Yu Guangzhong's The Birth of Venus (余光中的『維納斯的誕生』)

Just read another one of Yu Guangzhong's early poems. Here it is:

 

維納斯的誕生                             The Birth of Venus

冬之後第七天                             The seventh day after Winter Solstice

千禧年倒數第三個前夕              the eve of the third last day of the millenium

天關深扃，地户緊    Gates of Heaven firmly bolted, doors of the Earth tightly shut

傳說的奇 蹟                             The miracle of myth seemed so far way

渺茫而無消息                           with barely any news

 

而在世紀末悠長的此夜   During that long night of the end of the century

當童貞的白燭                 where the immculately white candle

快繞到夢的盡頭            was rapidly burning to the end of dreams,

守夜人終夕苦守     the watcher of the night awaited stubbornly through the night,

終感到美的胎動     finally feeling the coming of pregnant beauty

 

是南海而非愛琴海      It's the South Sea not the Aegean Sea,

是烏絲而非金鬘         It's black hair, not pretty golden hair

是蓮步姍珊而非西風颯颯 It's small lotus like steps, not rushing of the West winds

非西風颯颯所吹來     Not what the rushing West winds brings,

非波提切利所能猜     Nor what Boticelli can divine.

 

而終於還是來了         Finally it came

雖然等老了守夜的那人 Though that waiting watcher of the night has grown old

終於等到了第一聲哭    Finally the  awaited first cry

帶來不止一千聲笑 brought no less than a thousand laughter.

傳說，終於成真    Legend,  at last true .

 

不是從風吹的波間     Not from the midst of the wind-swept ripples 

也非從海送的蚌裡    Nor from the sea-sent shell 

而是粲然睜眼           But a sudden eye-opening 

從一朵剛醒過來的睡蓮  from a freshly awakened sleeping lotus 

我的維納斯誕生      My Venus was born.

The Birth of Venus ( Nascita de Venere) is one of the most famous paintings of the European Renaissance. It was painted by the artist Sandro Botticelli in or about 1485 to 1487 and is one of the most treasured collection in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy and is a "must see" for every one who visits that beautiful city above the River Arno. It portrays the pagan goddess of love, Venus or Aphrodite arriving upon the seashore in a shell fresh from birth but fully grown, being blown ashore by the wind produced by the the wind god Zephyr, amidst a sea of roses.  Then as she arrives, she is greeted by a nymph who hands her a purple cloak. She is also supposed to represent the energy of spring, emphasized by the motion of the waves, the scattering of roses in the air and the fluttering of clothes by the sea breezes. The blue of the lapis lazuli is sued to emphasize her purity. It is thought to be based on a poem by the poet Angelo Poliziano, the Stanze per la giosta. Ernst Gombrich, the famous art historian, used an Enlightenment interpretation according to which contemplation of the most beautiful of the goddesses would be spiritually uplifting whereas in the 15th Century, it is more likely that people would look at the beauty of the painting and think of the beauty of divine love. Venus was supposed to be blonde, pale-skinned and voluptuous. The soft smooth wavy line, slim body and limbs, fluttering hair are all intended to emphasize her sensuous beauty. In  classical antiquity, the sea shell was a metaphor for a woman's vulva. The painting was deliberately two dimensional to imitate the painting style of Greek vases. Botticelli did not adopt deep perspective popular in the Renaissance so as to  emphasize its link to classical antiquity.

In his poem, Yu has domesticated and transformed a traditional Western symbol into a traditional Chinese symbol by changing its Italian and European context to a Chinese one. He does so through three transposition: a geographical transposition from the Aegean Sea in the Mediterranean to the South China Sea; a cultural and temporal transpoisition through replacing the Western solar calendar by the lunar Chinese calendar and finally through an ethnic transposition from European blond hair to Chinese black hair and finally through the transformation of the vehicle for the birth of Venus from a sea shell to a lotus.

The Birth of Venus