Chinese culture functioned as the mirror Luo Fu needed to define the
sense of self and the Modernist ethos. Without the cultural context, the
self could only be defined by its free-floating place in the flux of contin-
gency. And any attempt to recenter the self would only result in further
decentering it. Therefore the answer to the riddle of the third stanza is
perhaps “a fish out of water.” Luo Fu was like a fish out of water. The
creative process, the dialectic of self and society, of self and history that
gives rise to art, was further disrupted. Luo Fu’s Vietnam experience
forced him to confront the extreme limits of the Chinese Modernist
position. It also forced him to adjust his worldview and poetics, or as
Luo Fu said, a change in language is a change in the way we view the
world. This readjustment would play out over the coming years.
Magical Songscô, Luo Fu’s fifth collection, followed in 1974—
another departure of sorts for Luo Fu. The well-received collection
consists of a number of occasional poems and sequences concerned
with abstract and metaphysical subjects. He is able to crystallize the
abstract in controlled language and rhythm, much like Wallace
Stevens, a Luo Fu favorite. He also begins to incorporate elements of
classical poetry in his verse and to examine Chinese history, an
attempt to reground himself in Chinese culture. Returning home might
be impossible, but fashioning a home by situating himself more firmly
in the Chinese poetic tradition is not. This shift occurred as the entire
island was having doubts about the whole Modernist position, which
was being openly attacked by younger poets and critics. His poem
“Song of Everlasting Sorrow” 長恨ô, for example, is a modern com-
mentary on Bo Juyi’s Tang masterpiece. He also began to write short
occasional poems reminiscent of classical models such as “Gold
Dragon Temple” efgh:
the evening bell
is a small trail travellers take
down the mountain
ferns
along steps of white stone
chews its way all the way down
if this place were covered with snow...
but all that’s seen is
a single startled cicada rising
to light the lanterns
one by one
all over the mountain
(Luo 1975: 165–166)
The Poetic Odyssey of Luo Fu 75i鐘
0Wk'[的lm
nop物
T著P色的mr
1 mCs'如÷t處vM iw
12 x的灰¿
y[¢的z¡
1 {{
*ö