Claver on Sojourning in the Hills of Florence

◎ Xu Zhimo

Here, if you go out for a hike in the mellow dusk of May, whether going uphill or downhill, it is exactly like going to see a beauty pageant．For instance, if you walk into an orchard, you will see that each tree is laden with the most poetically luscious fruits; if standing there watching the fruits does not bring you enough contentment, simply hold out your hand and pick some, as those fruits are within easy reach, and then indulge yourself in their taste．This experience alone will be enough to intoxicate your heart and soul．The sunlight is balmy, but not in the least overly warm．And the breeze is pleasantly gentle．As it often comes through the flower-abundant woods in the hills, traveling with it is a whiff of the remotely delicate fragrance mixed with a thin scent of humidly pleasant mist, which caresses your face and winds around your shoulders and waist．Therefore, the act of breathing the air here itself gives endless pleasure．The air is always clear and clean - without any smoke produced by humans in the nearby valley or haze above the distant hills．This enchanting panorama, like a painting, unfolds right in front of you - for you to savor leisurely.

The beauty of being a sojourner in the hills lies in your freedom to choose your clothing and appearance．You can leave your hair unkempt and your chin bristly and unshaven; you can indulge yourself in any clothing you like - you can dress up like a shepherd, a fisherman, a farmer, a Gypsy wanderer, a hunter; you no longer have to worry about whether your tie needs rearranging - you don’t even have to wear one, so you can free your neck and chest for half a day or a full day; and you can wrap your head in a long shawl, in the local colors, imitating a leader of the Taiping rebels or Byron in his Egyptian garb．But the most important of all is to wear a pair of your oldest shoes！Although they may not look nice, they will be your best friends, as they will carry your weight but won’t make you aware of your feet under you.

For this type of fun, you are better off without a fellow tourist to accompany you．I strongly urge you to dispense with companions, so you can be alone．That is because a companion would more or less distract you, especially when the companion is a young female - the most dangerous and dictatorial of the kind．You should stay away from her as you would from a prettily-patterned snake in the grass！

It is like nothing more than switching from one prison cell to another within the same jail when we walk, as we usually do, from our homes to our friends’ homes or to our working places, because when we do this, inhibitions always follow us and freedom never finds us．But if you can ramble all by yourself in these beautiful hills or in the country, during this transition of spring and summer, it is a time when the Lucky Star shines on you, it is a time when you actually experience and can personally savor freedom and liberty, and it is a time when your body aligns with your soul.

My friends, don’t you know that each year that we advance in age is often just one more unit of weight we add to the yokes around our necks and one more link in the chain we tighten to the fetters around our legs？Don’t we feel jealous when we see children rolling about for fun in the grass, on a sandy beach, or in the shallow water, or see a cat chasing its own tail？But our yokes or fetters always dominate our actions．Hence, only when you throw yourself into the arms of nature, without anyone else to accompany you, like a naked child running into the embrace of his mother, can you then understand the happiness of the soul, the happiness of living itself, and the happiness of breathing, of walking, of opening your eyes to look, or of pricking up your ears to listen！Therefore, you have to exercise complete egoism and be extremely selfish, allowing only yourself - your body and soul - to merge into nature：to beat to its pulse, to dance to its musical rhythm, and to be content with itself in this miraculous universe.

Our ingenuous innocence is as delicate as a sensitive plant．Once challenged by our companions, its leaves will fold, but under the clear sunlight and in the mild wind, its character will be natural and its life will be smooth.

When you travel alone, you will lie down on your back in the green grass, or sometimes even wallow in it because its soft, warm color will spontaneously arouse your childishness; you will feel an irresistible impulse to dance passionately on a secluded street so that you can see in your shadow the various amusing silhouettes of your own body, because the gentle swinging of the shadows of the roadside trees will awaken your urge to frolic; you will burst out in a song, or a random melody you happen to remember, or a ditty of your own creation, because the orioles or swallows in the woods will remind you that spring should be eulogized; moreover, your mind will naturally broaden as you ramble along the long hilly path, your heart will be calmed as you look at the pure blue sky, and your stream of thought, as it flows to the tune of the spring babbling in the ravine between the hills or to the rhythm of the water gurgling in the gorge, will sometimes stay still to reveal a limpid quality and will sometimes splash into literary waves that roll forward into the cool olive tree woods, into the charming Arno River….

During such a tour, you not only dispense with companions, but also do away with books．Books are ideal company on trains or in your living room, but not when you take a hike alone．What great, erudite, inspiring, lucid, or beautiful sources of thought cannot be found in the singing of the winds, in the hues of the clouds, in the rising and falling of the hills and terrains, or in the colors and fragrances of the plants and flowers？Nature is the greatest book．As Goethe once put it, “Nature is, after all, the only book that offers important content on every page.”Besides, this book is so explicitly written that everybody can understand it．And what’s more, such information is ubiquitous - from the Alps to the Five Elders’ Peaks, from Sicily to Mount Putuo, from the Rhine River to the Yangtze River, from Lake Leman to Hangzhou’s West Lake, from the sword-leafed cymbidium to the wild Chinese viburnum, from the snow on the reeds in Hangzhou’s West Marsh to the red tides of Venice in the glow of the setting sun, from larks to nightingales, not to mention the fact that all the universally yellow wheat, universally purple wisteria, and universally green grass grow on the same earth and ripple in the same breeze．The symbols they embody always remain the same and the significance they reveal is always apparent．Unless you suffer from a heart ulcer, blindness, or deafness, you are always entitled to this unconventional but supreme education; you can always take this free and most treasured remedy at will．Once you become acquainted with this book, in this world you will not feel lonely when loneliness strikes you; you will not feel poor when you are in poverty; you will be comforted when you are distressed; you will be inspired when you experience setbacks; you will be encouraged when you encounter obstacles; and you will be given a compass when you are lost.

1. Xu Zhimo (Xu Zhangxu, 1896-1931), famous modern poet, essayist．He was also a founder of Crescent School, the most influential poetry school in the 1930s.