Maria Tupay Duque

From a Moravian summer

August 1981

In a few days I am going to take a plane to China.
I have a one-way ticket, to Moscow, then to Beijing.

I have no imagination, no idea what China would be like.

MADE IN CHINA was yet unknown.

It was more than just a far away, closed country.
Rather a place of some kind of mysterious longing.
I recall these distant summer afternoons, with their light, the soft colors, which were like music to me.
There was this spirit of departure, some unspeakable sensation of a timeless farewell, not
knowing whether there will be a return.

Now, 30 years later I am again on my way to China.
Leaving from a summer in a Moravian landscape, the land of Gustav Mahler, with endless alleys of cherry trees, blooming linden trees, fields of white poppy.
My days are filled with music.

Again there is this light, the colors and the music
inside me and going to China is like returning home.

So I try to find a way to write down this music.

telc / Moravia summer 2011