Photography: Liao Yuan
Ma Haiyi, contemporary poet. There are poems, novels, essays, literary reviews published in "Poetry Journal", "Literature and Art Daily" and other newspapers and periodicals, and have been selected into more than 100 kinds of domestic literary anthologies and CCTV's "TV Poetry Essays" and "China Long Song Line". He has published several kinds of poetry collections, such as "The Secret Season", "Bus Station Meets Leopards", essay collection "Altitude in the North-Northwest", and literary criticism collection "Bystander". He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, the vice chairman of the Qinghai Writers Association, and the vice chairman of the Qinghai Literary and Art Critics Association.
The wanderer who returns to the village in the verse
——Yang Tingcheng's "Village" Reading Notes
Ma Haiyi
The people who come here today to talk about the works of Ting Cheng Brother have two tones or perspectives, one is a critic and the other is a reader's. The former requires knowledge of poetry and an understanding of the background in which the poet lived, grew up and created. Only in this way can the critics approach the truth of the poet and the work. I think I came today and it was difficult and risky to be a critic. In contrast, it is much easier to be a reader. You just need to be interested and patient. If there is piety and yearning, it is even more likely to be among the best readers. I attended the Tingcheng Works Seminar and made up my mind to choose the identity of the reader. I am willing to listen to the critics' high opinions, and I am willing to listen to the feelings and understandings of other readers of Tingcheng's poetry. My self-positioning is in line with my own poetic theoretical reserves and my relationship with Tingcheng. For a long time, I have indeed read a lot of his works, and I have read them with a respectful attitude and mood, and I longed for Tingcheng's attitude and way of writing. I am a long-time friend of his and a loyal reader of him.
The opening work of "Sparrow Crying Folk" is "The Village". It was also the first poem I peruse. Let's start with the understanding of the poem's title. In reality, "village" refers to human settlement, which is the opposite of the city. Many poets of our generation share a common experience: being born in a village in the plains or mountains, where childhood and adolescence were spent. Because most of the villages are remote, isolated, poor, especially hungry, and particularly uninteresting, we are educated, guided, and from an early age to the outside world, in fact, we yearn for the city. So I left the village through all kinds of efforts, all kinds of ways, all kinds of channels (I don't need the sensational words "escape" or "breakout"). Some people call this process jumping out of the "farm door." Just as the vast majority of people who jumped out of the farm were celebrating their victory, a very small number of people did not find the sustenance of their souls in the cities and in the so-called modern life. Although they left, their parents, gods, parts of the years and memories remained in the village, and some of them left the sweetness of their first love. So they are in the city, but their hearts yearn for the village (the old saying is that they are in Cao Ying's heart in Han), and the village becomes the place where their dreams linger. These very few people are poets. Their warm longing for the village and their long-term remembrance is nostalgia. Ting Cheng's "village" obviously has the double meaning of the above, which refers to both the physical sense of the former settlement and the habitat of the soul. In the poetic interpretation of the village, Tingcheng inherits more than creates. The village is an important field described in classical Chinese poetry. Ancient pastoral poets left many wonderful poems about the village; "Return to Xi Ci" expressed the desire to return to the village; Taohuayuan is a famous village in ancient and modern times. In the 1980s, modern Chinese poetry began its journey to find the countryside again. Haizi's sentiment of "cherishing the village at dusk, cherishing the rain" gives the village a new lyrical height. Reading through "Birds Crying Folk", the village is also the core image of Tingcheng's poem.
After pondering the poem, I began to read the poem. The first verse says two sentences: "Last night the west wind news / said that the wheat field in the valley is golden." The poet felt the signs of the change of seasons from the autumn wind that blew all night. The lesson I have learned in the village is that when the west wind blows, it is harvest season. In the north, the wheat is ripe from east to west, and the wheat is cut earlier in the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Province, and the new wheat is played before and after the summer in central Gansu. Tingcheng's hometown is in the west-northwest, and the wheat ripens later until the west winds rise and autumn comes. Not only in this poem, but in Tingcheng's other poems, the "west wind" and "autumn wind" lead far more autumn and winter scenes than the spring and summer seasons. For example, "The autumn wind tore at his coarse cloth clothes" ("Yahe Village Chronicle"), "My eyes are blurred in the cool rain of autumn night", "Autumn light / The old father's wine song has been engraved with the tombstone of the ancestral grave" ("Homecoming"), "Look at the grass stems swaying in the autumn wind" ("Flowers of the Hometown"), "Standing on the field where the autumn wind blows" ("Harvesting Crops") and so on. In the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, everything in autumn goes from prosperity to decay, and expansion ends and begins to converge. Changes in nature necessarily evoke feelings in the heart (it is said that emotions are influenced by the seasons. There are statistics that prove that autumn is the season of frequent depression). In cultures where nature and man are one, the cycle of seasons is often used to hint at the course of human life. Autumn has arrived, life has reached a turning point, and people, like all things in heaven and earth, have gradually calmed down. They need to think about it. So autumn is always associated with sorrow and sorrow. Depicting Qiu Si is definitely a tradition of Chinese poetry. It can be seen that Tingcheng's aesthetic tendency is also from its origin, deep roots. Leave it to qualified critics for a more granular analysis.
