The Jade Mountain/T'ien-mu Mountain Ascended in a Dream
T'IEN-MU MOUNTAIN ASCENDED IN A DREAM
A seafaring visitor will talk about Japan,Which waters and mists conceal beyond approach;But Yüeh people talk about Heavenly Mother Mountain,Still seen through its varying deepnesses of cloud.In a straight line to heaven, its summit enters heaven,Tops the five Holy Peaks, and casts a shadow through ChinaWith the hundred-mile length of the Heavenly Terrace Range,Which, just at this point, begins turning southeast.. . . My heart and my dreams are in Wu and YuehAnd they cross Mirror Lake all night in the moon.And the moon lights my shadowAnd me to Yien River—With the hermitage of Hsieh still thereAnd the monkeys calling clearly over ripples of green water.I wear his pegged bootsUp a ladder of blue cloud,Sunny ocean half-way,Holy cock-crow in space,Myriad peaks and more valleys and nowhere a road. Flowers lure me, rocks ease me. Day suddenly ends.Bears, dragons, tempestuous on mountain and river,Startle the forest and make the heights tremble.Clouds darken with darkness of rain,Streams pale with pallor of mist.The Gods of Thunder and LightningShatter the whole range.The stone gate breaks asunderVenting in the pit of heaven,An impenetrable shadow.. . . But now the sun and moon illumine a gold and silver terrace,And, clad in rainbow garments, riding on the wind,Come the queens of all the clouds, descending one by one,With tigers for their lute-players and phœnixes for dancers.Row upon row, like fields of hemp, range the fairy figures. . . .I move, my soul goes flying,I wake with a long sigh,My pillow and my mattingAre the lost clouds I was in.. . . And this is the way it always is with human joy:Ten thousand things run for ever like water toward the east.And so I take my leave of you, not knowing for how long.. . . But let me, on my green slope, raise a white deerAnd ride to you, great mountain, when I have need of you.Oh, how can I gravely bow and scrape to men of high rank and men of high officeWho never will suffer being shown an honest-hearted face!
(34a)