New Perspectives on Contemporary Chinese Poetry

limitations of a specific time and place by returning to the immediacy
of experience. As Luo Fu says in “The Poet’s Mirror,” the introduction
to the sequence,

For the Surrealist poet, logic and reason are nooses on a gallows; if he

puts his head in, it’s all over. According to Breton, spiritual freedom can

only be realized by entering the world of subjectivity, which is far more

real than the world of logic. The Surrealist slogan of “more self-

consciousness” is the only means by which humankind can realize pure

existence. (Luo 1975: 239)

The remaining sixty-three poems can be read as a record of such expe-
rience. He would incorporate significant events from his life, such as
the birth of his daughter and the death of a friend. But his poem is
much more than just a record of his personal experiences; it expresses
the existential drama of a generation of Chinese writers. Luo Fu
sought to transcend his historical situation by revealing and determin-
ing his own situation, transcending it by objectifying himself through
his poetry. His words have the authenticity of wind and cicada; they
cut through alienation and lead to freedom.
A third collection titled Poems from Beyond外外Áwas published
in 1967 with simpler and more concise expressions of his philosophi-
cal outlook. Luo Fu returns with greater clarity to the conflict between
his desire for transcendence and the demands of reality. He begins to
discard his surrealist position and abandons the style of regular stanza
lengths. Most of the poems in the collection involve a conceit based on
the word “beyond.” Poems such as “Beyond the Fog” 霧o外are less
dense than previous ones:

An egret

Reads Les Nourritures Terrestes
in a rice paddy
It circles a certain point, swirling
like fog
Lowering its head by chance
It snaps up a cloud on the water’s
surface

Contemplation is nothing more than
Pondering whether or not the
sun is a nihilist
Lifting its left leg, it wonders
If its body should swing into the fog
Or beyond the fog

72 John Balcom

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