"Mountain walls behind us, black,
and below a void
unfathomed!
First we clove through banks of mist,
then we clove a flock of
sea-gulls,
so that they, in mid-air startled,
flew in all directions,
screaming.
Downward rushed we, ever
downward.
But beneath us
something shimmered,
whitish, like a reindeer's belly.-
Mother, 'twas our
own reflection
in the glass smooth mountain tarn."
- from "Peer Gynt" by Henrick Ibsen 1875
image © 2000 c kirkpatrick
