At the centre of the Great Wilderness, there is a mountain called Sky-Tower Mountain. The waters of the seas flow through here.
-From the Classic of the Great Southern Wilderness ( 大荒南经 )
The conjunction of Mountain, Sea, and Heaven, the very heart of the world.
A/N: Finally! The first thing on this blog that isn’t a bird! I was in the mood to paint some landscapes- this blog is called mountainsea-chronicles, after all.
Translation
“Sky-Tower” - I chose to literally translate the name so I can convey that sense of grandeur in English as well. And yes, I could’ve gone for “Celestial Pagoda” or something like that, but I didn’t want to fall into the trap of sounding overdramatic, which I feel like a lot of Chinese translations tend to do ( in fact, that’s the exact reason I choose to translate these works myself. While of course, Chinese and English are two different languages, I try my best to carry the concise yet elegant nature of classical Chinese over to the English translation. )
“…the Great Wilderness” - Before this blog was created, I’d had a go at translating little bits of the Shānhǎijīng for personal reference and to share with friends ( if any of you are reading this, thanks for putting up with all my insane literary rants. I owe you all. ) I always found myself torn between whether to translate “荒” as “wilderness” or “wasteland.” While “wasteland” is a more accurate definition of the word, the context begs to differ. The Great Wilderness volumes all give a window into lands of flowing rivers, abundant wildlife, and perhaps most damning of all- civilisation. Hardly a “wasteland.” “Wilderness” also has an adventurous sort of vibe to it that I quite like.
Art
I feel like with each post, my addiction to spray paint brushes becomes more obvious. This one’s full of spray paint textures.
The pagoda is there because of a little thing called artistic licence- I figured, why not have an actual sky-tower on Sky-Tower?
