigue where the nerves and senses lie bared to direct contact with the world and there is no longer distance or matter between the vision and the absorption, where the mind races, recording, lucid but empty, and beauty can become ours through osmosis.

~ from Sybille Bedford’s A Visit to Don Otavio, A Traveller’s Tale from Mexico

Comments

[stargazer1960.livejournal.com]

That's a really beautiful passage. Thanks.

[dathon.livejournal.com]

The thing I like best about that quote, aside from the beautiful image, is the spectacularly free comma usage.

[psimilarity.livejournal.com]

Love this. It reminds me of that dreamy feeling around 5am, when you haven't yet figured that the noise that's drawing you out of your tertiary state of fatigue is a cat chewing on a lampshade.