Only when you stay suspended in the universe
can you serenely look back on this blue planet
and only when you stand at the end of a span of 5 billion years
can you watch carefully how lava cooled down in frenzied fire and smoke
and how the earth became
a globe covered by water
Only when you trace back to the origin of space-time
can you discern a steep complex made by combinations of geological units
standing under the eastern sky
on this aged but youthful planet
“I am not a pile of eggs
but a thorn stemming from the earth
stinging in its most sensitive acupoint
If it were pulled out
The Big East would fall down.”
That was the voice of Mount Tai
an antique and doubtful assertion
He has unveiled the long-neglected truth
which has arrived at its destination without being able to prove it
Natives on this venerable land
created a word for this mountain: "岱"
They honored him with all the glory, grandeur and greatness
that they could offer, and all their pride in him
People on the other hemisphere of the world
call him
"Mount Tai"
"Taishan Mountain"
However their shapes differ
They all indicate this great mountain in the Northern Hemisphere
which rose in the East of China
facing the sea
2.
He is the first-born son of Mother Earth, the first spot Creator cast His eyes upon
Back in Archean Eon, when the surface of this planet was still submerged under vast water
From a trough deep underneath
Sediment and lava piled up to a height of 20 kilometers
While waves of the sea rose and fell
as if rocking an empty cradle
waiting for the upcoming baby
That is what the geologists have written in the books: 2.4 billion years
An earth crust movement called "Mount Tai Movement"
lifted him up, high above the waves
with his new-forged head
That was the first time he ever showed his primeval features
He rose with great strength
upward from the gneiss base built by Mother Earth
He heard the rocks being folded, distorted and torn apart
boiling lava seething and roaring, there were accreted terranes
Ultrabasic rocks, basic rocks and various kinds of acidic rocks
They were at their embryonic stage
He grew with unstoppable vigor…
In the following 1.8 billion years
Mount Tai was weathered heavily, standing aloft above the sea level
Time has polished his body
which was as smooth as that of a saint. He had become a young man
In his genes, there were traces left by
2.8 billion years since Archeozoic
3.
Cambrian Period, 600 million years ago
a node in time specially marked by geologists
Sea water flooded over mountain ranges
He sank to the bottom again
together with North China Plain
Time never increases
or decreases
When I am narrating this long legend to you
Another 100 million have elapsed
During late Ordovician, Mount Tai started rising again
out from the sea, now his head above the water surface
He had been switching between “mountain” and “sea” mode
either growing or subsiding
A mountain blossoming from the sea bottom, conserving his energies
through the flow of time
He became a sphinx
4、
With his foundation stone laid upon the 2.8-billion-year-old frame of the earth
Mount Tai, rooted deep
into the hard crust
or he was a giant hard rock himself
The plates were splitting
The pacific plate moving towards the Eurasian Plate, diving and thrusting
There was the Yanshan Orogeny, which were mentioned time and again afterwards
There were folding and faulting, twisting and struggling between the layers
The Great Rift Valley, which runs for hundreds of kilometers
in front of Mount Tai
was an evidence of his attempt to break away
He soared up with shocking speed
And finally he tore apart the shackles of water on his feet
and the ropes of bothering old geosphere
He shook the dust and cinders off his skin
revealing his muscles and bones-- beaten by checkered life
but only became stronger--veins and spirit that support
his entire existence
He grew to a height that great summits and precipices should be
He was the major structure of a mountain
ever since
5.
He never was a lonesome, grotesque silhouette
He was the beloved golden boy of Mother Earth
It has been cast, carved and creased
to become this spectacular
and through Himalayan Orogeny
he became a skyscraper
30 million years of self-elevating
pulled Himalaya upwards along with him
inch by inch
cliffs, peaks, valleys and canyons
He was never absent from any of these great crustal movements
Nor has he abandoned
the fight in him
6.
In the last ten thousand years
mythologies emerged
Pangu, who divided the heaven and the earth
Left his head in the east when he died, which turned into Mount Tai
His story was repeated by hieroglyphicals
In Neolithic times
Barbarians invaded from the east, hatchets in their hands
The Yellow Emperor, who defeated the king of Chiyou
had once consulted Bixia Yuanjun, the Goddess of Mount Tai for advice
There were also 72 mysterious emperors
walking through the road to the top to offer sacrifices
It felt like they were walking along the banks of Time
They said their prayers
like common people whispering to their protecting god
The cliff-side and stone inscriptions
dates back to the emperor Qin Shi Huang
Gneisses, Hornblendite rocks and mixed granite
You can see these square-shaped Chinese characters today
with their calligraphic strokes, deep or shallow
over 2000 tablets and rocks
This energetic mountain
is still growing today
at a speed of 0.5 millimeters per year
Time is lingering around here, with its time-honored vitality
with its smooth fervency
He despised old regulations but created his own canons
Lava from different geological ages
can be detected from the same stone
They have permeated and mingled with each other
like longitudes and latitudes always meeting each other somewhere in the world
He is Mount Tai
a mountain both vague and clear
standing there in history
like an acupuncture needle in one of the oriental points
once pulled out, the whole oriental cultural system would be paralyzed
He has been standing
since 2.4 billion years ago
in silence, as if nothing has ever happened
to him.
Lyrics by Xia Haitao
credits
from Sal,
released January 22, 2023
Xia Haitao - spoken word
Paulo Chagas - electronics, bass, guitar, percussion
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