Dream Galaxy

Diary & poem of record · Flight & sky

My dream-soul returned to the Lord of Heaven

Southern Song China · c. 1130

天接雲濤連曉霧……彷佛夢魂歸帝所。聞天語，殷勤問我歸何處。……九萬里風鵬正舉。風休住

Original text — Fisherman’s Pride: Recording a Dream, Li Qingzhao

Sky meets the cloud-waves, joined by dawn mist… As if my dreaming soul had returned to the Lord of Heaven’s court. I heard a heavenly voice ask, earnestly, where I was going… On a wind of ninety thousand li the great roc is rising — wind, do not stop!

Translation · Editorial translation (draft)

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Source
Fisherman’s Pride: Recording a Dream — Li Qingzhao, c. 1130
Rights
Public domain (ancient text)
Record type
Diary & poem of record
Place
Southern Song China · Chinese
Date
c. 1130
Uncertainty
Moderate — Ci poem by Li Qingzhao, subtitled “Recording a dream”.
Imagery
Sky · Sea · Stars · Bird · Boat · Flight
Feelings
Awe · Longing

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.

Dreams that share its images