3. Poetry: “Unspeakable” and “Unspoken”
Many nuances of experiencing the world manifest in layers of subtlety, between “the expressible and the inexpressible”, and are challenging to convey with ordinary language. From “presence” to “absence”, the greatest wisdom of poets is in transmuting the “unspeakable” into the “unspoken”. As Liu Xizai mentioned in Art Overview, “The spirit of the mountain, too vast for words, so it’s depicted with mist and haze; the spirit of spring cannot be described, then it’s represented with grass and plants.” It’s about utilising metaphors to convey deeper meanings. From “presence” to “absence”, poets tend to avoid directly naming the experience, articulating the experience outright often reveals a poet’s artistic impotence. Poets cherish the art of “concealment”. Wenxin Diaolong states, “Concealment is the profound essence that lies beyond the text.” Transitioning from “presence” to “absence”, poets focus on “where the voice ceases”. In doing so, poetry becomes rich in implication. And Jiao Ran comments in The Style of Poetry: “To perceive the essence, not to see the words — this represents the pinnacle of poetic art.”
3. 詩者：「說不出」 與 「不說出」
體驗世界的某些內容往往思致微妙，「在可言而不可言之間」，很難用一般語言表達。從「有」到「無」，詩人的最大智慧是以「不說出」代替「說不出」，所謂「山之精神寫不出，以煙霞寫之；春之精神寫不出，以草木寫之。」(劉熙載：《藝概》) 以象盡意。從「有」到「無」，詩人總是避開體驗的名稱。直接說出體驗的名稱，正是詩人在藝術表現上的無能。詩人註重「隱」。《文心雕龍》寫道：「隱也者，文外之重旨也。」從「有」到「無」，詩人註重「聲之所止」。這樣，詩就富有暗示性：「但見情性，不睹文字，蓋詩道之極也。」（皎然:《詩式》）
