I find myself in a desert (is it Harar?) with curious rock formations that will never be wiped from my memory. On me is a dirty gray blanket and some sort of slab with writing fastened to my back. I believe the year and manner of my death is inscribed on it. I sit on the ground hunched over, pulling the blanket around -- -- I'm sitting on a pile of whiskers that are spread out on greasy newspaper -- -- four people in the distance are coming toward me.

When I am able to make them out more clearly I notice they are not people but scarecrows, like the kind I used to see in the fields of Ĉermná. I run from them to the rocks, from where I will observe what they're up to. And with horror I see that one of the scarecrows is me. I see myself hoisted on a pole just like the others -- -- we walk four abreast in tight formation, and stuck atop my pole (a pilgrim's staff!) is a woman's torso, while the whole desert transforms into a volcanic field -- -- a birdhouse is attached to the rocks -- --

Then everything vanishes, and a gray bird wanders through the sand.

Scarecrows, 1933, ink on paper

Dream of Scarecrows III 1935, pencil on paper

A Dream ("Long is my journey! Futile cry!"), 1935, oil on canvas

In the middle piece a motif creeps in from another dream, Butterflies: pins pierce a living body.

Why'd I post this dream fragment? Not for its trailing-off, unresolved plot, but to show how a dream can spawn art of different styles, media, and focus. And these are just three of eight published, exploring desert, scarecrows, sign, birdhouse, bird...

SOURCE: Dreamverse by Jindrich Styrsky (Twisted Spoon Press, 2018), p. ; primary source Sny, 1925-1940 ("Dreams, 1925-40") posthumously published (1970).
TITLES: Styrsky titled all his dreams "Dream of..."; I've generally shortened these to avoid a logjam under D.

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