Chapter Two: “Synesthesia” in the Works of Poet Luo Fu

Section One: The Poet-Magician’s Master Skill

Among modern Taiwanese poets, Luo Fu and Zheng Chouyu are highly esteemed. Luo Fu is honored as the “Poet-Magician,” while Zheng Chouyu is known by the elegant title “Wanderer.” The origin of Luo Fu’s reputation as a poet-magician is well grounded. Based on the author’s analysis of his poetic works, Luo Fu’s imagination is bizarre and uncanny, and he frequently produces astonishing poetic lines. From the perspective of rhetorical study, Luo Fu is adept at using “synesthesia,” “hyperbole,” and “surrealism”—three advanced expressive techniques—which cause his poetry to often present montage-like surreal situations and an “illogical yet wondrous” artistic atmosphere, making it highly eye-catching. In this short essay, we will first examine the various types of synesthesia found in Luo Fu’s poetry.

Section Two: Luo Fu’s Synesthetic Techniques

“Synesthesia” (Synaesthesia), also called “sense transfer” (metonymic shift of perception)1, is defined as: “a rhetorical device that uses vivid and concrete language, describing the qualities and states of things by shifting the angle of perception.”2 “Synesthesia refers to expressing the qualities perceived by one sense through the perception of another sense. The famous British musician Marion said: ‘Sound is visible color, and color is audible sound.’”3, which precisely illustrates that sound and color can be mutually translatable, and that cross-sensory interaction indeed exists.

The forms of synesthesia can be broadly classified into two main categories:
(1) according to whether other rhetorical devices are used, it is divided into 1. direct synesthesia and 2. assisted synesthesia.
(2) according to sensory correspondence and associative transfer, it is divided into 1. auditory transfer, 2. visual transfer, 3. olfactory-gustatory transfer, 4. tactile transfer, and 5. multi-sensory interaction.

Poet Luo Fu employs all of these without omission, demonstrating that his sensory sensitivity far exceeds that of poets of his generation.

1. Auditory Transfer

“Golden Dragon Zen Temple”4
evening bell
is the path down the mountain for tourists
fern plants
along the white stone steps
chew their way downward

Li Yuanluo commented: “The sound of the ‘evening bell’ is an auditory image, while the ‘path’ down the mountain is a visual image. The sound of the bell is distant and resonant, the path is winding; their perceptible forms in hearing and sight are similar in structure, thus Luo Fu creates this visual-auditory synesthetic aesthetic.”5 This kind of “transforming sound into form”—a sensory shift from “sound → vision”—also appears in the following passage:

“Saigon Night Market”6
a man chewing gum
pulls the accordion into
such a long, deserted alley

The accordion player walks along the deserted alley; the sound of the accordion he produces is long and flowing, but in the poet’s perception, it is imagined as the musician pulling out a long alley. This technique of transforming sound into visual imagery is a characteristic feature in Luo Fu’s poetry.

2. Visual Transfer

“Entering the Mountain with Rain Sound Yet Not Seeing Rain”7
going down the mountain
still not seeing rain
three bitter pine seeds
roll along the road signs all the way to my feet
reaching out to pick them up
they unexpectedly become a handful of bird sounds

“Echo”8
I can no longer remember how you became so thin
so thin, like a line of flute sound
trying to hold you with both hands
you instead slip and hide within seven holes

This type of sensory fusion—“transforming form into sound: from vision to hearing”—is extremely common in Luo Fu’s synesthetic rhetoric and is also one of its most distinctive features. For example: “three bitter pine seeds / roll along the road signs all the way to my feet / reaching out to pick them up / they unexpectedly become a handful of bird sounds.” This not only produces excellent sonic effect but also highly strange imagination; experienced readers can often immediately recognize it as Luo Fu’s writing.

“I can no longer remember how you became so thin / so thin, like a line of flute sound”—here the visual image is transformed through metaphor into a flute sound. Such astonishing imagination is precisely the result of “transforming form into sound” synesthesia. In addition, “transforming form into taste, smell, and touch”—that is, shifting from vision to gustatory, olfactory, and tactile perception—is also used by Luo Fu without hesitation, as in:

“An Alley in Huaxi Street”9
a woman who has just applied makeup stands at the doorway
maintaining a kind of smile
with the smell of freshly painted paint
another crouches beside a small stall
while loudly drinking oyster soup
at the same time reaching into her trousers
to scratch

Applying the smell of fresh paint onto a woman’s smile is indeed an astonishing creative gesture. The poet does not directly state that the prostitute is wearing cheap, heavy makeup; instead, he indirectly conveys in his mind that the smell of her makeup resembles the pungent odor of freshly painted paint.

3. Olfactory-Gustatory Transfer

“Snake Shop”10

poisonous—one slash
non-poisonous—also one slash
beheading, then skinning
with a hiss
a body so white and tender in its nakedness
and then waist-cutting
and then simmered into a pot of soup thicker than tears

“simmered into a pot of soup thicker than tears” is a thick soup of taste perception mixed with the visual element of tears, a mingling of flesh, blood, and tears. If such a pot of soup truly existed, gourmets would probably find it difficult to swallow. This of course is the poet’s compassionate contemplation; after watching the snake being skinned and cut in such execution, he likely also lost his appetite. From this passage, we can see that “synesthesia” can also be performed in its most concise and refined form within a single line.

