The texts in this set are based on poems by two T'ang Dynasty
Chinese poets, Tu Fu and Wang Wei. Tu Fu was a committed activist poet who took
his political offices seriously enough to get himself in trouble. During one
period of exile, when he could not take his family with him, one of his children
died of starvation. He may be the earliest protest poet whose name we know. In
revolutionary China, he has been seen as the nations greatest poet, possibly for
the wrong reasons, or at least for reasons he would himself abhor. Wang Wei was
a detached mystic. He moved easily in elite circles, and amassed several
fortunes, which he used to found and support monasteries. His approach to
Buddhism was founded in love of nature and quiet contemplation. Although no
samples of his calligraphy have survived, he has been considered one of China's
most important calligraphers, and copies of copies of his work have been used as
models for generations.
Throughout Clouds Over Fortjade the two poets hold an oblique debate,
usually with one poet taking one side of each screen, though in a couple
instances work by both poets appears on the same side of a screen. Occasionally,
the two poets express similar ideas, and occasionally trade positions, with Tu
appreciating nature and Wang expressing grief or anger.
Both poets wrote in the Shih form, sometimes called the Chinese
sonnet. Poems in this form are eight lines long with either five or seven
characters in each line. The poems include elaborate substructures including a
breakdown into quatrains and couplets, often with careful development of
parallelism and antithesis. Given the uneven number of characters per line, the
obligatory caesuras can't fall precisely in the middle of a line. This and other
features (including antithesis) provide a dynamic imbalance that keeps the form
from becoming too static.
In my working of the texts, I have tried to pick up on as many of these
characteristics as possible. I have also worked with more general
characteristics of Chinese poetry, including the use of the narrow screen fold
(often used in sending messages), imaging suggestive of calligraphy, use of
various writing surfaces, printing from wood blocks and rubbings from stone. I
have even taken cues from the nature of written Chinese, particularly
ambiguities and terseness from the lack of inherent number and looseness of
tense, the lack of articles and other grammatical forms of English and most
other western languages. I have done these things not to make more "accurate"
renderings (such accuracy is far beyond my ability), but just to see where this
procedure would get me.
I have tried to adapt the completed parts of the work to graphic environments
other than the original two sided screenfolds. For many years, I set up single
sides for two-dimensional, black and white reproduction. In such instances,
I added lines to the reproduction to indicate the folds in the screens. his
had its benefits, but the limitations were still severe, including virtual
elimination of the dialogue between the two sides, loss of color, and lose
of the tactile guidance the folds provided. I considered sides reproduced
this way simply as sketches. In the electronic environment, color ceases to
be a problem, though the feel of the creases and their capacity to reinforce
lineation, couplet formation, and a sense of unfolding remain impossible to
present. However, something interesting can happen with the dialogue function
of the two sides of each sheet. I have set these sections up in such a way
that you can go from one side to the other simply by clicking on the image of
the side you're looking at. Click the first side, and the second appears.
Click the second side, and the first takes its place. To go from one set to
another, click the appropriate line below the image. On some systems the
transition from one side to another may be quicker and less contemplative
than it was in the first paper versions, but this may move the nature of
the dialogue ahead in ways just as interesting - perhaps even more so for
people whose sense of timing relates to the speed of electronic
communication.
For years, this unfinished work seemed to be slowly disintegrating, and
I seemed to be going through stages of exile which curiously echoed and
baffled themes of classic Chinese poetry. This may be a work that will not
be completed, but it has gone through a number of curious stages of
transformation. That may not be such a bad deal.