Rainbows. Dreams. Mist. With one verse alone, Xu successfully weaves an ethereal world where dreams and desire flourish in his poem “Taking Leave from Cambridge Again.” In the eyes of a poet, an ordinary pool filled with duckweeds can easily transform into an alluring rainbow which harbours our wildest desires. Perhaps such is the power of literature—it is the power to use simple language to envision another reality and transform our mundane reality into a radically exciting one. Yet, this ability to imagine—to dream—is often considered excessive in modern society, where everything is mostly governed by utilitarian metrics. In a world where success is measured by efficiency and productivity, what value can literature hold? It seems to embody the exact opposite: it is subjective (god forbid), occasionally abstract (how unfortunate) and often idealistic (yikes!). …
Rapture/Rupture: Modernist Poet Xu Zhimo’s Break from Tradition
