The Fair Moon in the New Poetry (Inspired by “The Fair Moon” of Angela Ren)
By Zhao Yanchun
Tr. Carland
Angela Ren’s poems are hard to come by. She writes in a simple but witty style in which the meaning is far-reaching without any obscurity. Her classical poetry follows the writing style, so does her new poetry, full-length poetic prose as well as poems which are filled with subtle words but profound meanings. “The Fair Moon”, a representative of Angela Ren’s new poetry, is a paragon containing multiple structures and multiple readings.
The poem is composed of four sections, each of which has four lines. Each line has twelve words which are generally comprised of five steps. One step and one pause, such an interchange furnishes the form of the poem with neatness and flexibility, so “The Fair Moon” has already been a standard new metrical verse with orderliness. In fact, this is merely an explicit structure of the poem which is also secretly designed an inexplicit structure that falls into two structures—surface structure and deep structure. The former has euphemistical pairs of sentences including circuitous questions and dramatic answers, which finally steer to the concluding sentence that dominates the preceding part of the poem. The later internalizes time and space—time dimension is from the fair moon of Su dungpo (a famous poet of Song Dynasty) to that of the poetess; space dimension is from one side of the strait to the other side. The explicit and inexplicit form and the surface and deep structure make a unique mechanism of the poem.
The form and meaning of poetry are inseparable. The essence of poetry lies in its representation which reifies as Gods of message. In “The Fair Moon”, Angela Ren adopts multiple representations to constitute a chain of representations，which seems to centralize the enlightenments toward poetry proposed by the Gods of representation.
She borrows “the fair moon” (a phrase of “Prelude to Water Melody”, a poem by SuTungpo) as a prelude, a kind of representation, to represent a good expectation for a romance with you, and a start of her new representation. It may mean the affection or places parted by both shores, and certainly embody many other connotations. It is a hope of reunion—as the fair round moon signifies.
The form and meaning are not simply mechanical correspondings; they are two but in one and of one. Therefore, it is not enough to understand the essence of poetry merely by onefold reading, for poetry is a form, form of form, and a meaning, meaning of meaning. Angela Ren’s poems are good examples.
The content of the poem is superposition of questions and answers rather than simple elaboration or expression. And the answers are not explicatures but illocutions.
Images and artistic milieu appear in turn through answers and questions. When it comes to the association between the disappearing fair moon and falling leaves，and to the time span from black hair to grey hair, what a sadly beautiful scene shown before us! In addition, the poetess takes jade bracelet as a representation. One is on her wrist, the other on my palm. One is intact while the other treated as mine heart. What a passion it is! And, seeing the scene--for whom the lyre is plucked so subtly, and it is divided by a narrow strip of water, what a pity it is!
Through the montage switchover of images and the creation of artistic milieu, the poetess transits the poem into another representation—good wine and the fair moon of hope at Mid-Autumn Festival. Her intention is self-evident, but you can’t make sure what it really is, which is the effect of enlightened by the soul of the poem.
In short, “The Fair Moon” bespeaks the charm of art which is boiled down to a matter of connotation infiltrating into narration and implications revealed in figuration with the best creation of representations or symbols, or more specifically, representation of representation, and symbol of symbol.
How I wish man could live for e'er,
And share her fair light everywhere.
---------Su Shi
Don't ask/ me where/ the fair moon/ has gone/ tonight a
Don't you /see in/ Love Park/ the fall/ing leaves/sough b
A hag/gard belle/ croons in/ her bower/, in her plight a
Waiting/ and waiting/, black hair then/, grey hair/ now b
Don't ask/ me if /she has changed/ her heart/ or soul c
You don't know /that pair/of brace/lets is /a sole art d
That one/ on her wrist/ is /intact/, it is whole c
This one/ on mine palm/ I regard/ as/ mine heart d
If you/ ask me/ tonight/ why the moon/ hides face e
You should know/ for whom/ the lyre/ is plucked/ so nice f
It's been/ divid/ed though/ it's by root/ one space e
How man/y sixt/y years/ have we/ in life 's trice f
If you/ ask me/ when we/ can manage/ to unite g
Do trust/ it's the dream/ of Is/land and/ Mainland h
Prepare/ wine to/ extol/ the mid-aut/umn night g
As mirrors/ the fair/ moon of/ our mo/therland h
