Missed opportunities, ships passing in the night, often comprise the
imagery of Zheng Chouyu’s lyrical verse. In this case, the bizarre qual-
ity of this bucolic setting is that it affords no sense of comfort or refuge
from the city, as might be expected, but rather indicates a difference in
expectation between the speaker and the other figure mentioned in the
poem. There is also a problem with causation and therefore with the
logic of the action as well, as, on the one hand, the speaker states that
the person who shouldbe leaning against the door, waiting for this
bearer of new books and repaired zither, has already gone. On the other
hand, though, he then cites the reason for bringing the jug of wine
instead of the books and zither as the person’s departure. How is it that
the person waiting for him to bring these items has already left, yet prior
to this the speaker has decided to bring back wine instead becausethis
person is no longer waiting? The illogic lends itself to the dreamlike
quality of the poem first signaled in its title. Also like a dream, the inter-
mittent indistinct quality of the fence, indicating the border of the home,
first appears in sight and then not: gh`i到, klmnopc.
Fences and walls in Chinese culture signify the border of one’s home; it
is highly unlikely for a home to not have one if economics is not an
obstacle. And if we can extrapolate and think of the interpretation of
this poem in relation to the Chinese nation-state for a moment, we will
note that the character for nation is a walled-in undefined area with
the inside element of the character 或meaning chaos. It is the circum-
scription of huothat transforms chaos into the nation. I will return to
this point.
The entire setting for this poem is ethereal—the speaker finds
himself enshrouded in mist: 在我1
], 在我1衣]. The natural
setting does not afford a sense of the bucolic, for there are no sounds
from birds, no idyllic imagery. The scene is not inviting but mystifying.
The choice of classical diction, such as “blossom”$靨, evokes a wist-
ful nostalgia for a bygone elegance, but this invocation of bygone ele-
gance ironically accentuates the fact that it cannot be recovered.
Another logical reversal is the speaker’s statement that “I occupy an
indistinct thought” 我在sQoo的]. This again appears to test
the bounds of logic, as the speaker should be the one dreaming, yet
from this line it seems that he is actually the object of someone else’s
thoughts and dreams. It is one of those reversals where one first imag-
ines oneself as the focus only to realize afterward that one is playing a
supporting role. Indeed, it is a cold, cold dreamland in which the
speaker dwells.
Zheng Chouyu will not be undone by the sort of melancholy that
pervades “In Dreamland” and many other such poems in his corpus,
Zheng Chouyu and Lyric Poetry 37