ate last night it hung over the rooftops, it glowed with the light from the street lamps, and tonight it decided to fall - snow. It is the first snow of the new year, the first snow of the new century - snow bringing renewal to the world. Today is in the New Century - the Old Century came to an end yesterday. A hundred years have gone by. A balloon, gradually deflating, deflating - empty at last. An old chain unwound from the capstan, new a hundred years ago. These chains sink into the water when the boats anchor, you are standing in the reeds, you watch them unreel, they touch the water, they break its surface, and it closes over them ... then one day, you are sure, they will be raised again into the light, and the boats will once more sail out of the harbour in spring sunshine -, but the old century has sunk for ever.