My Honeymoon In Hangzhou Poem by Denis Mair

In December 1988, I spent my honeymoon in Hangzhou
First we stayed at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport for a night
We were hosted there by former co-workers of my wife
It was one stage in the movable feast of our marriage rites
My wife took me to Yufo Temple; the watchman opened a padlock
Let me enter the Shrine Hall and bow to the Buddha by myself
This was a strange sight to my wife that had to be caught on film
That night someone booked us a berth on a Suzhou River boat
It was a freighter plying a branch canal that lead to Hangzhou
The berth was tight, but I loved being on the river at night
In Hangzhou, the travel industry was not as developed as nowadays
My wife's colleague from her Opera Troupe made the arrangements
To put us up in a guesthouse under Hangzhou #2 Textile Factory
Aside from technical experts, no foreigner had ever stayed there
But I was the groom of an old troupe-mate, not an outsider
And the idea of a work-unit guesthouse was exotic to me
The room was cold...for me it was a bracing, rousing cold
From the second to the fourth day we gallivanted about
At Lingyin Temple we rubbed the Laughing Buddha's glossy belly
Bowed to the artist-monk Hongyi at Hupao where he took orders [1]
My wife snapped all my Buddha-bowings, listened to my musings
For her, such beliefs could just as well have come from outer space
But my fascination arose because I studied the Chinese language
We made a random foray into the mountains, I forget the place name
There was a pool in which water from two springs flowed together
Where the dissolved minerals met, we could see a snaky white line
How can I ever solve such riddles posed by the Creation's artistry?
Then we took a bus to Longjing, along with a group of tea farmers.
All were women under thirty; they had regular attractive features
Hearing my bombastic speech, they decided we could communicate
So they asked us to climb a mountain and drink tea in their village
Having finished a two-week shift at an electronics plant in the city
They were headed home to spend two weeks with their families
This way of life reminded me of the Communist Manifesto, Chapter 1
It says workers will be boss in the communist society of the future
They will spend part of their time working in factories
And part of their time elsewhere, such as fishing by the sea
I saw a trace of such ideals in their alternating career paths
We got off, passed through a grove, hiked for 40 minutes up a slope
I chatted with one who loved to read the journal SUZHOU LITERATURE
She said she liked working the swing shift in the city factory
She worked on an assembly line making circuit boards
Working in the city, she could feel the pulse of the times
Back in the village, she could carry on a legacy of tea farming
One of the families had a tea table in their living room
Sitting there was like joining a tea party in the clouds

Aside from mountain jaunts, we walked along the lake's edge
West Lake is work of landscape art, at every turn is a scene
Talking like connoisseurs of scenery, we made each other laugh
Exclaiming over nice views, we found a common language
Born in a rural suburb, she made herself into a citified girl
I hero-worshiped Thoreau, wanted to read Nature as my bible
She sang revolutionary operas during the Cultural Revolution
I opposed the Vietnam War, spent eight days alone in a forest
Behind us were huge, deep-seated differences of history
She was a doer; my mind was full of poetic, religious dreams
But for those few days we seemed wrapped in a rainbow cloud
Hangzhou was a stage where that cloud could reach full size
It was fated to dissolve, but we got to share poetic thoughts
About blueness of sky and greenness of trees, so I don't regret it
My wife was a scene within those scenes...enough to stun anyone
Seeing a beauty against a lovely backdrop you appreciate her best
It's sweet when honeymooners find the theme of union in a scene
Looking close, in the pores of her skin I saw rainbow colors

February 2018

[1] Master Hongyi (1880-1942)was an artist, calligrapher and leading figure in Chinese émigré circles in Japan. He married a Japanese woman who had served as his model, but as his commitment to Buddhism grew, he realized he could no longer lead a layman's life. In 1917 he took monastic orders at Hupao Temple, Hangzhou. Later he became an eminent authority on the Vinaya Sect, which emphasizes austere discipline.