Call and Response - Bai Juyi and Me

Call and response is a musical form, where one musical phrase or line is complemented by another voice or instrument answering in return.  It is a very common feature in African music and may be understood as an expression of a democratic or participatory impulse to include a multiplicity of voices as part of a song or celebration.

For me it has become an important part of my practice of poetry and translation.  I find my own impulse to write is often directly stimulated by reading another poet's work.  I don't think of this as a way of writing that is merely derivative or slavishly emulates another poet so much as trying to respond back in a way that meaningfully adds to or complements the original call.   In a sense, I don't think any poem or song (no matter how well composed) is every so complete that it may not benefit from an answering refrain.

Here's the latest example of call and response in action.  The original call is a short poem by Bai Juyi.  It's one of my favorite Tang poems of all time - concise, lyrical and more than a little mysterious in its phrasing.  I wrote a short responding poem just the other day.  The immediate prompt for my response was this great photo I came across on my Twitter feed.  (Many thanks to Jim Clayton - @jimclayton05 for giving me permission to repost it here.)  Something about the image brought to mind the Bai Juyi poem and I immediately scrawled out my answering refrain which also appears below.

Flower Without Flower

Flower without flower
Mist without mist
At midnight arriving
As Heaven's light dims

Dream of springtime fresh
But how long will it remain
A cloud lingers until dawn
Then disperses without a trace

花非花

花非花
雾非雾
夜半来
天明去
来如春
梦不多时
去似朝云
无觅处

Flower Within Flower

Flower within flower

Leaf within leaf

A memory so well preserved

Now posed in stark relief

Desiccant in autumn

By winter winds frayed

A silhouette of summer’s glory

Decayed yet full of grace

Now all that's wanting is for me to translate my responding poem into Chinese so that Bai Juyi will be able to write another verse in good measure.

  

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