Chapter 11: “The Apprentice of the Magician”

——Reading Lin Guang’s “Driftwood”

“Driftwood”

Naked. Is it death or rebirth?
If one does not enter the delicate grain,
to listen to those
lines and colors filled with musical notes.

The ever-changing mask of time,
who can see it?
The master craftsman’s wise fingers pass through
the inner speech of my growth rings:

“Please discover me, just as
I once discovered you.”

Since being driftwood means being destined to drift,
there is no need to reject being carved into a soaring eagle.
Only by enduring the pain of axe and knife carving
can one slowly release the fragrance of the wilderness.
Let time stand still within space.
Let a spiraling aftersound condense into texture.

Complex. Not related to drifting,
rebirth or death.
Half comes from the craftsman’s fingers,
half comes from the moment of enlightenment.

Lin Guang’s “Driftwood” contains the poetic lineage of the poet Luo Fu.
In his later years, Luo Fu wrote a three-thousand-line autobiographical long poem “Driftwood,”
fully recording his life history—from his youth crossing from the mainland to Taiwan,
to his later life settling in Canada—within the form of a long poem.

Lin Guang in his early years had connections with the Genesis Poetry Society.
Among the poets of Genesis, the one who influenced him most deeply was Luo Fu.
The teacher-student relationship between the two can be observed in Lin Guang’s poetry,
which frequently employs surrealist techniques,
especially Luo Fu-style kinetic and forceful language
(such as hyperbole and synesthesia),
as well as dialectical structures of thesis–antithesis–synthesis argumentation.

This poem “Driftwood,” written in a monologue form (first-person “I”),
narrates gently through the sensibility of an object poem:

Naked. Is it death or rebirth?
If one does not enter the delicate grain
to listen to those
lines and colors filled with musical notes.

The ever-changing mask of time,
who can see it?
The master craftsman’s wise fingers pass through
the inner speech of my growth rings:

“Please discover me, just as
I once discovered you.”

The poet transforms himself into a piece of naked driftwood.
“The realm of I is present; I perceive things with myself, therefore all things are imbued with my coloration.”
(Wang Guowei, Remarks on Poetry in the Human World)
This is precisely the characteristic of object poetry.

The theorist Du Guoqing once stated:
“Object poetry is the depiction of external things,
often using objects to express the poet’s inner spirit,
or projecting emotion onto external objects,
embedding the self’s temperament within them.
The poet may either use objects to arouse ideas,
or rely on objects to express emotions.”

In the first two stanzas, the poet conducts a dialectical exploration from the perspective of driftwood:
although driftwood appears externally as dead wood,
the poet attempts to redefine “death” through a functional perspective.
Thus he raises a question:
in the hands of a discerning sculptor,
the fine grain and texture of driftwood
allow it to be reborn through the craftsman’s skillful carving.

If one does not enter the delicate grain,
to listen to those
lines and colors filled with musical notes.

These three lines begin with “if not,”
forming a negative hypothetical proposition,
meaning:
“If one does not enter the grain of driftwood to observe and contemplate,
then I am already dead.”

“To listen to those lines and colors filled with musical notes”
is a form of synesthesia known as “form transformed into sound”:
a movement from visual to auditory perception.
From the original visual imagery of “lines and colors,”
it shifts into auditory perception,
so that when one listens attentively,
lines and colors seem to contain musical notes.
This is a highly advanced rhetorical technique.

Since being driftwood means being destined to drift,
there is no need to reject being carved into a soaring eagle.
Only by enduring the pain of axe and knife carving
can one slowly release the fragrance of the wilderness.
Let time stand still within space.
Let a spiraling aftersound condense into texture.

Complex. Not related to drifting
Rebirth or death.
Half comes from the craftsman’s fingers,
half comes from the moment of enlightenment.

In Lin Guang’s “Driftwood,” there exists the poetic lineage of the poet Luo Fu.
In his later years, Luo Fu wrote a three-thousand-line autobiographical long poem “Driftwood,”
completely recording his life history in the form of a long poem—from his youth when he came to Taiwan from the mainland,
to his later years when he settled in Canada.

Lin Guang in his early period had a certain connection with the Genesis Poetry Society.
Among the poets of Genesis, the one who influenced him most deeply was Luo Fu.
The master-disciple relationship between the two can be observed in Lin Guang’s poetry,
where he frequently employs “surrealist” expressive techniques,
especially Luo Fu-style kinetic and forceful language
(such as “hyperbole” and “synesthesia”),
as well as dialectical “thesis–antithesis–synthesis” forms of argumentation.

