The lecturer was speaking: "The only way to go beyond work is through work. It is not that work itself is valuable; we surmount work by work. The real value of work lies in the strength of self-denial."

Once he had seen a reproduction of an engraving called "Hell of Loneliness" and had thought it curious. In it a man was floating unsteadily in the air, his eyes wide with fright, and the space around him, far from being empty, was so filled with the semi-transparent shadows of dead persons that he could scarcely move. The dead, each with a different expression, were trying to push one another away, talking ceaselessly to the man. What was this "Hell of Loneliness"? he wondered. Perhaps they had misnamed it, he had thought then, but now he could understand it very well. Loneliness was an unsatisfied thirst for illusion.

یک بار تصویری حکاکی به نام "جهنم تنهایی" دید و به نظرش عجیب آمد. در آن مردی در هوا معلق بود، با چشمان باز و وحشتزده و فضای اطراف او به جای خالی شدن، چنان از سایه‌های تقریبا نامرئی از افراد مرده پر شده بود که به سختی می‌توانست تکان بخورد. مردگان، هر یک با حالتی متفاوت تلاش می‌کردند تا دیگری را از سر راه خود کنار بزنند و یک‌ریز با مرد حرف می‌زدند. تعجب کرد چه چیز این "جهنم تنهایی" است؟ فکر کرد شاید اشتباهی اسمش را این گذاشته بودند ولی حالا به خوبی توانست درک کند. تنهایی تشنگی برطرف نشده توهم بود.

Woman in the Dunes
زن در ریگ روان
Suna no onna / Kōbō Abe