thirty six and four

THE MOUNTAIN

Six and thirty times and hundred times
the painter tried to capture the mountain,
tore it up,

then pushed on again
(six and thirty times and hundred times)

to the incom- prehen- sible volca- noes,
blissful, full of temptation, without counsel,—
while the outlines of his glory
went on without coming to an end:

Fading a thousand times out of all the days,
nights without comparison from which
dropped, as if they were all too small;
each image at the moment it was needed,
increasing from figure to figure,
not partaking and far and without viewpoint—,
then suddenly knowing, as in a vision,
lifting itself up behind every crevice.

from: New Poems, the other part
translated from rilke: 'der berg,' which was inspired by hokusai's 'thirty-six views of mt fuji' of which 'the great wave' was one. also see an earlier version in the hokusai manga spread.

there is of course tintin, and the other is a 'colorized' very poor scan of a grey-scale illustration of 'the fisherman and his wife' in a german book 'japonismus und art nouveau,' of which i'd love to find a copy! i think i might need a new scanner....