This poem “Driftwood,”
is narrated by the poet from a monologic perspective (first person: “I”),
with the sensibility of an object poem, unfolding in a gentle descriptive manner:

Naked. Is it death or rebirth?
If one does not enter the delicate grain
to listen to those
lines and colors filled with musical notes.

The ever-changing mask of time,
who can see it?
The wise fingers of the master craftsman pass through
the inner speech of my growth rings:

“Please discover me, just as
I once discovered you.”

The poet transforms himself into a piece of naked driftwood.
“In the realm where the self is present, I perceive objects with my own self; therefore all things are colored by my own hue.”
(Wang Guowei, Human Words on Poetry)
This is precisely a defining feature of such object poetry.

The literary theorist Du Guoqing once said:
“Object poetry is the depiction of external objects. It often uses objects to express the poet’s inner spirit,
or the poet projects emotions onto external objects,
embedding personal temperament within those objects.
The poet may either use objects to evoke inspiration,
or rely on objects to express feelings.”

In the first two stanzas, the poet carries out a dialectical movement from the perspective of driftwood:
although driftwood appears externally as dead wood,
the poet attempts to redefine “death” through a functional perspective.
Thus he raises the question that in front of a skilled and discerning woodcarver,
the fine grain and texture of driftwood
allow it to achieve “rebirth” through the craftsman’s skilled hands.

If one does not enter the delicate grain
to listen to those
lines and colors filled with musical notes.

These three lines begin with “if not,”
and semantically form a negative hypothetical proposition,
meaning:
“If one does not enter the grain of driftwood to observe and contemplate,
then I am already in a state of death.”

“to listen to those lines and colors filled with musical notes”
is a synesthetic technique of “form transformed into sound”:
“form becoming sound: a transfer from visual to auditory perception.”
From the original visual imagery of “lines and colors,”
the perception is transferred into auditory sensation,
so that in attentive listening,
lines and colors seem to contain musical notes.
This is a highly advanced expressive technique.

Since being driftwood means being destined to drift,
there is no need to reject being carved into a soaring eagle.
Only by enduring the pain of axe splitting and knife carving
can one slowly release the fragrance of the wilderness.
Let time stand still within space.
Let a spiraling aftersound condense into texture.

The poet comes to recognize that his own nature is like driftwood.
After psychologically accepting a state of “resigned acceptance,” he adapts to circumstances.
Once the drifting process ends, in the hands of the sculptor,
whether he will be carved into a soaring eagle or another form
is no longer something the driftwood itself can determine or anticipate.

Given this, it can only accept the sculptor’s “axe splitting and knife carving” as fate.
And in the process of transformation, the driftwood gradually releases the fragrance of the wilderness.
This fragrance, originating from the internal structure of the driftwood,
is like its soul:

“Let time stand still within space;
let a spiraling aftersound condense into texture.”

These two lines again employ synesthesia, specifically “sound transformed into form”:
“from auditory perception to visual perception.”
The auditory “aftersound” is ingeniously connected with the visual “texture.”

This creates a structural echo with the opening section of the poem:
“entering the grain → hearing musical notes → spiraling notes → condensing into texture.”

Through this cycle of interwoven visual and auditory transformations,
the poem presents a causal and evolutionary process of becoming.

Complex. Not related to drifting
Rebirth or death.
Half comes from the craftsman’s fingers,
half comes from the moment of enlightenment.

After these complex transformations,
the poet arrives at a conclusion:
rebirth and death must be redefined,
and the basis of this definition comes respectively from the craftsman’s artistry
and the driftwood’s own moment of enlightenment.

That is to say, if one does not encounter a sculptor with creative ingenuity,
then driftwood remains merely a discarded object in a state of death,
forgotten by heaven and earth.

This concluding passage is certainly the author’s own insight,
serving as the final “synthesis” in a dialectical structure of thesis–antithesis–synthesis.
In this sense, rebirth is no longer related to drifting.

However, I believe that poetic works should avoid excessive rational exposition (falling into discursive explanation).
Conclusions should leave imaginative space,
allowing readers to think through the question themselves
and arrive at their own possible answers.

From the perspective of formal technique,
the entire poem is filled with kinetic and forceful language
(such as hyperbole and synesthesia),
as well as dialectical thesis–antithesis–synthesis argumentation.
It indeed carries the poetic lineage of Luo Fu.

However, this is not meant as a form of criticism.
Many mid-generation poets in the public literary sphere often have their own “lineages of influence.”
This represents generational transmission among poets,
a phenomenon consistently traceable throughout literary history.