Ode To the Autumn Lad (秋郎頌)

Ode To the Autumn Lad (秋郎頌) Tony Wang

I first met Dr. CHI CHIU-LANG (紀秋郎) in Dr. Wen Yuan-Ning (溫源寧)'s seminar for the English Romantic poet John Keats at the National Taiwan University (Taida). This encounter was most likely the catalyst that later led to my being given a part-time teaching position in Tamkang's English Department, which he directed for several decades.

The years I spent at that academic institution constituted one of the most memorial parts of my life both personally and intellectually. I cherished the liberal atmosphere under his leadership. He fostered a mentally invigorating setting where intellectual explorations and pursuits thrived. I remember those days with the fondest memories, yet there's an undercurrent of regret as I wish I could have been a more involved member of that very dynamic academic environment, and for that matter, a closer collegiate fellowship with Dr. Chi and his legendary family.

This past year (2021) I finally had a chance to pay him and Professor Chen a courtesy call, in order to recall the past 「in search of lost time」 (a la recherche du temps perdu). We had a wonderful talk about his personal library and shared delightful thoughts about our mutual hobby as we both find exquisite joy in playing musical instruments.

After wading through the river of time where details of the past sometimes resemble an impressionist painting, I do not have clear recollection of the poems discussed in Dr. Wen's class; however, every time I think of Dr. Chi, John Keats' iconic poem 「To Autumn」 comes to my mind. The poem employs vividly expressive imagery to enhance the personification of Autumn. Since the poem praises Autumn's bounty, beauty, and harvest, I often wonder why Keats did not name the poem 「Ode to Autumn.」 In fact, I go a step further, and wish it had been named 「Ode to the Autumn Lad,」 for Dr. Chi's Chinese name, 秋郎, can be translated to 「Autumn Lad」, and this poem can very well be viewed as an ode to Dr. Chi.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

This stanza to me reflects both Dr. Chi's fruitful career in teaching that has led to robust academic accomplishments as well as a characterization of his amicable personality, which epitomizes the traditional Chinese scholar gentleman (君子). In spite of his erudite scholarship and artistic inclination, he seldom voiced harsh comments and argumentative words as he was very open-minded and considerate of others' feelings, no matter what their ideological positions might be. Incidentally, his mentor, Prof. 梁實秋, who represented liberal classicism in modern Chinese literary history, was at once named by his close friend 冰心 as 秋郎. The season of autumn, with its gracious beauty and rich abundance, is reflective of Dr. Chi's life in the way he has planted countless seeds, impacted countless people, and created profound abundance in the academic world.