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| LYRICS (by Charley Wu) Have you heard the song As gondoliers float on Through waterways and ‘neath bridges made of stone Row to the rhythms of the dawn I sailed down canals of Suzhou (Ooh oh) Where lovers roam My song is spreading, and the swallows are building their homes, On the mountains where the mulberries grow The mysteries of my mind Come back to me The pieces uncombined Come back to me Our summer stars aligned Come back to me My lovers lost in time Come back to me Summer time Where have you gone? The invisible cities of my mind are crumbling, And falling into the sea My dreams will Travel on the breeze Searching for the ancient days of youth The places where memories take root I sail down canals of Suzhou (Ooh oh) Where the mangroves grow But the sun is setting, and the ocean’s calling me home It’s stamped on the marrow of my bones The mysteries of my mind Come back to me The pieces uncombined Come back to me Our summer stars aligned Come back to me My lovers lost in time Come back to me | Canals of Suzhou is a song about the places of our imagination. These are the midnight cities we construct while dreaming, populated by an infinitely varied carousel of faces–each with their own joys and sadness, and each with their own appetites. Suzhou is a Chinese city established during the Spring and Autumn period over 2,500 years ago. The name name means “The Land of Rebirth” and it was here that my Grandfather grew up, amongst the many canals and waterways. When I (Charley) think of the city, I don’t think of how it looked when I last visited in 2008, nor do I picture it as it must have been for my Grandfather during the years of the Japanese Occupation. I think of Suzhou as it never was, except in the imaginations of those unsatisfied with the limits of the known world.  For hundreds of years, it was the furthest, most easterly city along the famous Silk Route–the ostensible city at the End of the World. And for the merchants who would travel thousands of miles in pursuit of Suzhou’s famed silk and spices, it was heaven on Earth. When Marco Polo visited in 1276 C.E. he called it “The Venice of the East” and marvelled at its beauty. On the map, it is right where the three red dotted lines meet on the Eastern shore of China. |
There’s a book I really enjoy called “Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino. In it, Marco Polo sits with the aging Kublai Khan and tells stories of the fantastical cities he has visited. Stories of cities suspended in the sky, cities tied together with string, beautiful cities, horrible cities, and impossible cities. The Great Khan, ruler of a crumbling empire–the largest that has ever existed on earth–soon begins to wonder if Marco Polo has actually visited any of these place. Perhaps they are all imagined… or maybe, they are all just retellings of the same city… of Venice, where he was born and longs to return.
“if the men of this city and of the rest of the country had the spirit of soldiers they would conquer the world; but they are not soldiers at all, only accomplished traders and most skilled craftsmen.” - Marco Polo, The Travels
- Charley
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Photos of Suzhou by Charley Wu © 2008
Marco Polo’s Map by Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5) or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
