MY SLEEPING IMAGINATION

Large painted envelope around a quote on dreams from Fernando Pessoa
Mailed to Theresa Williams, USA

Whenever I’ve dreamt a lot,

I go out into the street with my eyes open

but I’m still wrapped in the safety of those dreams.

And I’m amazed how many people fail

to recognize my automatism.

For I walk through daily life

still holding the hand of my astral mistress,

and my footsteps in the street are concordant and consonant

with the obscure designs of my sleeping imagination.

And yet I walk straight down the street;

I don’t stumble, I react as I should; I exist.

FERNANDO PESSOA (20 July 1930)

From «The book of disquiet»