Pity for Fallen Flowers -- A Dialogue Between Szeto Keung and Li Shang-yin |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shic Shou-chien
Director, Institute of Art History, National University of Taiwan,
translated by Wu Chang-Jye
From the tall pavilion the guests have all departed;
In the little garden, flowers helter-skelter fly.
They fall at random on the winding path.
And travel far, sending off the setting sun.
Heart broken, I cannot bear to sweep them away;
Gazing hard, I watch them till few are left.
Their flagrant heart, following spring, dies;
What they have earned are tears that wet one's clothes.
This poem was titled Fallen Flowers and written by Li Shang-yin, one poet of the latter days of Tang Dynasty. Every time I see Szeto Keung's paintings. especially those finished after the summer of 1989 and employing "flowers" as subject matter. I cannot help associating them with this poem. It seems that through the paintings by Szeto Keung, I, a Chinese viewer in the late 20th century. can cross time & space and engage in a dialogue with the poet of a thousand years ago. This is actually an exhilarating experience.
Fallen Flowers reveals a desolate scene and mood as well. It speaks of both Li Shang-yin and fallen flowers. The poet compares himself to the object. expressing his own sentiments through the fallen flowers. This is an inherent convention in Chinese poetry on objects. However. among the Chinese poems which describe frequently seen fallen flowers to the point of grief. the poem by Li Shang-yin is the most unforgettable. Spring has gone and flowers have fallen. Both are natural phenomena; nevertheless. the poet displays the fallen and wandering self in the lines:
They fall at random on the winding path, / And travel far, sending off the setting sun / and feels heart-broken.
According to this convention, pity for fallen flowers and burial of flowers are graceful. But when the flowers are regarded as the self. the feeling of pity is enhanced. If that is the case. how can he bear to sweep them away? Seeing the fallen flowers on the ground. he cannot bear to discard them. Yet he also understands that this is an irrevocable process. Still, he prays that the flowers will be left. But when spring time has totally gone, the withered cannot revive. The poet cannot resist the sorrow caused by the indifference of the passing away of time. "What they have earned are tears that wet one's clothes." This is the predestined denouement. Given this scenario. the poet not only pities the flowers but also vents his vulnerability in self-pity.
Viewing the works of flowers by Szeto Keung is as if we were reading Fallen Flowers. The lonely rose or sunflower. with withered stalk. never fails to attracts viewers' attention. One or two petals seem to be falling and suddenly hover on a certain corner of the painting. The scene is grievous and pitiful, which makes one reluctant to leave it. The colors of the flowers are still bright and beautiful, but the leaves and stalks have become dry and inanimate. When this scene becomes the focus of the painting. the wretchedness of the denouement is further highlighted. Under the flowers and petals are the very merciless roots with torn and wrinkled cotton and linen which have been stained and pressed under the huge and amorphous brand of time. Sometimes even the most solid and Icy steel with its heavy mass cannot survive the erosion which comes with the passing away of time. This further leaves one weary and heavy-laden with sadness. In this poem by Li Shang-yi, the fallen flowers are combined with human feelings and thus are especially pitiful. In Szeto Keung's painting, too, in their the pseudo-human images, the flowers, in the deplorable scene caused by the torment of the callous time. reveal feelings of sadness at the passing away of time. This scene is so concrete that it seems that no one dares to confront it face to face.
The bright rose is like the love of youth luminous and alluring; its stalks are withered, as if it were bemoaning the fading away of youth and the vanishing of love. The viewer can feel in the painting the direct force which is not indicated in the poem. In this intensity, the desire to stay is especially touching. Though stains are deep. the erosion complete. and the shifting of time heavy and irresistible, the rose in the painting, with the pitiful fallen petals, seems to persist in a kind of elegance. The flower is dry and its colors have faded. but it is reluctant to give up the magnificence during its blossom. Its leaves have withered and its margins have been wrinkled, but they strive to stick to the stalks. The twigs have fallen off and the stalks are about to splinter, but they are reluctant to be broken and desire to hold the surviving flowers with their previous beautiful shape intact. If this means death, then it is a kind of death which is full of reluctance, unwilling to accept the fate of falling, withering and decay. It is a kind of death which persists in its dignity. Li Shang-yin confronts the fallen flowers and cannot bear to sweep them away, but finally he gives in to fate and death. On the contrary, Szeto Keung's flowers are recalcitrant. They are not only unwilling to give in to fate and be enslaved by time, but they also query Li Shang-yin.
But, even if it persists in dignity, its fate of decay, falling and withering is irrevocable. Even if it is not afraid of death, and even if it is fixed with cellophane tapes and is confronted directly. how can we reverse the direction of time? This is a radical problem viewers have to propose when they are pondering the dialogue between Szeto Keung and Li Shang-yin. By asking this question, viewers can participate in the dialogue. For most people, time appears to be a dreadful "thing." Time is, as is said by Chu Tzu-ching, the shapeless, achromatic, abstract and ever-proceeding entity which "when you stretch your hands to halt it, slips away from your fingers" and which could be termed the fiercest enemy of our life. The horror of this enemy is irresistible because it is shapeless. Even if people could put it into a concrete or mechanical clock or confine it with rules engraved with the Chinese dynasties in painting, they could do nothing to halt its passing away and taking life away step by step. Its power seems to be immensely huge and can never be hindered by anything in its forward movement. Once things enter time's orbit, whether or not they will have temporary brilliance, they will ultimately end in decay, as can be seen in Szeto Keung's flowers and paintings. The reason why time is terrible is that it is irresistible. Man seems to have no other choices but anxiety and frustration when facing this enemy.
Li Shang-yin considers it hopeless. Therefore, the only thing he can do is use tears to vent his sadness. Szeto Keung's paintings appear to be unwilling to give in. But so what? There seems to be a little hope here. If one can deny the authentic existence of time, maybe one can go beyond all these sorrows, The dogma of Buddhism persuades people to be wakened from illusions and reveals that all life and death are illusions. The objects in Szeto Keung's paintings, though very realistic at first sight, are intended to deceive people's eyes. We can even say that what he paints is "e;falseness" itself. What that falseness indicates is the passing away of life as is represented by withered flowers and decayed leaves. When viewers see again the "realistic" and "faithful" description, such as "golden" and "pink," in his paintings, the sense of illusions will be enhanced. It is not only an old picture but also the memory of youth covered by the dust of time. Is there anything real in the peak of realistic description? The answer is the opposite. It is only a mirage. It is nothing but the surface of human hearts. If the marks engraved by time are all illusions, then is time itself true or not? Once the authenticity of time is denied, people can free themselves from the merciless enslavement of time and no longer feel pain.
How can one feel empathetic with the sadness of Li Shang-yin when one faces the paintings of fallen flowers by Szeto Keung? By having the same feeling as the painter and with the hope of the ultimate transcendence. one may feel a little solace. But, when we recall the convention of poetry and painting of fallen flowers from Li Shang-yin to Szeto Keung, wet cannot help doubting: Can the denial of time and the transcendence of sadness be unregrettable pursuits? The cost of them is obvious. Once time loses its meaning, people may become gods. but love will become nothing. What is left for life then? Li Shang-yin understands this and writes "Ch'ang-o"
Against the screen of " mother-of-clouds " the candle throws its deep shadow;
The Long River gradually sinks. the morning star sets.
Ch'ang-o should regret having stolen the elixir;
The green sea--the blue sky--her heart every night.
The painting of fallen flowers by Szeto Keung would ultimately agree with this conclusion, wouldn't it?
The two poems by Li Shang-yin are translated into English by James J. V. Liu in his Poetry of Li Shang-yin , p. 136 & p. 59.