audible merit rests in the poet’s effort to forge a new style of verse for
modern Chinese poetry, a style that eschews the strictures of traditional
Chinese poetry while not steadfastly resorting to those of Western
verse––in short, a style that retains both rhythms and rhymes and yet
shuns fixed structures: free verse. The reader can detect rhythmic
echoes in lines one and four of the middle stanza through the double
repetition of one word: bu—bulaiand buxiang; bufeiand bujie, as
well as the repetition of sanyueand the particle de. In key elements of
the two lines, the vocabulary is varied slightly so as to minutely vary
the meaning: dongfengwith qiongyin, liuxuwith chunweiand feiwith
jie. Even in these instances there is syllabic parallel. The result is verse
without a rigid rhyme scheme or meter, something that splits the
difference between straightforward narrative and highly structured
poetry, something that works for the Chinese language without being
procrustean—an easy commerce, as Eliot would call it, between the
old and the new. The second and fifth lines also provide an audible
parallel that solidifies the sense of a unified rhythm: nidixinand
xiaoxiaodeare both repeated, and in the first half of the lines, these
phrases would be completely repetitive if it were not for the substitu-
tion of ru“to resemble” with shi“to be.” The final four syllables of
each are completely different although the imagery, as I will discuss in
a moment, is complementary. As Julia Lin has stated: “this lyric
abounds in harmonious vowels (both mute and open), rhythmic
parallels, repetition of key sounds of words—verbal plays that Cheng
customarily employs to obtain an echoing effect that further enhances
the haunting musicality of the lines” (Lin 1985b: 4–5).
This leaves us with line three, the pivotal line between the first two
and the final two, which are parallel. This middle line serves as a
stanzaic caesura (what Julie Chiu calls a “‘swing’ line” 2005: 210), a
break in the rhythm, as it is neither paralleled elsewhere in the poem
nor does it remotely resemble the rhythm of the other four lines of this
stanza. Qiaruo qingshi de jiedao xiang wan“Just like the cobblestone
street approaching evening” is short, simple, direct, and assonant. It is
a conceit that underscores the wistful tone of the poem even as it refers
back to the literal imagery of the traveler entering the village. It is night-
fall and it is best not to be out on the streets but rather at home or at
least looking for a place to sleep. For the traveler, however, the spring
curtains will not open and the shutters are tightly shut, creating an
unwelcoming atmosphere, setting a tone of isolation, loneliness and, by
extension, exile. But all is not lost, for there is yearning, and with
yearning hope remains. The yearning is found in the perspective of the
speaker who is addressing some unknown second person.
Zheng Chouyu and Lyric Poetry 31