A Floating City

The sound of snoring is one of those sounds that are unanimously detested. ¹ I do not believe there is any culture in which snoring signifies and generates anything other than trouble, generally domestic, as the family is forced to endure the snorer’s “performance.” The modern world with its new means of transport turned snoring into an issue of public interest, even one of sociocultural identity. No one has captured this better than the Moldavian poet Vasile Alecsandri, describing a memorable experience at nightfall in the cabin of the steamboat Széchenyi, on which he embarked at Schela Cladovei in November 1851, on his way back from Paris to Iași:

Then, one by one all [the passengers] stretched out on benches, on chairs, and on tables; the oil lamp went out as never before and in the heart of the darkness there rose a huge snore, composed of a variety of snores, baptized and unbaptized alike. The room resounded like ten stoves roaring and ten mills grinding! Just try sleeping, if you can, in the midst of such harmonies. As for me, after I had made every attempt to fall asleep, after I had rolled time and time again now to one side, now to the other, after I had tried to count to a thousand, in vain! […] I lit my cigarette and set about guessing the nationalities of the various snores that were giving me such a melodious serenade. A new and interesting study, which I recommend to all those unfortunate travelers who are condemned by circumstances to whole nights of sleeplessness.

So, at my feet, there sighed a musical snore resembling a scale from do to mi, which sometimes sounded as if it were about to begin an aria from The Barber of Seville, but that deceptive opening immediately ended with a sorrowful note from Lucia. Who could that dilettante snorer be? Undoubtedly an Italian! And indeed, it was a young man going to Bucharest. […] Beside the door, there piped a snore as sharp and thin as the hiss of a snake, and for all that, it inspired a sort of merciful compassion. It irritated you and at the same time it stole your attention; it attracted you and at the same time it strained your nerves; the man who snored like that had to be dangerous; a monster with two faces, with sweet lips and envenomed teeth, with mild eyes and a duplicitous heart! What could that stranger be? […] a highway robber or a spy? What was his nationality, his trade? ²