Xu Zhomo's "The Cuckoo" 除志摩的『杜鵑』

The Cuckoo is a very special bird for two reasons. It is quite common. It's unique sound of its song resembles very closely certain human words. The name "cuckoo"  is intended as an omnomatopeia of the characteristic sound of the way it sings. In the Chinese version of the poem, Xu uses a very familiar Chinese expression indicating intimacy between the speaker and the bird "哥哥" which both resembles the sound its song and the Chinese character meaning "brethern.". The poet kinesthetically transforms it sound into images: from the song of the bird at night, his mind springs to the shades of summer and then moving upwards, reaching even ot the skies and then from the sky to the moon and then back to earth with its fluttering moths around a source of light, the moon, surrounded by the shimmering stars and from the sky back to the sea with its twinkling lamps of the fishing boats close to the shore. Then his mind wanders to another image, the peasants rising up in the morning with a shock that a wild night of loving making has come to an end! From the sound of the cuckoo bird, he recalls the traditional Chinese image of 杜鵑啼血 or the cuckoo bird coughing blood and from that his mind immediately thinks of the blood dyeing in red the blades of grass in that morning that the peasant wakes up in the morning. It's a case of one association leading to the next until we reach the end of the poem after leaping imaginatively through 6 or 7 images, one following by emotional association with another.

 

               杜鵑                                                      The  Cuckoo

杜鵑，多情的鳥他終宵唱：     The amorous cuckoo is singing all night long:

在夏蔭深處，仰望着流雲     In the depths of summer's shade, gazing at passing clouds

飛蛾似圍繞月亮的明燈  Circling the bright lamp of the gleaming moon like fluterring moths

星光疏散如海濱的漁火 Starlights strewn like fishermen's lamps around the shore,

甜美的夜在露湛裹休憩 The sweet night is resting in dewdrops

他唱，他唱一聲「割麥插禾，」--He's singing, he's singing "Harvest the wheat, plant the padi--

農天們在天放曉時驚起    Peasants rising in shock at the break of dawn.

多情的鵑鳥他終宵聲訴 ，The amorous  cuckoo is singing all night long,

是怨，是慕，他心頭滿是愛  His regrets, his adoration, his heart filled with love,

滿是苦化我纏綿的新歌 ，Full of  new songs of entwining suffering,

柔情在靜夜的懷中顫動  ；Trembling tenderness in the bosom of the peaceful night;

他唱 ，口滴着鮮血，斑斑的，He's singing, blood dripping from his mouth, in spots,

染紅露盈盈的草尖，晨光，Dyeing red the tips of grass heavy with dew, the morning light,

輕搖着園林的迷夢；他叫，Gently rocking the garden's enchanted dreams; he's crying,

他叫，他叫一聲「我愛哥哥！」He's crying, he is crying , " I love cuckoos".