"Every Kenyan runner has a story. They left the countryside, from a small piece of arable land on the edge of the mountain, to win marathons in big cities around the world. --- 'Run Out of Kenya' (Yad Haronand Finn)
For a while, I went to the same café three times for this book, sometimes excited, sometimes inexplicably sad, and when I followed the author deep into Eden, I saw some familiar names of world champions, and more were some running black households, "They struggled, just to earn enough money to buy bread and water, and in this chaos and poverty, the best athletes in the world were here, practicing back and forth along the road."
"In order to live among the top runners, no matter how difficult life is, they don't find running ridiculous, on the contrary, they value running and the opportunities it brings, and they almost have a reverence for running." Even if you've never been an Olympic champion, or you've never even raced abroad, athlete status alone can put you above the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It sets you apart as one of a special crowd who have chosen a path of dedication and commitment. When runners talk to you, you can see this in their eyes. Even the slowest runners talk about their training with almost religious devotion, they may live in simple houses with no running water available, they sit in candlelight every night, but it's a shame to mention their best half marathon. Running is crucial. ”
The café was very noisy at that time, and I suddenly wanted to hear something, I thought of Yanni's Nightingale, and then I read the book while listening to Yanni's music, and if you want to experience this feeling, you can also try it.
When I watched "Run Out of Kenya", I thought of two poems by Li Shangyin:
"The warbler cries like tears, for the wet highest flower".
"Actor Sean. Connery was once asked in an interview what if anything brought him to tears. After thinking about it for a while, he replied, "Movement." I often feel the same way. Runners run to the finish line, fighting their limits without any help other than relying on themselves and their own willpower. Their eyes were staring ahead with 100% concentration, and years of hard training had etched into their faces. Seeing such a sight brings tears to my eyes.
Running is a brutal sport, but it is also an infectious sport. It is also a simple, primitive movement. As human beings, on the most basic level, we feel hungry, we feel sleepy, we crave love, we get used to running. Just look at the unsupervised children who are playing, and they can't stop running. Running makes us human.
Perhaps runners and joggers get up every morning and tap the pavement on the streets of cities around the world, just to satisfy this primitive impulse, to feel some primitive commotion in our hearts, to experience "a little wild." Running is not fun at all, running brings pain, and running requires effort. Casually ask which runner he's running for, and he'll most likely look at you with a wry smile and say, "I don't know." "But something is pushing us forward."
I felt the similarity of that tear, some disappointed but not desperate, some tragic but worth singing, just like reading Li Shangyin's poem. In the late Tang Dynasty, a big era was slowly declining, the individual was powerless to recover, it was inevitable to feel sad, when he found that life was not a long-term prosperity, at this time he had a new understanding of life. He wrote "Tianya":
"Spring is at the end of the world, and the day at the end of the world is oblique."
The warbler cries like tears, for the wet highest flowers. ”
If the yellow warbler is a spring warbler, if it has tears when it cries, the tears will stain the highest flower wet. The flowers on the top of the treetops, the last flowers in the spring, there is no shelter, the wind and rain are fierce, the widows are easy to fold, the beautiful things are about to disappear, and the cries of the warblers are also mournful.
"Jiang Xun said Tang poems" wrote, "We often talk about tears, hot tears actually have a lot to do with the enthusiasm we say, a person without enthusiasm will not shed tears, tears indicate that there is enthusiasm for sustenance, in the moment when enthusiasm is bruised, it will shed tears." It's as enthusiastic as Kenyan runners running. Running has firmly become a way out for Kenyans, like Brazilian football or Indian cricket, where thousands of people like Bit Alice and Jafeet are doing the sport.
"For a Kenyan runner, he was motivated by the idea of a life-changing decision, and the stakes were much higher. Even for top Western runners, the impact of winning a race on their lives is unlikely to that of Kenyan runners. For people who have always made ends meet, even $1,000 can make a difference. "Kenyan runners who are always waiting for a chance to change their fate, they are optimistic by nature, they don't get frustrated by a bad performance in a race or practice, and they don't change because of the eyes or attitudes of others.
