Poetic scholar Zhao Si
"Disappearing, Memory"
The White Crow
"Blu-ray Pillow Tower"
Cover interview
Zhao Si believes that people can feel poetry, poetry, and poetry to some extent, but to become a poet, they must have a talent for language, and they must rely on the growth of poetic spiritual bodies to temper poetry. A literati, once you write, you need to remember that every word you write will eventually become you, so no matter what kind of ideals you have, what you write and how to write are questions that you can never avoid or make excuses.
1
"Poets need to have constant growth points"
Cover News: As an expert in the study of modern Western poetry, you are also a literary translator who translates Western poetry. Can you tell us how you got on this path? What does this profession bring to your life, especially your spiritual life?
Zhao Si: In 2005, by chance, in the book publishing project organized by Poetry Monthly, I published the poetry collection "White Crow", which made me return to the poetry field on the way to study for many years, so when I decided to study Western modern poetics and continue this research during my postdoctoral period when I decided to choose a topic for my doctoral dissertation in the direction of "World Literature and Comparative Literature". At that time, the concept of "generative poetics" gradually emerged, which could explain the biggest difference between modern poetry (which began after the French poet Rimbaud in terms of writing methods) and all previous poetry, including Romantic poetry, that is, "generative poetics" as a kind of genesis research can explain the uniqueness and value of modern poetry. Poetry and reading are my way of life, my life form, my self-choice, and my destiny, so it's hard to say what it brings, because you're too deeply in it.
Cover News: Many people are more inclined to think that poetry is mainly inspired by inspiration and is a talent for language. Indeed, there are many people who have written good poetry with spirit by talent without mastering a lot of knowledge and learning. How do you see the role of talent and learning in writing poetry and the relationship between them?
Zhao Si: Poetry has different talents, non-Guan Shu also; Poetry is different, not related to reason. I naturally believe that every true poet is born. But if every poet wants to go long, he needs to have a continuous growth point. With the initial talent, a person can write good poetry for a period of time, which is obvious to all, but it often dries up quickly, and how to make themselves active is something that needs to be constantly built from the form of life to the quality of reading. Reading is a must, but as a poet, you are better off reading where your interests lie, and can continue to broaden and deepen your mental system in sync with poetry writing, for example, a poet reading some theological or brain science research books may be much more helpful than his exhaustive study of logical philosophy. Some overly professional reading is not necessary for poets, but it is impossible not to read. Each poet needs to establish his own reading system and build his own secret library, which can become your paradise and a place where you write.
The question you mentioned, in fact, Holland is the most convincing example. He did not have a high education and worked after graduating from high school, but he was the most internationally minded poet of that generation. While writing poems and translating poems, he also did a lot of work to translate and revise the works of linguists into verses, and he has participated in the translation of more than 160 world poets, it can be said that he has built his own world poetry database.
2
"Poetry can be a way of life"
Cover News: Many people know that the remuneration standard for literary translation is low, and doing literary translation is generally a relatively poor job. How are you feeling? What motivates and appeals have motivated you to always be willing to work in literary translation? Like poetry translation is a niche among the minority, when you do this job, will you have a sense of loneliness?
Zhao Si: The world is noisy and draining, and loneliness can sometimes be a real blessing for creators. In a person's life, he can do what he is willing to do, which is enough to make people content and happy. Because real poets themselves are not material people, sometimes we find that the more "hollow" the poet, the easier it is to become a good poet, and you can deal with it as a simple model. I am a poet translator, because I am also a translation of poetry editors, it is inevitable that poetry translation has done more, and doing poetry translation still has some benefits for writing poetry, but it needs to be allocated time. Now that I have finished translating Holland's book and Ted Hughes's The Crow and The Song of the Seasons, I have focused myself on my poetry this year. In recent years, the epidemic has been a good time for me to read, and the article "Orphean Poets" is also the result of reading at this stage. I now happen to be at an age when historical consciousness has become a new growth point for poetry, so my new collection of poems will be called "The Truth Tree of Time & Selected Poems", which is some of the creative fruits of reading back to human history in recent years.
