more pictures
Nov. 1st, 2004 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lapsedmodernistYesterday I went mountain-biking (that's right, hahahaha, me on a mountain bike) down the Pichincha Volcano and into the Cloud Forest. It was breathtakingly beautiful and I was concentrating very hard on not flying off the bike (I fell twice, and my final verdict is, I prefer horsies), and so the goal of not thinking about the election for a few hours was achieved. Here are some pictures, in order of descent:
This is at 4600 meters (or 15,000 feet) and it's fucking cold
Flora in the vicinity of the top
Flora at about 4000 meters
About halfway down the volcano, there are literally fields of these flowers
The Andes: a view
no, it's not The Shire, it's the Highlands
Approaching the Cloud Forest (yes, that white stuff is clouds)
I love the Cloud Forest because when I visit, I channel my 12-year-old fairy-tale-obsessed self, and really, doesn't it look enchanted? Like the trees in the distances are either covered by enchanted mist, or the whole forest is somewhere in the sky.
This next picture reminds me of a poem...In Russia this poem is known as Lermontov's translation of a Goethe poem, but I think it was actually a Heine poem. I don't think a good English translation exists, so I will post the Russian and the German version, and an English Verbatum (I don't know German so I am translating from Lermontov)...
In German:
Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam
Im hohen Norden auf kahler Höh'.
Ihn schläfert, mit wei&estet;er Decke
Umhüllen ihn Eis und Shnee.
Er träumt von eine Palme,
Die, fern im Morgenland,
Einsam und schweigend trauert
Auf brennender Felsenwand.
In Russian:
На севере диком стоит одиноко
на голой вершине сосна,
И дремлет, качаясь, и снегом сыпучим
Одета, как ризой, она.
И снится ей всё, что в пустыне далёкой,
в том крае, где солнца восход,
Одна и грустна на утёсе горючем
Прекрасная пальма растёт.
In English:
In the wild North a lonely
Pine tree stands on a naked peak
And swaying, it dreams, and the descending snow
Clothes it as if in a riza*
And every time it dreams that in a faraway desert
In the lands where the sun rises
Alone and said, on a bitter cliff
A beautiful palm tree grows.
*"Riza" is a metal covering, applied to icons toward the end of the 17th century. A partial covering of silver, gold, or cheaper metal, the riza covers the entire painting except faces, hands and feet
And finally, when I dragged my sore solf back to Quito I encountered this sheep. The sheep had a look and an attitude and it reminded me of the ornery anarchist sheep in Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase
And also for good measure:
Which Woman of Beauty Are You? Find out! By Nishi.
This is at 4600 meters (or 15,000 feet) and it's fucking cold
Flora in the vicinity of the top
Flora at about 4000 meters
About halfway down the volcano, there are literally fields of these flowers
The Andes: a view
no, it's not The Shire, it's the Highlands
Approaching the Cloud Forest (yes, that white stuff is clouds)
I love the Cloud Forest because when I visit, I channel my 12-year-old fairy-tale-obsessed self, and really, doesn't it look enchanted? Like the trees in the distances are either covered by enchanted mist, or the whole forest is somewhere in the sky.
This next picture reminds me of a poem...In Russia this poem is known as Lermontov's translation of a Goethe poem, but I think it was actually a Heine poem. I don't think a good English translation exists, so I will post the Russian and the German version, and an English Verbatum (I don't know German so I am translating from Lermontov)...
In German:
Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam
Im hohen Norden auf kahler Höh'.
Ihn schläfert, mit wei&estet;er Decke
Umhüllen ihn Eis und Shnee.
Er träumt von eine Palme,
Die, fern im Morgenland,
Einsam und schweigend trauert
Auf brennender Felsenwand.
In Russian:
На севере диком стоит одиноко
на голой вершине сосна,
И дремлет, качаясь, и снегом сыпучим
Одета, как ризой, она.
И снится ей всё, что в пустыне далёкой,
в том крае, где солнца восход,
Одна и грустна на утёсе горючем
Прекрасная пальма растёт.
In English:
In the wild North a lonely
Pine tree stands on a naked peak
And swaying, it dreams, and the descending snow
Clothes it as if in a riza*
And every time it dreams that in a faraway desert
In the lands where the sun rises
Alone and said, on a bitter cliff
A beautiful palm tree grows.
*"Riza" is a metal covering, applied to icons toward the end of the 17th century. A partial covering of silver, gold, or cheaper metal, the riza covers the entire painting except faces, hands and feet
And finally, when I dragged my sore solf back to Quito I encountered this sheep. The sheep had a look and an attitude and it reminded me of the ornery anarchist sheep in Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase
And also for good measure:
Which Woman of Beauty Are You? Find out! By Nishi.
