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Dreaming
that I Climb the Mountain
Last
night I dreamt
Of climbing Sung Mountain,
Striding out alone
With my rattan cane,
Past a thousand cliffs,
Over ten thousand ravines.
I enjoy them all.
In my dream
My leg was not paralyzed.
I was healthy as in youth.
But on waking,
I returned to my senses,
With the same disfigured flesh and form.
Now for the first time I perceive truly
That form can be sick
And spirit healthy,
Form and spirit are both illusions;
Truth consists neither in reality nor dream.
In daytime I walk with difficulty,
In nighttime walk freely.
Since time is divided equally
Between day and night,
Nothing is lost.
Bai
Juyi (Po Chu-i)
translated by Howard S. Levy and Henry Wells
[ Download
ebook ]
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The
Caucasus form a chain of high, alpine mountains separating
the Republic of Georgia from Russia to the north and
just north of the main chain, lies Europe's highest
summit, Mt. Elbrus, which stands at 18, 505'
(5,642m). It is an extinct volcano with twin cones reaching
18,510 feet (5,642 m) and 18,356 feet (5,595 m). The
volcano was formed during the Upper Tertiary Period,
more than 2,500,000 years ago. Sulfurous gases are still
emitted on its eastern slopes, and there are many mineral
springs along its descending streams. A total area of
53 square miles (138 square km) of Elbrus is covered
by 22 glaciers, which feed the Kuban River and some
of the headwaters of the Terek. Elbrus is a major center
for mountaineering and tourism in the Caucasus region.
In 1964 an extensive tourist and mountaineering base
was opened, with large-scale sporting facilities.
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On Top of Europe!
Tuesday,
July 30, 2002
Hello
Mountain Zoners, this is Vernon Tejas with Alpine Ascents
on the top of Europe! We're at 5,642 meters above sea
level and everybody's here and what a crew it is. No
headaches amongst the bunch. Well, there are a few tired
people of course, but everybody is in very good spirits.
Here's
the team, "Hello!" Oh my goodness, that was
wonderful. It's a beautiful day, we can see from the
Caspian Sea over yonder all the way to the Black Sea.
Holy smokes!
It's
beautiful, it's been calm, it's been clear. Everybody
is so stoked to be here, you can't believe it. What
a pleasure and we're glad to have you here with us on
the top of Europe, Mount Elbrus. It is phenomenal. And,
in efforts to actually .... asked me to read a poem
and that's what I'm going to do right now. It's called
'Dreaming that I Climb the Mountain.' -- Vernon Tejas
(from MountainZone)
Reading
occured on July 30, 2002 by Alpine Ascents International
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Chü-i (772-846), a poet and a government official,
was one of the great writers of the Chinese Tang dynasty.
He was born at T'ai-yuan in Shansi, settling later at
Ch'ang-an near the north-west frontier. He held the post
of palace librarian and several provincial governorships
and was banished a number of times for arguing against
government policies. In 832 he retired to the Hsiang-shan
monastery a few miles from Lo-yang, the eastern capital.
As one of his poems explains, he suffered from paralysis
at the end of his life, one leg becoming useless. He wrote
over 3,000 poems, brief, topical verses expressed in very
simple, clear language. Perhaps his most noted poem is
the Song of Everlasting Regret (806), which recounts
the sufferings of Emperor Ming Huang on the murder of
his concubine by rebels. The poem figures prominently
in The Tale of Genji, the 10th-century Japanese
novel by Murasaki Shikibu; Po's work gained wide popularity
throughout East Asia. In much of his poetry, Po Chü-i
appears easy-going. But he had a caustic view government's
effects on the lives of ordinary people and used satire
and humor to draw attention the rapacity of minor officials,
to social problems, and to questionable religious practices.
In an early protest he wrote a long memorandum criticizing
the prolonging of a war against an unimportant frontier
tribe. In his lighter poems he mused on events in his
daily life, his own experiences, and aspects of himself.
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