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Leggevi un libro, ma il testo onirico diventava sempre più distorto.

Leggevi un libro, ma il testo onirico diventava sempre più distorto.
You were reading a book, but the dreamlike text became more and more distorted.
From Lesson 397:Imperfect for dreams (imperfetto)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Leggevi un libro, ma il testo onirico diventava sempre più distorto.

Why are we using the imperfetto (leggevi, diventava) for this entire sequence instead of a perfect tense?
This is the classic imperfetto onirico (dream imperfect). When narrating dreams, Italians frequently use the imperfetto for all actions, even those that would normally take the passato prossimo. This creates a suspended, surreal atmosphere, detaching the events of the dream from the reality of the waking world.
What exactly does the word onirico mean here?
Onirico is a higher-register adjective meaning pertaining to dreams or dreamlike. While you already know the noun sogno (dream), onirico is used to describe the surreal, psychological quality of a dream. Here, il testo onirico refers to the text inside the dream behaving in a bizarre, unstable way.
Why is 'more and more distorted' translated as sempre più distorto rather than più e più distorto?
To express an ongoing, gradual increase (like 'more and more' or 'increasingly'), Italian uses the adverb sempre followed by più and an adjective. Translating it literally as più e più is a very common mistake for English speakers, but it sounds unnatural in Italian.
What is the difference between distorto and the similar word storto?
Both come from the root verb torcere (to twist). Storto usually means physically crooked, wonky, or bent out of shape. Distorto (from distorcere) is often used for things that are altered, warped, or misrepresented, such as a distorted truth, distorted audio, or the visually shifting text in this dream.

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