The first section cuts in, the second section continues the first section, and continues to lay out the scenery of the wheat harvesting season in the village: "Who is inadvertently / Let the Heavenly Lake full of autumn light burst the embankment / This golden time flows freely in the valley." "The metaphor of a sky lake breaking the embankment is used to describe the irresistible arrival of the autumn scenery in the hometown." Ting Cheng is like a painter, so that the azure sky lake and the "a piece of gold" in the previous festival and the "golden time" behind it are intertwined, composing a symphony of colorful colors. In the Chinese dictionary, "time and yin" is a polysemantic word that refers to a scene, a time and a time, and a light and light. In some dialects in the northwest, "time" is also synonymous with wealth. No matter which item is righteous, decorated with golden yellow, it looks so appropriate and vivid. Ting cheng never skimps on color rendering, and although he has written about "the sadness of flax light blue", it is also true that he prefers loud warm colors. "The hill of childhood / The eyes are golden sunshine" ("Green Peas")," "The Pouring Pulp/Shining With Colorful Light Spots" ("The Spring of the Hometown")," "The Sunset That Is About to Set/Cast into Bronze Fathers" ("Harvesting Crops"). "The Sunshine Wrapped in Gold Leaf in May" (Bracken in May). Bright, warm, and metallic colors balance the autumn scenes in most of Tingcheng's poems, causing the autumn wind to be cool but not to penetrate the bones; the effect of sorrow, although fiery, but not to mourn. This sense of balance probably comes from Tingcheng's character composition. He is sensitive and affectionate, but does not go to extremes. He is a good poet with a warm and subtle background, and a good friend in life.
The first two verses are an imitation of the background of the village. The main body of the third verse appears forcefully: "I was also in the autumn wind / The fullest ear of wheat / Accumulated all the strength / Standing in the posture of life on the thick chest of the earth." "The poet uses two metaphors in a row, which together become a wonderful symbol, hinting at the relationship between the subject and the village, and the poet was born in the village, grew up in the village, and is inextricably linked to each other. But the poet does not express his mind directly, but realizes the creative intention through the analogy of the ear of wheat and the earth. Wheat, wheat, appears repeatedly in Haizi's poems, whether it is "The poet, you are unable to repay / The love of wheat and light" in "Inquiry" or "Wheat field / Others see you / Think you are warm, beautiful / I stand at the center of your painful questioning / Burned by you" in "Reply", all reveal the tension between the poet and the grain. In Tingcheng's poems, the ear of wheat is one with the poet. The ears of wheat, as representatives of grain, grow from the thick chest of the earth, absorbing the nutrients of the earth, the rain and dew of the sky, constantly full, waiting for the shining scythe. The poet and the grain, the ears of wheat and the land, you have me, I have you, it is a completely harmonious relationship.
