But as a result, the passionate condition was supplanted by a very different state of serene, indeed at times almost desultory conversation that served to shield them from each other as if with a screen, even though they saw through it completely. They usually lay on two large deck chairs, which they were constantly dragging in pursuit of the sun; this early summer sun was shining for the millionth time on the magic it works every year; and Ulrich said many things that happened to pass through his mind and carefully rounded themselves, like the moon, which was now quite pale and a little dirty, or perhaps like a soap bubble: and so it happened, and quite soon, that he came to speak of the confounded and frequently cursed absurdity that all understanding presupposes a kind of superficiality, a penchant for the surface, which is moreover expressed by the idea of grasping entailed in the word “comprehend,” and has to do with the fact that the primary experiences are not understood one by one but each in reference to the next and are thereby unavoidably connected more on the surface than in depth. He then continued: “So if I maintain that this grass in front of us is green, it sounds quite definite, but I have not said a great deal. Actually no more than if I told you that a man walking past us was a member of the Green family. And, good heavens, how many greens there are! I might as well content myself with the understanding that this green lawn is grass green, or even that it is green like a lawn on which it rained a little just a short while ago—” He surveyed the plane of young, sunlit grass, blinking lethargically, and said: “I imagine that is how you would probably describe it, since you’re adept at distinguishing dress materials by their color. I, on the other hand, could possibly measure the color as well: I would guess that it has a wavelength of approximately five hundred and forty millionths of a millimeter; and now this green does appear to have been captured and nailed to a specific point! But already it’s slipping away from me, because look: something in this lawn’s color has something material about it, and that can’t be described in terms of color at all, because it’s different from the same green in silk or in wool. And now we’re back to the profound realization that green grass is grass green!”

Agathe, summoned as a witness, found it very understandable that nothing could be understood, and replied: “I suggest you look into a mirror at night sometime: it’s dark, it’s black, you see almost nothing; and yet this nothing is very clearly something other than the nothing of the rest of the darkness. You sense the glass, the doubling of depth, some remnant of the ability to shimmer, and yet you see nothing!”