"Kenyans have short careers, most Kenya has a few years of running well and then they disappear. Athletes need to focus on their own training, but they have to plan the lives of their own villagers. ”
"Athletes know that people who choose to leave camp for a more comfortable life tend to lose their edge. In this small corner of the world, competition is so fierce, and superiority is something that is difficult to make up once lost."
In the most brilliant moments of withering, how many talented Kenyan runners are so short-lived, but there will also be those who are persistent and consistent runners, who continue the mission step by step.
So I think of Nightingale, of Yanni's Nightingale, which has a strong Chinese style and a touch of sadness, and this tune is based on the story of a Chinese emperor and his Nightingale in Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales. The emperor heard that the folk rumor that the nightingale's singing was very good, so he used all the resources to invite the nightingale, and could not help but shed tears when he heard the nightingale singing. Then the Emperor of Japan sent an artificial nightingale to the Chinese Emperor, the real Nightingale quietly left the court, the Emperor was unattended when he was dying, and when he could not stand the repeated attacks of the God of Death but could not open the artificial Nightingale to play music, the little Nightingale flew back again, "with song to drive those evil faces away from the Emperor's bedside, but also to remove the God of Death from the Emperor's heart", nightingale said to the King: "When I sang for the first time, I got your tears from your eyes - I will never forget this." Every tear is a jewel – it can make a singer's heart blossom. ”
Countless runners have stimulated the enthusiasm of life from running, not necessarily to be seen, not necessarily to be understood, not necessarily cherished by others, when they meet Zhiyin, they will naturally know how to cherish.
I would also think of wilder's nightingale.
"On a cold winter night, a young student had to offer a red rose to dance with the girl of his choice. When Nightingale hears the young student weeping because she can't pick a red rose, she thinks that the student is the true person she has been singing and searching for. Therefore, in order to help the students achieve their love wishes, Nightingale resolutely decided to cultivate a red rose with her own life blood. On a cold and lonely moonlit night, the nightingale pressed its chest against the spikes of a red rose tree, allowing the spikes to penetrate deep into its heart and chant throughout the night in the moonlight. The bright red effort of the nightingale slowly flowed into the dry meridians of the red rose tree, and the bloody rose soul finally blossomed in the cold winter, but the nightingale fell into the lush grass and closed her eyes forever with the hope of love. "The more its heart aches, the more beautiful its voice becomes, and finally all its blood goes into the roses."
It's all about a person who is constantly flowing with enthusiasm for self-fulfillment, and looking at the words in the book, I think I can understand them.
"Kenyans are mavericks, they're always far ahead, ending up with a sudden drop in speed or sprinting wildly from the start of the starting gun. I love watching TV commentators get confused about them, predicting that a Kenyan athlete would run too fast, only to find out that the athlete was suddenly running faster. ”
The camera drew the frame closer to Chirui's eyes. He looked ahead, still accelerating, almost as crazy as an animal with its head hunted. "It was a really brutal game," Foster said. The last lap of the prompt bell rang, and still no one ran near the Chiruid. On the final second straight, Chirui sprinted like a life, but the Ethiopian also accelerated, and the gap was narrowing. With only the last 100 meters left, Chirui turned sideways and glanced at him, and he saw that Gebreihlahirasiya was approaching him. Everything seemed to stand still in an instant. It was at that moment that the fatal blow was coming. Shocked, Chirui turned his body back to the front in a frenzy, spurring his exhausted body again, and his tired legs finally managed to cross the last straight. He crossed the finish line first, less than half a second ahead of Gebresirahiye. But he did, and he won. Exhausted, with a little dazedness, he ran the last lap of honor, and the Kenyan flag was once again raised high in victory. ”
I listened to Yanni's Nightingale over and over again, and I felt the stories of the runners in the book, Christopher Chepolipoche, Jafett, Sammy Wangiru, Josefart, Emmanuel Mutai, Godfrey Kiproti,...... Some of them are still penniless, some have run all over the world, and they each have their own greatness.