After the indivisibility of the subject and the village is revealed, the appearance of the fourth verse seems so natural: "How I want to be at this moment / Back to the village where the mountain pass is full of smoke / In the sunset at dusk / With tearful eyes / Look at the fields in the mountains with affection." The phrase "How I want to be in this moment" points out that the poet did not really return to the village, but was only blown by the autumn wind and returned to the village in the imaginary world. In this verse, two images and one image commonly found in Tingcheng's poems appear. In many of his works, Tingcheng has written about "cooking smoke": "Her waving arms sway like cooking smoke" ("Homecoming")," "At this time, the village where cooking smoke is everywhere / It is so peaceful in the afterglow" ("Camel Fort")," "The ancient village in the mountain pass/The cooking smoke wafting with the smell of wheat" ("The Mountain Spring of the Hometown"). "Cooking tobacco" is the standard in the northern countryside. On the one hand, its shape is yuanna, the posture is light, and it is matched with the morning fog and the evening and the twilight, which constitutes a beautiful aesthetic mood, which is particularly eye-catching; on the other hand, the "cooking smoke" rises, which means the arrival of the meal. So it's always intertwined with good food associations. This is not difficult for people who have experienced hunger to understand. "Dusk" is another image that Tingcheng often uses. Sometimes alone, sometimes in conjunction with the setting sun. In the eyes of ordinary people, dusk is the same as early morning, but it is just a vague time title. But for philosophers and poets, "dusk" definitely doesn't stop there in its literal sense. The symbolic significance of "The Twilight of idols" is obvious, and Li Shangyin's "sunset is infinitely good, but it is near dusk", which contains the care and cherishing of the process of life. Similarly, Ting cheng's preference for sunset and dusk must have a deep meaning, which will not be elaborated here (and left to professional critics). Now let's look at Tingcheng's carefully shaped image of a wanderer: it is often said that the so-called dawn and sunset come. On the trip back home, no matter when it leaves, most arrivals are at sunset. The wanderer looked out over the village in the sunset, very kind, tears flickering. This image reappears in September, The Village: "Walking in the footsteps of dusk / Returning to the hometown that has been separated for a long time / In the smell of cooking smoke / Looking at this land affectionately". And his widely quoted quote is: "Hometown, I am a child who walks home in tears before the sunset sets" Every time I see this image in Tingcheng's poems, I can't help but think of Ai Qing's famous sentence: "Why do I often have tears in my eyes / Because I love this land deeply." "The language forms are different, and the spirit of expression is completely consistent.
As far as the tears of the eye can see, the natural scenery alone is not enough. The poet also needs to push his feelings towards deeper, deeper gratitude. From far and near, from things and people, from outward lyricism to introverted reflection, the last section, Tingcheng completed the poetic sublimation: "Mother has long gone / Can't smell this intoxicating wheat fragrance / Only the father's crooked sickle that refuses to rust / On the knife holder of the earthen wall all night long...". The people of the village are selected: the mother and the father; the wheat fragrance and the curved sickle, which have a deep material significance, extend and set off the meaning of the language, give the texture and tension of the last verse, and make the creativity of the language itself subjugate to clear and full feelings. Ting Cheng wrote in the "Afterword": "My kind father and mother have been buried in that land forever. "But that doesn't mean it's over. The mai xiang connected with the mother is like the linden tree tea and madeleine muffins in Proust's "Remembrance of the Watery Years", which will always remain in the depths of memory, and will awaken and permeate life as long as there is a chance. The sickle, which refused to rust, hung both on the knife holder of the earthen wall and somewhere in the depths of memory. Mai Xiang and the sickle become symbols, become part of memory and spirit, and the spirit nourishes Tingcheng's soul. Thomas Moore said: "When we try to define and outline the structure of the soul, in the end, it is the best way to speak directly about our feelings and experiences. "Ting Cheng did exactly that. His poems are not obscure or chaotic, but speak directly of experiences, feelings, and feelings. He did exactly that.
The poem "Village" embodies the homesick theme, vivid image and unique style of most of the works in "Sparrow Crying Folk". Jung said: "Human life is an inconclusive experience. But the landscapes, the characters, the stories, the legends, and the dreams and illusions that arise from them are present in the poet's imagination, where the soul always wants to return, which is the source of omnipresent nostalgia and the inspiration for Tingcheng's poetry. Tingcheng's poems draw nourishment from the legacy of Chinese and foreign romanticism, but "kindness, love and gratitude" together shape his qualities of generosity, chivalry and humor, and the world and things in his life are beautiful, trustworthy and pursued. Just as Mr. Lu Xun added a small garland to Xia Yu's grave, many of Tingcheng's poems have a bright ending: "The night is about to recede / The sky is about to light" ("GengziChun, a letter to the distance")," "The face full of vicissitudes is still smiling toward the sun" ("Okra"), "The rain knocks on the window ledge/Erase the sorrow of this century-old village" ("Rainy Season"). Thus his verses are always oriented towards the positive, bright, warm and grand, and he consciously distances himself from the romanticism of fragility and sorrow. The first part of his poetry collection, entitled "Ode to the Village", lives up to its name, and he is an ode-type poet. I share a common village experience with Brother Ting cheng. But in my writing, there are only flat-eyed, gray, decaying and lonely villages, and I have little hope for the past and the future. Therefore, I read Tingcheng's poems, like waking up from a dream, and benefited a lot. I can say that the seminar will soon end, but the attention and reading of Tingcheng's works will not stop.
2021/10/10 Xining Haiyan Mountain
Source: Chuanguan News, 2022-4-11.
"Sparrow Crying Folk", by Yang Tingcheng, Qinghai People's Publishing House, published in December 2020