Editor's Note
On March 24, 1964, the poet Haizi was born. 25 years and 2 days later, he committed suicide on the tracks at Shanhaiguan.
In his short life, Haizi "burned like a young star, racing against the clock, and then suddenly exploding", writing more than two million words of work.
Opinions still vary as to the poet's creation and life.
This article is excerpted from "A Little-Known Publication About Haizi, Two Pseudonyms, and Three Anecdotes."
The author, Jiang Hongwei, published in Flower City, No. 2, 2018.
01
Hawthorn and sea creatures
Haizi's two little-known pen names
As we all know, Haizi has used three names in his poetic career: one is the legendary pen name - Zaka, the other is the famous pen name of the poetry world - Haizi, and the other is his real name - Cha Haisheng. Among them, in the various books and newspapers that publish Haizi's poems, our most common name is Haizi, the rarest name is Cha Haisheng, and the rarest name is Zaka. Before I saw the mimeograph publication Blue Sky and the Sword, I thought that Haizi had only used the three names of Zaka, Cha Haisheng, and Haizi. However, when I opened the journal, just as Columbus discovered a new world, I was pleasantly surprised to find two very rare pseudonyms of Haizi, Hawthorn and Haisheng.
On the twentieth page of this mimeographed journal, Haizi's very famous poem "Al's Sun" was published, and the author of this poem was signed by Xiao Hawthorn.
Al's sun
- To my skinny brother Van Gogh
"Everything I create towards nature is chestnuts, taken out of fire. Ah, those who do not believe in the sun are those who have turned their backs on God. ”
Go south
There is no lover and spring in your blood
There is no moon
Bread wasn't even enough
Fewer friends
There was only a group of bitter children, devouring everything
Skinny brother Van Gogh, Van Gogh
Strong eruptions from the ground
Volcanoes are as reckless as they are
It is a silk fir and wheat field
Or yourself
Spray out excess time to live
In fact, one eye of yours can illuminate the world
But you also have to use the third eye, Al's Sun
Burn the starry sky into a rough river
Burn the ground to a spin, hold up the yellow spasmodic hand, the sunflower
Invite all those who take chestnuts from the fire
Stop painting Christ's olive garden
If you want to paint, draw olives to reap
Draw a fire of rape
In place of the old man of heaven
Wash away life
Red-haired brother, finished drinking absinthe
Start lighting this fire
Burn it
In a small town in southern France, Van Gogh created seventy or eighty paintings, which was his golden age.
Figure | Van gogh
"Strong eruptions from underground
It's fir and wheat field."
......
It can be said that "Al's Sun" is Haizi's earliest famous work of poetry that reflects his personal style, a month earlier than the publication of his "Asian Copper" in the Inner Mongolia "Grassland" literary monthly. Therefore, in Haizi's poetic career, "Al's Sun" has an important value that no other poem can replace. It should be said that this is Haizi's famous work in the true sense.
For Haizi, Hawthorn should be the first time Haizi has published a work under this name. In the process of studying Haizi's poetry, in the books and newspapers that I have seen publishing Haizi's poems, this is the only time I have seen it.
This article was published in Flower City, No. 2, 2018
In addition to Haizi's use of the pseudonym Hawthorn to publish Al's Sun, in this mimeographed journal, I also found an extremely rare pseudonym used by Haizi, Haisheng.
On the twenty-fifth page of the mimeographed publication, Haizi published two poems under the pseudonym "Haisheng": "The Bride" and "The Wandering Poet".
Here, we focus on the poem "The Bride":
Bride
A log cabin in my hometown, chopsticks, a vat of water
And many days to come
Many goodbyes
Illuminated by you
Today
I don't say anything
Let others say it
Let the fisherman on the distant river speak
There was a light
It is the eyes of the river
Shining
This lamp sleeps in my room today
After this month, we opened the door
Some flowers bloom on tall trees
Some of the fruit is deep underground
Haizi's "Bride" is a popular lyrical short poem. The poem was published in the 4th issue of the Grassland Literary Monthly, founded by the Inner Mongolia Federation of Literature, in 1985, along with Haizi's other famous poem, "Asian Copper".
