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Aside from describing how the focalizer perceives, the imaginary mode of the perceptual facet
of focalization also refers to objects of perception, or what is perceived, as existing entirely inside
dreams, recollection or hallucinations. 85 The first half of Li He's 李 贺 “A Dream of Heaven” (“Meng
tian” 梦 天 ) not only aptly demonstrates the act of focalization through the imaginary mode, an action
already illustrated in the previous “Henry and the piece of toast/wet rag” example, but also how the
focalized itself, by inhabiting the unreal world of a hallucinatory dream, can be understood as an object
existing within the imaginary world of a dream: 86
老 兔 寒 蟾 泣 天 色 The ancient hare and shivering toad 87 weep sky blue tears;
云 楼 半 开 壁 斜 白 Cloud towers half revealed, walls slant white. 88
玉 轮 轧 露 湿 团 光 Jade wheel crushes dew, a wet bright sphere; 89
90
鸾 珮 相 逢 桂 香 陌 Phoenix pendants meet on a cassia fragrant path. 91
127
Before the first line commences, the title of the poem, “A Dream of Heaven”, has already
positioned the text's events and existents inside the imaginary space of a dream, meaning that the
objects focalized by the poet-narrator, and the space these objects occupy, is within the imaginary
mode. Yet when considering how, and not only what kind of, existents are focalized by the poetnarrator,
the imaginary mode of perception continues to be of great relevance in Li He's poem. Unlike
the moon in Li Bai's “Holding a Drink and Asking a Question of the Moon”, a moon that is focalized
85 Manfred Jahn, “More Aspects on Focalization”, p. 89; Manfred Jahn, “Focalization”, p. 99.
86 This imaginary, or “offline” perception, can resemble online perception while also being “ notably less realistic than
online perception [ordinary mode]; specifically, it [offline perception] easily overcomes real-life constraints when
executing spatio-temporal jumps” See Manfred Jahn, “Focalization”, p. 99.
87 There was a belief “that among the denizens of the moon were a rabbit and a toad”. See Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the
Void, p. 174.
88 The Jade Towers of the moon. See J.D. Frodsham, The Poems of Li Ho (London: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 31.
89 A lunar vision, one in which “the moon hangs in the middle of the sky like a jade wheel, rolling and crushing dewdrops
while absorbing their moisture and becoming a sphere of light”. See Kuo-Ch'ing Tu, Li Ho (Boston: Twayne Publishers,
1979), p. 45.
90 Wang Qi 王 琦 ed., Li He shige jizhu 李 贺 诗 歌 集 注 (Shanghai: Renmin chubanshe 人 民 出 版 社 , 1977), p. 57.
91 “According to legend, Chang E 嫦 娥 stole the elixir of immortality from her husband [Hou] Yi 后 羿 , the Archer, and
fled to the moon. This line refers either specifically to Chang E or to goddesses in general whom Li He might meet on
the moon”. See Kuo-Ch'ing Tu, Li Ho, p. 140. The path is cassia-scented because of the cassia tree on the moon. See
J.D. Frodsham, The Poems of Li Ho, p. 31. The English translation is an admixture of J.D. Frodsham, The Poems of Li
Ho, p. 31 and Kuo-Ch'ing Tu, Li Ho, p. 45.