About the Project

I have some experience composing traditional Chinese jueju poetry in English, so when we looked at Japanese forms of poetry and the concept of ‘ma’ in class, I felt inspired and decided to create a jueju-inspired, monosyllabic poem. Traditionally, jueju is bound by quatrains, but (also inspired by our lesson on error) I decided to compose a triplet (also to fit the assignment criteria). The poem’s content is based on by my college experience so far. Every day has been a rush of adrenaline: meeting fascinating people, participating in non-stop activities, running to and from new places… However, when I retreat to my dorm each night, the excitement fades and I am left homesick and alone. Below is my English jueju in full:

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Quick jests, laughs zap, snug warmth hugs
Fast friends, in awe, tense chest thaws
Door shut, time lags, harsh still stabs

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In terms of metaphor, I tried to play around with images, gestures and feelings that I could draw out from my words. For example, metal coils accompanying the word ‘tense’ and rapid pacing depicting the first two lines (to evoke the fast-paced nature of college life). I used colour to emulate these emotions as well (for instance, warmer hues for the first line and a gradual diminishing of colour until the final word of the last line).

After writing the poem, I visualised the images, colours, shapes and movements that the words symbolized to me, then began trying to mimic them through Adobe Animator. Having never animated anything before, I encountered some difficulties in my process. What I found, though, was that most of my ‘mistakes’ actually ended up working quite well, and I tried (when possible) to incorporate them and develop them further into my next ideas.