我打江南走过，那等在季节里的容颜如莲花般开落
郑愁予，错误

Music and Society, Episode 9: A mistake

The poem

A few nights ago I had a dream about this poem. The focus was on complicated intimate relationships, as I always interpret this poem.

The poet, 郑愁予(1933-2025), passed away on 13th June 2025. 错误(a Mistake), was one of his most famous work. As a member from the older generations who fled to Taiwan and spent the majority of their career across the trait and ocean, his works were appreciated by both side of the trait and later served as a cultural bridge in greater Chinese community. His poems were widely composed into songs by Taiwanese musicians, while Mainland schools had his works selected into textbooks. Unfortunately people like him are gradually passing away. (陈彼得, passed on 14th June)

Zheng got his penname from 楚辞:

帝子降兮北渚, 目眇眇兮愁予

I had the strongest emotional swings learning these literatures during high school, including 公无渡河, 边城, especially when teacher Tong asked us to read it out loud. They offered me huge sense of Xiang self-identity, provincial pride, and eager to recite them in dialect. I can still vividly see LiuYX trying to read while Tong seemed not satisfied.

The songs

Two of the greatest musicians of that time composed 错误 into songs. It was a tradition during that period, as advocates of 民歌运动, people were writing OUR OWN SONGS, and one of the most convenient ways was to use local poems as lyrics. 罗大佑 and 李泰祥 transferred this 1952-published poem into songs respectively in 1982 and 1985, where Li even made a whole album based on Zheng’s works.

Here are the two versions:

Soft, slow, reserved, with gentle clatter of hooves, walking as a free-spirited lighthearted traveler.

Intense, grande, emotional, dramatic, with compelling storytelling progressing towards tragedy.

Me

I guess the most famous line of this poem/song is:

我达达的马蹄是美丽的错误
我不是归人，是个过客…

Notable interpretation was around post-war mixed emotions of hope and confusion. People like to add their own understanding, especially around the words 归人(the one who is returning home), 过客(the one who is passing by). I first had a strong connection to those two words on a pre-lockdown February/March afternoon in Roma on a bridge over Aniene. With a global incident pending, one started to question his own paths: in that relationship, what roles do we play in each other’s life?