I Cannot Dream Your Dreams
ensemble 2.2.2.2, 4.2.3.1, timp. + 2, pno, strings, SATB chorus
written spring 2020
duration 8 minutes
Winner in the 1st Annual Calliope Call for Scores
Text: 梦与诗, by 胡适 (1891-1962)
都是平常经验，
都是平常影象。
偶然涌到梦中来，
变幻出多少新奇花样；
都是平常情感，
都是平常言语。
偶然碰着个诗人，
变幻出多少新奇诗句；
醉过才知酒浓，
爱过才知情重。
你不能做我的诗，
正如我不能做你的梦。
English translation (translated by Bobby Ge): I Cannot Dream Your Dreams, by Hu Shih (1891-1962)
All is common experience,
all are common sights.
Should they visit upon my dreams,
they form countless new vistas.
All is common emotion,
all are common words.
Should they visit upon a poet,
they form countless new verses.
Only by drinking can one know drunkenness,
only by loving can one know love’s weight.
You cannot write my poems,
as I cannot dream your dreams.
I discovered the poetry of Hu Shih (1891-1962) in the spring of 2020, and swiftly became enamored with his deceivingly simple, near-prosaic writing. I found myself moved by his efforts to employ vernacular Chinese in his poetry, impressed by its transparency and earnestness. Until his work, Chinese poetry had been dominated by the ancient style that emphasized extreme economy of language and rigorous structure. While enormously beautiful, such poetry, to me, always felt as though it lay behind a veil - guarded by a kind of inaccessible, historical learnedness that felt daunting to see past.
In recent times, communicability has become one of my artistic priorities. I have often found myself asking how I can write music that speaks with forthright simplicity without compromising on emotional depth. Hu’s poetry, I felt, did precisely this.
I Cannot Dream Your Dreams, a setting of Hu Shih’s seminal poem Dreams and Poems, is one of the simpler pieces I have written. With its gentle, undulating textures, its undemanding harmonies, and its melodic clarity, I sought to write a piece that carried the same kind of flowing lyricism that Hu’s poetry evokes.
This piece is dedicated to my mother, whose love of literature inspired me deeply from childhood.