“Water’s Edge”11

and at this moment, hair fragrance winds toward me
like a clear spring flowing across the lips

suddenly turning back, I unexpectedly see
in your eyes blooming
a pond of such moving water lilies

“hair fragrance winds toward me / like a clear spring flowing across the lips” is an encounter in imagination between smell and taste buds, a transfer and blending from olfactory perception to gustatory perception. The use of sensory transfer (synesthesia) can stimulate creativity and guide association. The poet brings his nose close to smell his wife’s hair fragrance, yet compares it to a clear spring winding toward him and flowing across the lips, becoming something that can truly be tasted; such a technique indeed earns the author’s admiration.

4. Tactile Transfer

“Angel in Fire”12

you dislike that my blood is not hot enough
eyes filled with mist
hair like autumn grass
lower abdomen too fatty
and hands cold as snakes
laughter carries the terror of a solar eclipse

“hands cold as snakes” is a visualization (visual form) of the tactile sensation “cold,” using metaphorical appearance to express sensory interchange between touch and sight. “laughter carries the terror of a solar eclipse” links sound with visual metaphor, producing a terrifying and horrifying effect.

Luo Fu “Song of Everlasting Sorrow”13

a pair of wings
fly into the moonlight outside the hall
fading farther and farther away
whispers
flickering and bitter

In this section, both “wings” and “moonlight” are visual images; through synesthetic linkage, they connect with “whispers,” which represents an auditory image—first shifting from visual imagery to auditory imagery. Then, through a further layer of synesthetic interaction, the auditory image “whispers” is linked with “flickering,” which represents visual imagery, and “bitter,” which represents gustatory imagery. “Flickering” is a visual verb, while “bitter” is a gustatory adjective; here they work together to render the audible image “whispers” into an emotionalized state. This is what I call “transforming the real into the abstract.”

5. Multi-sensory Interaction

“Under One Umbrella”14

on the days we shared an umbrella
our laughter was never wet

along the railway of Qingtong Pit
walking toward the mining area
while peeling oranges to eat
while calculating
the speed at which cold rain turns into sneezes

This short poem is also an example of synesthetic sensory crossover: “our laughter was never wet” connects the auditory image (laughter) with the tactile image (wetness), corresponding to the preceding phrase “sharing an umbrella.” “the speed at which cold rain turns into sneezes” reverses the process by connecting the tactile image (cold rain) with the auditory image (sneeze), forming a structure similar to a reversible reaction in physics. Such structural design is quite rare. This demonstrates that Poet Luo Fu is not only skilled in hyperbole, but also highly proficient in synesthetic sensory transference.

Notes

(1) Difference between sense-transfer and synesthesia: “Sense-transfer is merely the borrowing of adjectives between senses, as if making one see with ears and hear with eyes, remaining within the boundaries of organs; however, when red causes warmth and green causes coolness, it leans toward emotional transference. That is, sense-transfer refers to intercommunication of sensory experience, while synesthesia refers to the unification of sensory experience into a ‘mental perception.’” See Huang Lizhen, Practical Rhetoric (Revised Edition), 2004, Taipei: National, p.169.

(2) Edited by Yang Chunlin & Liu Fan, Dictionary of Chinese Rhetorical Arts, Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Publishing, 1991, p.1129.

(3) From Li Yuanluo, Poetics: On the Aesthetic of Synesthesia in Poetry, Taipei: Dongda, 1990, p.536.

(4) From Luo Fu, Magic Song—Poems of Luo Fu, Taipei: Penglai, 1981, pp.46–47.

(5) Li Yuanluo, Poetics: On the Aesthetic of Synesthesia in Poetry, Taipei: Dongda, 1990, p.547.

(6) From Luo Fu, Magic Song—Poems of Luo Fu, Taipei: Penglai, 1981, pp.10–11.

(7) From Luo Fu, Magic Song—Poems of Luo Fu, Taipei: Penglai, 1981, pp.25–26.

(8) From Luo Fu, Illustrations of Dreams, Taipei: Shulin, 1999, pp.48–49.

(9) From Luo Fu, House of Moonlight, Taipei: Nine Songs, 1990, p.61.

(10) From Luo Fu, The Stone That Brews Wine, Taipei: Nine Songs, 1983, pp.93–94.

(11) From Luo Fu, The Stone That Brews Wine, Taipei: Nine Songs, 1983, pp.93–94.

(12) From Luo Fu, The Wound of Time, Taipei: Times Publishing, 1981, pp.201–204.

(13) From Luo Fu, Magic Song—Poems of Luo Fu, Taipei: Penglai, 1981, pp.134–145.

(14) From Luo Fu, The Stone That Brews Wine, Taipei: Nine Songs, 1983, p.11.