If Marco Polo was the Venetian that first wrote of water and the infrastructure that parts land from water in Jiangnan, Bert Schierbeek may be the first Dutchman to write about the nature of that reclaimed land. In an introduction to his poems, The Gardens of Suzhou, Schierbeek writes,
They [the gardens of Suzhou] were laid out in harmon with the landscape, or, as the Chinese say, they were 'borrowed from the landscape.' That is, the landscape influences the laying out of the gardens, and the gardens influence and support the landscape...
As the garden architects borrowed from the landscape, so the poets have borrowed from the gardens.
in the valley
lies the garden
in the garden
the pond
in the pond
the mountains the trees
the birds
miror themselves
among the fish
the wrikled head
of the wind
fragrance of tea
three stones
in a sea
of silver
above the water
of rippled sand
whistles the wind
deathly still
the ship heading upstream
greets the fish heading downstream
moon slides
across lake of sand
and takes water
current and undercurrent
an encouter
on a cross-tie
sometimes the light against the sea
sometimes the land against the light
and we in between
o the mountain and singing
up there
and we
down here
so calm the sea
so peaceful but
below that scum
carries on
and comes up
new things he cried out
to write about
as old as the night
she cried out a buzzard
hovering in the air
swoops down upon
a mouse
said he we're going to
abolish history and ignorance and suffering
and we did that
with much ignorance and suffering
an empty shell
in our hands
filled with ignorance
and with suffering
history was the
only thing we had
like the buzzard
its mouse
from The Gardens of Suzhou
by Bert Schierbeek, 1985
additional photographs by the author may be accessed at
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