Haisheng, as another little-known pen name for Haizi, in addition to being signed in the two poems "The Bride" and "The Wandering Poet", as far as I know, this is the first and only use.
02
I am the son of the sun, the wandering poet
Three little-known anecdotes
What was even more surprising was that three anecdotes from Haizi (including an essay and two poems) were rediscovered by me.
In this publication, Blue Sky and Sword, a total of one essay and four poems by Haizi were published. Among them, after my examination, I confirmed that three of the works belonged to Haizi's anecdotes, which had never been published in any publicly distributed literary newspapers and periodicals, and were also missed by the "Complete Poems of Haizi" edited by Nishikawa.
Haizi's first anecdote was his essay "I am the son of the sun—to the Yangtze River, but also to people as young as me":
In the middle of summer this year, I came to the Yangtze River, and the water was muddy. After a deep tremor, I felt that my whole body and mind were suddenly quiet, very quiet, as if my own shell and flesh were out of consciousness, and I only felt like a small white flag with wings attached to the water. I had this feeling when I first read Weeds. After closing the pamphlet, the wings and ears of my soul were like this, quietly opening for a long time.
What man is, I can't tell. But I wrote about the Yangtze River this way: "I know I'm a river / I know I'm half plasma and half sediment." ”
Man should know what he is, that his rivers and history are turbid rather than transparent; that he should know that there is blood flowing in his veins.
On the Yangtze River, on this ancient river, I was unexpectedly aware of my youth. I think of my restless young friends: some experimenting; some studying; some writing poetry; and others even doing business and engaging in long-distance trafficking. A strong, fresh sea-smelling wind has blown on the earth fed by this great river, and we have caught up with a restless era of change.
The river is flowing. The addition of many fresh currents supports and opens up this great river. Young souls are always closest to the fetal chamber of the New Age. Our restlessness indicates that this is a huge and deep entrance.
The troubles of young Werther are first and foremost an anachronistic emotion, and we cannot simply assume that Goethe is merely telling a sentimental love story. The greatness of "Dream of the Red Chamber" is also that it truly describes the spiritual fluctuations of a group of young women at the end of the old era.
Now, one by one, the New Wave is coming. The beats of the past are out of order, and it is likely that the new rhythm will be dismissed by others as noise.
But the trend cannot be reversed.
3
For tomorrow, let's hit the road.
4
Maturity comes unconsciously. When we seemed to be living a lonely life, without any psychology of dependence, and skewed on the road, we suddenly became silent.
That year, I returned to my hometown, just in time for the busy season. People's skin has been sunburned and shed several layers of skin. After a long morning of work, I fell asleep on the fresh hay in the field. My brother has grown into a man, stronger than I am. As I worked side by side with him, I experienced a pleasant emotion that I had never experienced before. When we need to work together, we always look at each other in a hurry, which is really exciting! Perhaps, this is a kind of brotherhood and manly friendship.
For tomorrow, friends, let's hold hands.
I think true friendship is another form of my maturity.
5
The Yangtze River flows lonely.
I'm also lonely sometimes, and I like some sad songs and verses. I think that among living things, man knows loneliness the best, and twenty-eight centuries have passed (here it should be a typographical error, it should be twenty centuries), and there is still a long way to go. So, will we disappear in the fine lines of history? Man, who is short-lived, is lonely, and youth is even more so.
Loneliness may be because we desire to burn.
Loneliness, that is, because we have not yet fully burned.
One poet wrote:
I am the Son of the Sun
The son of the sun that has not yet fully burned
6
Another poet wrote:
Let the land know that it is the land
Let the seed know it is the seed
During Haizi's literary career, he created and published very few essays. And this "I am the son of the sun - to the Yangtze River, but also to people as young as me", as far as I know, is haizi's first prose work. Although he later published several sporadic articles in the "China University of Political Science and Law News", it was very inferior to this essay. Therefore, it can be said that "I am the son of the sun - to the Yangtze River, but also to people as young as me" is not only Haizi's earliest prose work, but also Haizi's best prose work.
