Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Lynda Hull’s "Counting in Chinese" is a lyrical meditation on memory, loss, and the haunting persistence of past relationships. Set against a backdrop of cinematic and atmospheric imagery, the poem navigates the speaker’s emotional landscape as she reflects on a formative yet painful chapter in her life. Hull’s distinctive use of vivid descriptions and fragmented storytelling mirrors the fragmented nature of memory itself, capturing the poignancy of moments both cherished and regretted.

The poem opens with an evocative scene: "the moon dangles mottled like a party lantern about to erupt in smoke." This image establishes a tone of impermanence and volatility, suggesting the precarious balance between beauty and destruction. The moon, often a symbol of constancy, here becomes unstable, mirroring the instability of the speaker’s emotions and memories. The "first leaves in the gutter" and the "wind that?s traveled years" evoke the passage of time, setting the stage for the speaker’s journey into recollection.

Hull weaves together layers of cultural and personal history, using the film Drunken Angel by Kurosawa as a lens through which to examine the complexities of fate and choice. The film’s setting in post-World War II Tokyo, with its "makeshift market stalls" and "slums," parallels the speaker’s memories of a "cast-iron district of sweatshop lofts" and "the Lucky Life Café." The consumptive gangster Matsu’s doomed struggle reflects the speaker’s own sense of inevitability and the fragility of human connections. Hull uses the film’s imagery—"a heaven of laundry: sheets on the line, the obis and kimonos stirring with his passage"—to underscore the ethereal and transient nature of life and relationships.

The poem shifts from the external world of cinema and surroundings to the deeply personal as the speaker recalls a past lover. The details are striking: "your Hong Kong hoodlum?s suit," "the platinum watch," and "that tough-guy way you?d flick your cigarette." These images vividly capture the lover’s charisma and the speaker’s simultaneous attraction to and alienation from him. The relationship is framed by moments of tension and vulnerability, such as the night of an overdose when he instructs her to count in Chinese to calm herself. This act of counting, both literal and symbolic, becomes a motif that ties together the themes of survival, loss, and the effort to impose order on chaos.

The poem’s setting in a "small midwestern town" contrasts sharply with the speaker’s memories of the "sweatshop lofts" and the "Orpheum?s rococo marquee." This juxtaposition underscores the dissonance between past and present, as well as the alienation the speaker feels in her current surroundings. The "vague irreal glow of shopwindows" and her "face translucent in the plate glass" suggest a ghostly detachment, as if the speaker exists simultaneously in the present and the past.

Hull’s language is rich with sensory detail, creating a tapestry of images that evoke the complexity of memory. The "mock orange on the sill" becomes a recurring symbol, its "plangent useless scent" embodying both beauty and futility. This floral motif links the speaker’s recollections to the broader theme of transience; like the scent of the mock orange, the memories linger even as the moments themselves fade.

The closing lines of the poem return to the act of counting, as the speaker discovers herself "counting, out loud, in Chinese." This moment encapsulates the poem’s exploration of memory as both a refuge and a burden. The act of counting, taught to her in a moment of crisis, becomes a subconscious reflex, a way of holding onto the past while trying to move forward. The use of Chinese, a language of the lover’s heritage, adds another layer of intimacy and complexity to the speaker’s act of remembrance.

"Counting in Chinese" exemplifies Hull’s ability to intertwine the personal and the universal, using specific details to evoke broader themes of love, loss, and the passage of time. The poem’s fragmented structure and richly textured imagery mirror the fragmented nature of memory, creating a powerful and deeply resonant exploration of the ways in which the past continues to shape the present. Hull’s deft use of cultural references, sensory detail, and emotional nuance makes this poem a compelling reflection on the enduring impact of human connections.

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