One of my favourite avante-guarde writers is the Italian Ribeiro Lera. His opus is without a doubt The Dream Project, where he transcribes the fourty ‘visions’ he claims to have had while ingesting various halluciogenic substances over fourty consecutive nights out in Milan.
Sogno Ventotto (‘Dream Twenty-Eight’) is one of the more analysed of Lera’s offerings, primarily because the powerful imagery cries out to be interpreted. However, it is not as disturbing as some of the later dreams which made the work famous.
Had a vision of a palm tree on its elephantine leg and a cat passed by – not a terrible cat but a nice one – and Ivan was just about to fall asleep when suddenly the grille slid noiselessly aside. A mysterious figure appeared on the moonlit balcony and pointed a threatening finger at Ivan. Quite unafraid Ivan sat up in bed and saw a man on the balcony. Pressing his finger to his lips the man whispered : ‘ Shh!’
A little man with a crimson pear-shaped nose, in a battered yellow bowler hat, check trousers and patent leather boots pedalled on to the Variety stage on a bicycle. As the band played a foxtrot he rode round in circles a few times, then gave a triumphant yelp at which the bicycle reared.
Of course, it is not as lyrical in translation, as in the original Italian.
