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Delphi

Once I had a dream.
 
I was at the top of a mountain and looked down. Greek women in white dresses were dancing in a circle.  Sunlight and serene air. Out-of-this world rapture.
 
Suddenly the scene changed. A gigantic cliff started to crumble. The screams at its foot echoed through the crag. Then I woke up.
 
Years later I came across a picture of Delphi in a guide book: the ruins of the Athena Temple. There had been no ruins in my dream, but I knew this was the place, Delphi. So I took a plane to a country I had never been to before.
 
My dream proved to be true.
 
I climbed towards the olive tree on the small hill in the Athena Temple Sanctuary. My heart was beating fast. I looked down at the ruins and there it was: the place in my dream where the Greek women had been dancing.
 
I turned around and there was the cliff: the gigantic cliff of Mount Parnassus, with the Apollo Temple at its foot. All exactly as in my dream.
 
In the information center I saw photographs of the excavations of the Apollo Temple. There were earthquakes in ancient times. In the house of Sikelianos, a poet who had organized the Delphic Festival,  I saw the white dresses on display.
 
Magnificent mountains, the valley of olive trees, the blue sea beyond. On a terrace with a glass of beer at hand, another me whom I had never met before, cried with joy.

As the inner pendulum swings, springs out a poem

essay published in the Asahi Simbun........
All poetry and photos copyright © Fuyuko Tomita all right reserved