The following text is adapted from Sadakichi Hartmann’s 1894 short story “Magnolia Blossoms.” The narrator is standing on the deck of a boat.

What a night it was! My soul had left its body to lose itself in the wild unrestrained beauty around me—from where it came—and only left a trembling suggestion of its existence within me. The other passengers moved around me like shadows, and again and again my eyes drank in all the glory and wealth of that night.