Listen to the footsteps of the times in the lines of poetry

Listen to the footsteps of the times in the lines of poetry

——Commentary on the poetry collection "Initial Heart, Red Flag and New Journey"

Author: Liao Yiqi (PhD candidate, School of Liberal Arts, Chinese Min University)

The poetry collection "Initial Heart, Red Flag and New Journey- Selected Works of Excellent Poetry in the New Era" edited by poetry magazine (published by Southern Publishing House in October 2021) uses poetry to write about the great changes in Chinese society in the past hundred years, with the symphony of reality and history, the lyricism of dreams and glory, and the echo of the original heart, struggle and brilliant process in the hearts of contemporary poets. Poets closely follow the times, write contemporary experiences and realistic emotions, and vividly reproduce the miracles created by the sons and daughters of China in the past hundred years.

Emotion is the foundation of poetry, and it is also where the expressiveness and appeal of poetry lie. The poems selected in this collection of poems are full of feelings of home and country for the country and the people in subtle and delicate expressions. Lin Li's "Wish You Peace" recreates the sincere wishes and kind help between Chinese under the new crown pneumonia epidemic. "Please say to a big blue truck: I wish you peace / Tonight, it is loaded with a hundred thousand masks / Follow two nervous truck drivers / From one province to another / From one hometown to another ..." The language is plain and the emotion is sincere and touching. Liu Xiaowei's "Sit on the High-Speed Railway and See the China of Youth" expresses his touching feelings and pride in the great changes of the times by describing the poet's experience of traveling on the high-speed rail. Chen Yong's "Avenue Yangguan" writes the magnificent history of Yangguan, and the Silk Road has become a symbol of economic prosperity and the dream of world unity in the past hundred years: "On the mountains of the first hundred years, the sun after the rain set up a rainbow / those lovely goals, the reality in the dream, suddenly close, pasted on the face, hot and heroic like hot blood." ”

With the tide of reform and opening up, China's development is changing with each passing day, and new things such as high-speed rail, express delivery, the "Sky Eye" telescope, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bridge have all been integrated into the poetry line by poets. The picture shows the Lanxin high-speed rail train in motion. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Cai Zengle)

Chinese kind and simple nature continues to emerge in the torrent of the times, and the feelings of home and country evoked by the new era are conveyed through poetry. Yi Wu's "Yang Guan Sits on the Ear of Wheat" links his son's feelings for his father with the peasants' feelings for the land, "never exposed sharpness, never actively attacking, anything / giving like grain / Autumn when I collect gold with my father, golden dreams". In this rapidly developing industrial society, the poet once again emphasizes the simple desire and selfless dedication left by the agricultural civilization to the Chinese.

Many of the works included in this collection of poems not only express the feelings of poets in the new era, but also poetically narrate the stories that have occurred in the past hundred years. Poets want to tell Chinese stories well, that is, to evoke the common memories and dreams of Chinese of different ages and regions. This collection of poems contains several poems related to the "Jujube Garden". The imagery of Zaoyuan refers to Mao Zedong's writing of important documents such as "On Protracted War" in zaoyuan cave dwellings. From today's point of view, this has had an important impact on the century-old history. Among them, Hao Suisui's "Jujube Garden Has Old Jujube Trees Blossoming" is written: "In the spring, the sorrow of the earth / Blossom into small flowers, branches / In the high to suppress the sleet from the night / Early in the morning, the small bloom, the most dazzling in the garden / The scenery is higher than the wind and snow ..." The poet sets off this great event through the imagery of the jujube flowers in the way of writing the scenery.

With the tide of reform and opening up, modern cities are changing with each passing day, and the new socialist countryside has a new look. Poets incorporated these stories into the lines of poetry. Zhao Zhikui's group poem "Poverty Alleviation: The Route of Spring" shows the great changes that have taken place in society with the advancement of poverty alleviation work as a witness. He wrote in "Morning Glow", "The blue flowers are peeled off layer by layer, and at the same time they are peeled off / and the farmers cultivate the emerald green every year.". Economic development is not a mechanical movement, but also contains the hopes and emotions of contemporary people. Li Muma's "High-speed Rail, Land Music Score" compares the rapid development of China's high-speed rail to the music on the mountains and rivers, "a hundred years ago, in the twists and turns / crossing a series of passes, dangerous passes and barriers", just like the journey of the whole country, in the midst of hardships and hardships, constantly struggling and moving towards the light.

China has always had a tradition of poetic civilization. Poetry is written for the people, and it also undertakes the social function of educating people's hearts and turning spring wind and rain into rain. This collection of poems contains a large number of educational poems, and the traditional poetic culture has shined in modern times. Wang Ziliang's "Nine Chapters of the Yangtze River" skillfully combines a century of Chinese history with the scenery of the mighty Yangtze River, starting from the source of the Yangtze River, from Dujiangyan to the three towns of Wuhan, history, geography, customs and human feelings, all in the poem. Hu Qiuqiu's "Course" is a vivid course of party history, from the Workers' Strike Movement on Anyuan Road to the Nanchang Uprising, which "pulled the trigger of the first shot of the revolution", to Jinggangshan's "Songtao breathing high red flag/straw shoes, walking out of a brand-new road", to the Hundred Regiments War "The Communist Party, with earthen guns and cannons, opened /the gap to the dawn", and then to Yan'an "Every youth / is a tortuous legend". The reader's emotions follow the lines of the poem, and a hundred years of history is already in the chest. Ning Ming's "Tribute, Great Power Heavy Weapon" group poem, with a high posture and proud feelings, counts the country's heavy equipment, which is not only the science popularization of the scientific and technological achievements of the national heavy weapon, but also a brief history of the development of science and technology in New China.

Reading the poetry collection "Initial Heart, Red Flag and New Journey" made me realize once again that good poetry is always close to reality and close to the times, expressing the feelings of the people and composing realistic stories of Chinese.

Guangming Daily (December 29, 2021, 14th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily