Tenn Nga-I, Freelancer

Ya-hap (Coconut Magnolia)--to My Wife and Hakka Women

(Translated by Tenn Nga-I)

She doesn’t bloom by day

Feeling no need to be seen

When evening falls

Twilight colors tail mountain breezes

Ya-hap

Silently releases her fragrance 

In the courtyards of Hakka homes

Hoklo ¹  people detest the flower

“A floral ghost blooming in the dead of night,”

So they say

Crossing dark, misty paddies

Her face covered with a bandana

A Hakka woman 

Stealthily plucks a handful of ya-hap

On her way home

Destined for a life of labor

A servant’s fate

She toils from dawn to midnight

Only then does her husband

Savor the fragrance of her flesh

In the night

The husband kneads the ya-hap

Scattering the shredded petals over his wife’s bosom

No more can they tell 

Floral redolence from human scent

Inside and outside the bedroom

The ya-hap is in full bloom

A favorite flower of the Hakka people, the “ya-hap” (夜合 ia hab), or coconut magnolia, is native to the mountains and grasslands of southern Taiwan, and ya-hap are often planted in the courtyards of Hakka homes. Like the tung-tree flower (油桐花iu tong fa) in northern Taiwan Hakka communities, the ya-hap is regarded as a symbol of Hakka culture, hence the saying “yap-hap in the south, tung in the north.” 

Flowering nearly the whole year round, the ya-hap blossoms at night, its six white petals opening into full roundness, emitting a sweet fragrance. A native of Pingdong Country’s Jiadong area, physician Zeng Guihai wrote “Ya-hap” on Mother’s Day in 1998. In Zeng’s poem, the flower is a metaphor for Hakka women, associated not only with the traditional Hakka “feminine virtues” of diligence and faithfulness, but also hinting at Hakka women’s sexual desires. 

In the poem’s first stanza the ya-hap evokes Hakka women’s chasteness: the flower remains closed in the daytime, blossoming at night, symbolizing deep commitment to marital fidelity. The lines “She doesn’t bloom by day /

Feeling no need to be seen” imply that Hakka women conceal their charms during the daylight hours – only when they are alone at night with their husbands does their beauty unfold. Evening is falling in the second stanza. The lines “When evening falls / Bringing twilight colors and mountain breezes” hint that sexual desire resembles the color of the night sky; the poet also likens physical yearning to spring water welling up or a rising mountain breeze, gradually increasing in intensity. A Hakka woman is like a blooming ya-hap: only at night, after the day’s work is done, does she reveal her desire to her husband. Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that this intimate relationship is in fact constructed on a patriarchal paradigm; that is, just as the “ya-hap” is planted in the courtyards of Hakka homes, Hakka woman are subject to the traditional patriarchal strictures governing the husband-wife relationship. Hakka women have long been regarded as hardy, diligent, loyal, and submissive. Within the traditional patriarchal family system, they not only performed farm work and household chores, but were even responsible for the children’s education – in a tradition that held the husband’s family above all, Hakka women often suppressed or overlooked their own needs. In the fourth stanza, the poet describes the approaching night. The day’s work is done and darkness is falling; the Hakka woman covers her face with a bandana, “stealthily” plucking ya-hap on her way home. To shade herself from the fierce sun while laboring in the fields, the woman wears a bamboo-leaf hat and wraps her head in a scarf, suggesting that Hakka women’s emotions have been suppressed. But why does she need to “stealthily” pick the flowers? Perhaps the poem implies that Hakka women have repressed their own desires.

The poet describes a Hakka woman’s life as one of unremitting drudgery, toiling from dawn to midnight – only after the day’s work is done can she satisfy her own needs. The last stanza is romantic, the husband and wife together in bed: “No more can they tell / Floral redolence from human scent / Inside and outside the bedroom / The ya-hap is in full bloom.” Nevertheless, this seemingly romantic portrayal perpetuates a paradigm of male ascendancy, even suggesting conquest and domination, a point expressed in the lines “The husband kneads the ya-hap / Scattering the shredded petals over his wife’s bosom” – like the ya-hap, the Hakka wife is her husband’s to do with as he pleases.

¹In the Hakka language Taiwanese (Holo) speakers are known as hoklo ngin (河絡人).

Huang Enci

Zeng Guihai (1946- ), a Pingdong native, is a graduate of Kaohsiung Medical College (today’s Kaohsiung Medical University), and a practicing thoracic surgeon. He has served as chairman of the Zhong Lihe Foundation, the first president of the Taiwan Southern Society (an activist organization), and director of Literary Taiwan magazine and Taiwan P.E.N. In the 1990s he threw himself into environmental work, and has acted as director of the Taiwan Environmental Protection League’s Kaohsiung chapter, and president of the Takao (Kaohsiung) Green Association for Ecology and Humane Studies. Currently he is a consultant at Kaohsiung Christian Hospital. 

Zeng began writing in middle school. While a student at Kaohsiung Medical College was a cofounder of the Amoeba Poetry Society, writing under the penname Lin Shan. After university graduation he left the literary world for a time, but began writing poetry again in 1978, turning toward social realism. As a member of the Li Poetry Society he cofounded Literary World magazine (1982-1989) and Literary Taiwan quarterly (1991- ). He has received the Li Poetry Prize, the Wu Chuo-liu Literature Award for Poetry, and the 1998 Lai He Medical Award. Zeng’s publications include A Whale’s Rite (1983), Kaohsiung Poems (1986), Hometown – Night Magnolia (2000), A Lone Bird’s Flight (2005), and Island Nation on the Ocean’s Waves, 

Zeng Guihai states that his writing is “literature of the world, so I write about those at the bottom of society, environmental pollution…my subject matter is never far from life.” On the one hand, Zeng’s poetry reveals a deep love for his native land; on the other hand, his work cool-headedly analyzes social issues. Li Minyong said of Zeng’s poetry: “It’s written from a physician-poet’s point of view, but also scrutinizes a great deal of obscure political imagery.” Zeng Guihai also writes Hakka poetry, such as the collection Hometown – Night Magnolia. Reawakened River (2000) is a record of his reflections on the movement to protect the Gaoping River.

This excerpt is taken from the Encyclopedia of Taiwan; for the entire Chinese article, please visit: http://nrch.culture.tw/twpedia.aspx?id=7709