Blue Sky and Sword, a literary journal of China University of Political Science and Law
I found other pseudonyms and anecdotes by Haizi in the journal
Haizi's second anecdote is his poem "Crossing the Gods" signed by Cha Haisheng:
Crossing the gods
A bell rings in winter as the last snow in the woods
You don't have to think about the climate season or anything else when you leave
The annual iron ship that rowed across the glacier moon rowed through all the insignificant claims
In (should be again) a handful of young suns to let the rainy season chatter non-stop
There small groups of aquatic people and fishing villages arrange each other into a biosphere of happiness as usual
We do not belong to them but to the distant opposite shore
The mothers were all full of tears and quickly returned to their eyes nailed to the sail and slid through the wind of prayer
There is such a group of tough guys who move forward only to become the gods of the crossing
The embankment arced and held our river bend's long-standing gaze, don't care
Only let the purple waves open in the footprints behind them and gradually form a river tide
In Haizi's poetry creation, this "Dushen" rarely adopts a two-line segmental style, which should belong to the work of Haizi's poetry exploration period. Although this poem is only ten short lines, it is meaningful and intriguing, writing out the voice and will of a generation of young people who want to become a god of crossing, expressing the aspirations and ideals of a generation of young people to become a god of crossing, and is a rare poetry masterpiece full of positive energy among hundreds of poems by Haizi.
Blue Sky and Sword catalogue
It can be seen that "I am the son of the sun", "The God of Crossing", "The Bride" and other articles and pen names such as "Hawthorn" and "Haisheng"
Haizi's third anecdote is his poem "The Wandering Poet" signed by Haisheng:
Wandering poet
For wandering
I bought a gun at the market
I took it apart
Throw away the strange metal inside
Then at the mouth of the empty gun barrel
Insert two or three spikes of orchids
I faced the sky
A shot was fired
What shoots out is love and seeds
My heart
There are only two things to worry about
Loved ones and shoe stores
There are relatives who live here
It blooms every year like a grass stem
No loved ones
Just go to the shoe store
Pick a new pair of shoes
Keep going
walk
Haizi's "Wandering Poet" is a poem that belongs to "The Bride", which is a masterpiece that he has never published publicly. Before discovering this poem, I had searched for it with great care.
This spring, I purchased a collective memoir of a grade 85 student of China University of Political Science and Law published by China University of Political Science and Law Press: "University of Law 85: Memories of Youth.". In this book, I read an article by Zhu Huiping, a student of the eighth and fifth grade political education class of the Department of Political Science, entitled "I once fought with Teacher Haizi to get red in the face." This article recalling her teacher, Haizi, aroused my keen interest and serious concern: "Teacher Cha interspersed several poems written by herself in each lesson, which sound very profound and intriguing, and I only think that the poems written by the teacher are good, and where the specific good ones are, but I can't say it." One of the most impressive poems is titled "Gun"... The gun represents war, and war is divided into justice and injustice, but whether it is a just war or an unjust war, it destroys the lives of people and makes the people suffer from chaos. In just a few short sentences, Teacher Zha brilliantly summarized the essence of the use of the 'gun' as a tool for people and the great harm caused to mankind, showing the poet's great feelings of compassion for the world... Unfortunately, Teacher Cha read it too fast at that time, and I didn't write it down. The previous song "Gun", I later looked up on the Internet, looked for it in books, and did not find it. ”
From this reminiscence, I learned that Haizi once wrote a poem titled "Gun". However, from the Haizi poems I dabbled in, I had never heard of this "Gun". Therefore, the idea of looking for this haizi anecdote arose in my heart. However, after several twists and turns, after several searches, this "Gun" has never had the slightest clue and has always been missing. After I was gradually forced to dispel the idea of continuing to search for Haizi's anecdote, I did not expect that in this publication of "Blue Sky and Sword", I actually found the ins and outs and clues of this "Gun"!
However, due to the passage of more than thirty years, Zhu Huiping's memory was wrong, and she only remembered that the main image in this poem was a gun, and ignored the real title of this poem called "Wandering Poet".
The poem "The Wandering Poet" is a strange concept, novel imagination, condensed language, profound theme, and can be called an excellent short poem. Among Haizi's short poems, this poem is a superior work.
Haizi (1964.3.24-1989.3.26)
END