Linger longer
(View of the Lingering Garden: Suzhou, China)
At first, I wondered about these poets and scholars wittering on about the gardens constantly as if they were weft from dewy spider webs and glued together with cloud. Now I finally understand after today how they must have felt in a real Chinese garden. To me, it feels like an elaborate play with spectacularly brilliant costume; good theatre makes you forget reality and tumble into the lives of fictional others, just as this place made me overlook the dusty city surrounding it to imagine it was a lost wilderness of dramatic splendour.
This garden we visited actually made my hair stand on end; it was so much more beautiful than I ever imagined a garden to be. I realise that this sounds utterly ridiculous, but I was honestly completely blown away as we scuttled through the walled entrance into the heart of it. This image just cannot do it justice; all my pictures make it seem merely a collection of trees, rocks, and water, yet being amongst it is like glimpsing a slice of heaven with an awakening of the enchantment that can be attained by the marriage of nature and man. Perhaps I am being too bombastic in my description, but I assure you, I now appreciate how this garden is also one of the four best, most famous, most celebrated gardens in China.
I chose this image for today as this was the exact spot where I felt the familiar shiver run from the hairs of my neck right through my spine, denoting the presence of something important and ethereal. Being a weekday, the garden was much more serene than any other I have visited here. An army of blue clad figures constantly trim, snip, sweep and net all the leaves and branches that prevent this from being an earthly dream garden. I wish I had more time to spend here and I could imagine whiling away hours in the same spot, watching the swaying of the trees in the breeze like the swishing of horses tails and the rippling dance of the water’s surface.
(I realise my verboseness will seem affected, but this has to be one of the most spectacular ‘natural’ places I have ever been.)