In this regard, Holland is again a typical example of us. For 20 years, from 1948 to 1968, he lived in seclusion on a small Baroque building on the island of Kampa in Prague, now known as Villa Werih, almost without leaving his home, away from the public, social life, all literary activities, and only with some close friends and relatives. This life of renunciation actually helps him to be completely immersed in the state of poetry, so that if he does not write poetry for a few days, he will have physical discomfort. Poetry can become a way of life. His "Night with Hamlet" was during this period of eight years, every time there was inspiration, the words and sentences were recorded casually on small pieces of paper, movie tickets, invitations, printed paper, whatever material was touched, and later the editor friend who loved his poetry brought a typewriter from Yuster, and constantly urged, the two of them dictated, sorted, deleted, revised, and finally transcribed, and finally came out. Therefore, for the poet, he or she is originally a creature who can live in the inner world, and he or she also uses his inner strength to penetrate various realities, so that poetry can be effective. But sometimes, I also have the need to travel the world, although I can't go to space, but my interest in traveling around the earth and increasing my knowledge has not faded. It's just that when the conditions don't permit, it is also a good thing to read and immerse yourself in the world of literature and history.
3
"Poetry always belongs to those who need it"
Cover News: In an era of rush and increased uncertainty, how do you view pure literature, especially poetry, the value and meaning of its existence? It seems to be the easiest to ignore, but it also seems to be the most comforting and powerful.
Zhao Si: Poetry belongs to an ancient cultural form, its knowledge carrier function, religious function, healing function was supreme in the era before the literary civilization, priests, poets, kings of justice, they are the people who grasp the truth in that cultural system, although it is inevitably an ambiguous truth. It is precisely because people still have a memory of the sublimeness of poetry that poetry will always have a place on the altar, even if the gods are gone and the altar is empty, but the memory in the human unconscious is immortal. But the dense, fragmented, cybernetic reality of the division of labor is something that poetry today must face, and it will be pulled down unconsciously by its intentional or unintentional intentions. But the poetry of the source, the way of thinking of mythology, or the way of god's work, this holistic way of thinking still exists in poetry, it can heal the meaningless fragmented mind, which is also the universal function of art, the more original, the more powerful this function. The "wound source point" is an important starting point for the poet's creativity, and it is also the inner need of some people who originally did not need poetry, but suddenly read the poem after being traumatized, precisely because it has a healing function, which can transform the soul, heal the fragments, and make it "reborn". Poetry always belongs to those who need it, and whether one wants to become a poet or a true reader of poetry, let them happen by chance and in a natural state, although the enlightenment education of poetry (including modern poetry) should be part of civic education.
Cover News: In your opinion, what are the most common misconceptions about poetry in general right now? What are the misunderstandings? It is rare to see a serious literary genre of fiction (other than that kind of entertainment) that has aroused national discussion. The most controversial and out-of-the-loop in recent years is the new poem. In addition to the fact that the Internet media is developed and the level of some new poems is indeed limited, is it related to the lack of clarity in the understanding of new poems by ordinary people? Many people do not understand that the reason why classical poetry is beautiful and advanced is related to the development and precipitation of thousands of years, and there are also a large number of bad poems in ancient times, but they have been eliminated. Now because of the existence of Internet platforms, poorly written poems will also be disseminated. What do you think?
Zhao Si: Your question is very good, I don't know if I have the ability to answer. Because I have long been accustomed to burying my head in the things I believe, a bit like Holland, trying not to let the chaotic phenomena of the world disturb the heart, a poet, in addition to his own square heart, there is no other poetic source, he (she) must do everything possible to maintain it, the heart is confused, it will definitely hurt the text.
Since the twentieth century, there have been various ideas about poetry all over the world, in short, two extremes in between. One pole is that all people can write poetry, and everything can be included in poetry; The other pole is that it is so difficult to write a truly good poem that the best achievement a lyric poet can pursue in a lifetime is only five or six that are expected to be passed on to future generations. The latter idea, in fact, is realistic, and if it is to be passed on to future generations, it must be chosen by the only master of time, and only the purest poetry can be selected. Just like the more than 48,900 poems of the Quan Tang Poems, how much can the ones selected into the "Three Hundred Poems of Tang Dynasty" have? The former is idealistic, the idea of a revolutionary. I personally believe that people can feel poetry, poetry, and poetry to some extent, but to become a poet, you must have a talent for language, and you must rely on the growth of poetic spiritual bodies to temper poetry. A literati, once you write, you need to remember that every word you write will eventually become you, so no matter what kind of ideals you have, what you write and how to write are questions that you can never avoid or make excuses.
Cover news reporter Zhang Jie
Source: West China Metropolis Daily