Historical dream account · English · machine translation
The Soup and the Game Without Winnings
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Das Buch der Träume (1927) · Das Buch der Träume, original1927 anthology, numbered account191, printed page104
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Göttingen. On the night of February 9–10, 1799, I dreamed I was eating on a journey at an inn, actually in a booth in a street, where dice were also being played. Opposite me sat a young, well-dressed, rather shady-looking man who ate his soup without attending to those sitting and standing around, but kept throwing every second or third spoonful into the air, catching it again with his spoon and then calmly swallowing it.
What makes this dream particularly remarkable to me is that I made my usual observation in it, that such things could not be invented; one had to see them. (Namely, no novelist would think of it.) And yet I had invented this at that very moment.
At the dice game sat a tall, thin woman knitting. I asked what one could win there; she said: ‘Nothing.’ And when I asked whether one could lose anything, she said: ‘No!’ I considered this an important game.
Original diary heading/group: 1799-02-10
Read the original German account
Die Suppe und das Spiel ohne Gewinn
Göttingen. In der Nacht vom 9. auf den 10. Februar 1799 träumte mir, ich speiste auf einer Reise in einem Wirtshause, eigentlich auf einer Straße in einer Bude, worin zugleich gewürfelt wurde. Gegen mir über saß ein junger, gut angekleideter, etwas windig aussehender Mann, der, ohne auf die umher Sitzenden und Stehenden zu achten, seine Suppe aß, aber immer den zweiten oder dritten Löffel voll in die Höhe warf, wieder mit dem Löffel fing und dann ruhig verschluckte.
Was mir diesen Traum besonders merkwürdig macht, ist, daß ich dabei meine gewöhnliche Bemerkung machte, daß solche Dinge nicht könnten erfunden werden; man müsse sie sehen. (Nämlich kein Romanschreiber würde darauf verfallen.) Und dennoch hatte ich dieses doch in dem Augenblick erfunden.
Bei dem Würfelspiel saß eine lange, hagere Frau und strickte. Ich fragte, was man da gewinnen könnte; sie sagte: „Nichts.“ Und als ich fragte, ob man was verlieren könnte, sagte sie: „Nein!“ Dieses hielt ich für ein wichtiges Spiel.
Source & context
English machine translation. The original account, source credit and publication terms remain available.
A historical recollection reproduced in Ignaz Ježower’s original German anthology. Editorial title and navigation themes are added; source wording is preserved. This is not a modern Synastry community submission.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, account reproduced in Ignaz Ježower (compiler), Das Buch der Träume (Berlin: Ernst Rowohlt, copyright1927), numbered account191, p.104. Original German; editorial title added.
Diary date/group is retained only where the source states it; no exact event date or present-day location is inferred.1927 is anthology publication, not dream date.
Public-domain original German historical texts — 1927 anthology ↗
Public Domain Mark is a status marker, not a new license grant. Selected original authors died1863 or earlier; anthology copyright1927, compiler died1942. Original German text only; no modern translation/commentary. No universal jurisdiction warranty.
Source locator and text provenance
Das Buch der Träume, original1927 anthology, numbered account191, printed page104
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Line wraps and printer hyphenation removed; Marginal anthology entry numbers and running headers omitted; Scan-checked OCR transcription. Editorial title/navigation themes and canonical metadata added; no narrative wording change.
Complete numbered recollection retained.
- Account text SHA-256
- b382855d49cb0b1e21361091eb96651ec973415cef2f6a1c417e99fe54e38104
- Source file SHA-256
- 33cd84ef59fe3acb9ce7e0ffec3a2b3b718e18f3896c45ff8dab32820c3b7f1c
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