Dream Galaxy

Literary dream · Flight & sky

Flying across Mirror Lake by moonlight

Donglu (Shandong) → Zhejiang, China · c. 745

我欲因之夢吳越，一夜飛度鏡湖月。湖月照我影，送我至剡溪。……青冥浩蕩不見底，日月照耀金銀臺。……忽魂悸以魄動，怳驚起而長嗟。惟覺時之枕席，失向來之煙霞。

Original text — Dreaming of Mount Tianmu: A Farewell, Li Bai

I wished to dream my way to Wu and Yue, and in one night flew across Mirror Lake under the moon. The lake moon lit my shadow and escorted me to Shan Creek… The blue void, vast and bottomless; sun and moon shining on terraces of gold and silver… Suddenly my soul startled, my spirit stirred; I woke with a long sigh. Only the pillow and mat of waking remained; gone were the mists and clouds of a moment ago.

Translation · Editorial translation (draft)

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Source
Dreaming of Mount Tianmu: A Farewell — Li Bai, c. 745
Rights
Public domain (ancient text)
Record type
Literary dream
Place
Donglu (Shandong) → Zhejiang, China · Chinese
Date
c. 745
Uncertainty
Moderate — A poem framed as a dream journey to Mount Tianmu.
Imagery
Flight · Lake · Water · Moon · Mountain · Palace · Sky
Feelings
Awe · Wonder · Joy

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Flying and floating dreams are among the most widely reported dream types. Ellis tied them to breathing and balance during sleep; others have associated them with freedom or lucid awareness.

Ellis (1911), ch. VI

Mythological

Ascent recurs across traditions: Icarus and his wax wings, Jacob’s ladder between earth and heaven, shamanic journeys to the upper world. Many of these stories hold both aspiration and a warning.

Greek myth; Genesis 28

Chinese traditions

Chinese literature is full of dream journeys skyward — Li Bai flying across Mirror Lake, Li He gazing down at China as “nine specks of smoke” — where flight becomes a way to see the world at a different scale.

Li Bai; Li He

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

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