László Krasznahorkai - Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens - Reportage

‘So, how are you going to settle this with the Buddha? That lousy 10 yuan? are you going to split it?’

Shush, the interpreter tries to quiet him down, and points towards the buildings amassed on one side of the mountain, and on the other side the breathtaking chasm, stop it, really, the interpreter nods at something in front of them; and already the first monastery buildings are visible, clearly this is the main street, teeming with monks, shops selling devotional objects and even lodgings — and they stop exactly here, they get out of the bus exactly here, the sun shines into their eyes and, completely blinded, they try to make out where they are, but there is just this sudden illumination and the sense that somewhere over there on the left there could be the mountain’s steep slope and the famous peak, about half a minute goes by until, as their eyes grow used to the light, suddenly they see the entire thing as one whole, and everywhere there are countless monasteries, they just stare at the buildings thickly woven across the side of the mountain, the wondrous yellow monastery walls and the green and the green everywhere, they gaze at the monks flocking around them curiously, further on are the paths leading up from the main street towards the monasteries — and everything is forgotten, he will try to figure out later, Stein decides, what was intended by this insignificant petty theft, how to explain it, and in general: what did it mean, what was its import, had he really misunderstood, when suddenly the female pilgrim or nun with the serious face comes over to him and, in the friendliest possible manner, explains to the interpreter — when she sees that only he understands Chinese — that the entrance in front of which they are waiting is that of some lodgings, it is quite adequate, they can go inside, she shows them, this is not the case for all the lodgings in Jiuhuashan, she warns them good-naturedly, not every one is. . good, she tilts her head, but this one is, you can stay in this one, and so, smiling, she waves farewell with a delicate movement and as if a little in excuse for the unpleasantness which they had to suffer because of her companion, she sets off on one of the paths with quick tiny steps, up into the heights, towards a monastery, in order to reach her companion, the guilty one who, with a freshness belying her age, is already running, and for a while they can still see that naive, lovable, dear face which just shines and shines in this sharp pure sunlight, as she turns to look at them now and again as if she wanted to show them, until she is finally swallowed up by the green of the path, that nothing, but nothing will ever wipe away that admired, illusory innocence from that face — ever.

It took no longer than 10 to 15 minutes to settle upon the room, place their baggage on the first floor, decide what they would leave and what they would take, 10 to 15 minutes, and they stand completely astonished in front of the hotel, they hadn’t been inside any longer than that, and now they look around, and they can’t believe their eyes, because that pure piercing illumination, that dazzling green and green and the yellow monastery walls on the side of the mountain — has all disappeared, the fog came up from the valley, the interpreter remarks uncertainly, yes, that’s obvious, both of them nod, that’s what happened, but it happened so quickly, the whole thing occurred while they were reaching an agreement with the innkeeper, they settled everything as quickly as they could, so that rushing out onto the main street they could see Jiuhuashan again in the light, well, there is something completely unexpected in this incredible speed, indeed, but more precisely: something unbelievable, Stein is inclined to believe this is some decision immediately concerning them , it is not merely a case of someone thinking in an agitated state — as, however, he is in now — that a so-called otherworldly force is operating behind the scenes; no, Stein directly suspects an arrangement, an apparently playful illusion, but in reality unmistakeably intended personally, as if by design they were meant to see everything at first in the light and then to never see it again, to see something completely different: Jiuhuashan in the fog — and if the shock is great, and if undeniably there is disappointment as well — for, certainly, it is difficult to get away from the fact that a moment ago they saw everything but can now see nothing — this disappointment, from one moment to another, begins to yield its strength to something completely different, namely, to a slowly unfolding wonder and, as they stand there paralysed by the sight, they begin to grasp that if now the fog and the drizzling rain have become the lord of the mountain, then this fog conceals Jiuhuashan in the most wondrous conceivable form.

So what happens is that they stand on the street and see themselves very distinctly, see their immediate surroundings as well, the earth beneath their feet, and everything within a distance of 8 to 10 metres, but if they take one step forward, then with every such step, indeed with every movement, yet another piece of the earth, the buildings on the main street, the mountain, the paths, the monks, the trees, the monastery walls begin to loom obscurely before them — so that, from this point on, it is not really possible to speak of sight in Jiuhuashan — they do not see but sense things, in this place where everything that is the world and everything that is Jiuhuashan changes from one moment to another, because in the ever-thickening fog whatever is momentarily uncovered in its own uncertain form, after this or that step, immediately vanishes in the very next, different details emerge as they move around and try to find a starting point from which they may begin to discover Jiuhuashan, but that is the most difficult, to be able to know exactly where they are on the main street: the hotel vanished from sight a long time ago, and they have no idea if they have gone to the right, upward, to the left, or downward, it doesn’t matter, they stand motionless, staring into this enchantingly unexpected and unusually heavy, impenetrable fog, Stein crumples the map in his hand and puts it into his pocket, because it doesn’t help, because nothing helps, he flings the remark out to his companion, why the hell would anyone walk around here with a map in their hands! — because, obviously, this is about something else , about something, something entirely else, and as they get to the head of the first path, and head upward without a thought — because it doesn’t matter what direction they go in, it won’t be them who will find Jiuhuashan, Stein calls back over his shoulder, but. . but? — his companion climbs up behind him with a certain serene forbearance — the interpreter doesn’t wish to destroy his companion’s wonder at the sight of this transformation and with his own usual cast of mind soothes himself by noting that, well, nightmarish, yes, this sudden change was really pretty nightmarish, but it also means, he says, that in addition to an indisputably justifiable rapture, they must, from this point on, face an unpleasantly drizzling cold rain and a fog that is totally closing in upon them, and these are circumstances, he adds soberly, which certainly call for some kind of raincoat and warm clothing. . But he notes this in vain, for Stein is thoroughly captivated by what he sees, which immediately disappears with the next step, so that as he looks at the first row of the tall pine trees nearest to him, the trees behind them fade into the most enigmatic space until, finally, the last row of trees dissolves into nothingness — as if they had strayed into the mirage of a painting by Huang Shen[2] or Ying Yujian[3]: at times they find themselves facing a protruding cliff peak, at other times a chasm, unsuspected a moment ago, suddenly opens up beneath their feet, in a word, they proceed upward metre by metre on the steps of the path, and even the interpreter would be affected by this particular bewitchment of divine nature plunged into obscurity if he wasn’t stopping from time to time to remark that the aforementioned raincoat and warm clothes would certainly be more than necessary if things continued like this. But it is obvious that nothing will change for a while, the fog doesn’t move, the rain drizzles, and Jiuhuashan continuously fades away and dissolves right before their eyes; they, however, keep on walking carefully upward, on the slippery steps, holding on to the slippery railing, and they persevere up into the heights; they have no idea where they are going, although there is no doubt that this path leads somewhere, certainly in a good direction — they are convinced of that — because they don’t believe that all this, this unforeseen change in the weather up here can be explained by some accident, just as it cannot be an accident that they are here on exactly this path in Jiuhuashan, between the slippery steps and the wet railings.