Watching Jafett being invited to participate in the Liechtenstein Marathon in the Netherlands and going abroad for the first time to compete is like feeling Yanni's "Nightingale".
The faint strings sounded far away, and the Western flute began to blow out a soft and long melody. Just as the night of the moon, in the empty wilderness, the nightingale began to sing. This section ends with the Imitation of the Nightingale's Chirping by the Western Flute, and then the clear piano joins in, with a slight hesitation and careful playing. Like a person who has not slept in the middle of the night, he hears the singing of the nightingale in the distance, and begins to search, afraid of disturbing the nightingale. ”
At that time Jafett was stopped by customs officials. He didn't bring any luggage — except a mesh bag containing tattered running shoes, he was wearing old clothes bought from Ettten's second-hand market, holding a letter claiming to be an elite athlete, staying in the expensive Hautten Hotel in Utrecht. His entire supply consisted of only an expired piece of energy glue, which Godfrey had given him before, and he tucked it into the belt of his shorts. ”
"Jafitte's face was dazed, like a poor sheep who had just come down the mountain, and found that somehow two hundred years had passed."
"As they ran past the crowds on the last few kilometres of the track, Jafait fell behind the front-runner and ran slower and slower. He now had a bitter look on his face, his eyes wide open, and his eyes fluttered. "I didn't drink any water," he later told me, "it was too cold." He also complained about the wind and rain. But most importantly, it was his spirit lost in the cobbled streets of Holland, just as the tedious trip had caused him so much trouble that he was overwhelmed and overwhelmed. As he ran to the finish line and finished the long, straight road, he looked overwhelmed. This is not a man in a race, but a man lost in a strange dream that no longer makes sense. ”
Although he was only fifth, Jafett began to dream of traveling the world, "I told my father that I dreamed of traveling abroad, running big races, and meeting recognized countries. ”
"He looked at us, and his mind seemed to pull up a sail, and this, now, is my dream."
If you listen to "Nightingale" a few more times, you will also feel this way, "This song is not suitable for background music, listen to it, it will heat your blood, into a surging torrent in the blood vessels; it will make you want to have the urge to stand up when you are sitting; it will put the beauty and passion of texture into your heart." ”
After leaving Kenya, after half a year in the New York Marathon, author De Haronnand Finn also experienced different feelings.
"As I continued to run, the markers appeared faster than I expected, but I gradually began to slow down. My spare time is dwindling, the noise of my watch is getting closer and closer to the gauge, and I use them as a reminder to continue to accelerate. "Come on!" I told myself so. I picked up speed, past a few runners, and spotted a guy with a good pace in front of me, so I followed him, trying not to let myself step on his heels. I wanted to save the recitation of love for what I needed, but before I could react, we had already run into Central Park and began to approach the finish line. When I reached the last corner, my face was full of smiles that couldn't be stopped. I closed my eyes, raised my head toward the sky, and stretched out my arms, unable to help it. The crowd cheered at me and embraced the moment of my triumph, and I knew I had done it. By the time I happened to cross the finish line with 2 hours and 55 minutes, I had conquered the 3-hour marathon.
"Welcome to heaven." What a great interpretation!
Like Nightingale, the music ends higher and higher, stopping with a loud bang, like a thousand fireworks blooming at the same time. The tone of the Western harp is a little feminine and sad, but it is by no means desolate. The whole piece is robust and clear, bright as the spring sun.
And Li Shangyin used all his efforts to devote 20 words, that kind of enthusiasm, passion, that kind of tears to nourish life, let the flowers bloom more brilliant feeling is not the same?
"Life must find for itself an object that can be worth giving, and only with such an object, how life suffers is happiness. In this kind of giving, life will be full and meaningful."
Born like a summer flower, love your love!
Never too late, let's go now!
#In the name of the book ##Marathon##Reading ##肯尼亚 #