When two points join, the suspense will be over

In Er’s “Verse on Birds,” the poem titled “Bridge Under Construction” spoke to me most.  Unlike the other texts we’ve encountered in class, it’s apparent the impact of diction and language is lost from the Chinese translation.  However, I don’t think it matter much because for the reader as the message is still quite compelling and clear.  Er’s style is prophetic, awkward, and at times downright beautiful.  I appreciate the strong affinity to the natural world, love, and light.

What I am most inspired by in “Bridge Under Construction” is the statements Er makes in a quick and concise form.  It opens with a beautiful image, “When two points join, the suspense will be over.”  From the onset, we know this will be a poem about love.  Again, Er fantastically employs a series of images that bring the natural world to life, “[probing] the bottomless heart of the river,” “[spreading] its wide shoulders,” and “flowing water tenderness.”  These snapshots allow us to archive a still-life memory of the setting Er is creating—a skillful technique that the reader can only but help to admire (and emulate).  Another powerful series of lines are viewed when Er brings up the questions love: “Birds above natural immovable, mountain embraces, huts, houses, highrises, Is this it, love? Calm surface, yellow water, yellow soil.”  As the reader we distill these images of a place that is unknown to most but familiarized and made almost sacred.  

On a final note, we must consider the complexities of Er’s poems.  It takes several reads to really plow through the meaning behind Er’s words.  There are two lines that puzzle me being the mentioning of the seventh and tenth layers of the yellow soil, which I believe are used to express the passage of time, however, I could be mistaken.  The stand out awkwardly against the rest of the poem—and I think it’s intentionally on Er’s part.