When Goldmund woke it was dark. His head swam, no thoughts came into it. He could feel himself lying on a bed, but where he knew not. He strove, and yet nothing came to him. How had he travelled here: from what strange country of new knowledge? He had been in some far-off place, where he had seen some rare and glorious sights, terrible, and never to be forgotten. Yet now he was forgetting them all. When was it? What was this thing that had risen up before him, so dolorous, mighty, full of beauty, to fade again? He strove to see far down into himself, to the deeps out of which this thing had come. What had it been? A covey of vain images swirled around him.
--from "Narziss and Goldmund" by Hermann Hesse
It is interesting the way that Hesse makes this waking state so vivid. The use of so many questions in sequence evoke so much without assigning a precise interpretation of what has taken place during Goldmund's sleep. This passage so beautifully leaves you suspended with the character, hovering in between the reality of a dream and consciousness. These ideas always seem to be what Hesse is driving at, maybe balance or the idea of it, or maybe its birth.
