Mountains and rivers contain clear sounds, plants and trees have their own hearts-commenting on Zhang Mi's poetry collection "Landscape and Clear Sound"
Text丨Zhao Huanli
I have known the young female writer Zhang Mi from Hunan for many years, and I have always admired her when I watch her constantly thinking and writing, constantly walking and observing, and unremittingly shooting and recording every day. She writes prose or novels, sometimes photography, sometimes teaching, sometimes immerses herself in ancient poetry, sometimes swims in the natural world, sometimes records the human mind, sometimes depicts the wonders of nature, and her thoughts and thoughts are all deeply and shallowly engraved in many of her published works. However, I have always had a regret that I have never spoken. I know her deep love for poetry, and since the age of fifteen, she has been scribbling lines of poetry in her notebook, and has always considered poetry to be "the most sacred being", "the jewel in the crown of literature", but she never shows her poetry to others. This year, my regrets finally disappeared, because I saw that Zhang Mi finally opened a new chapter in her dream of poetry since she was a girl with her first poetry collection "Pure Sound of Mountains and Waters". Reading the "moments of swaying thoughts" recorded in her poems, I can't help but be deeply moved.
The poetry collection "Landscape Qingyin" can be said to be the essence of Zhang Mi's poetry creation for many years. She selected 232 poems from the accumulated more than 800 poems, and carefully matched them with 232 beautiful pictures taken by herself, which makes this poetry collection become a poetry and painting intersection, and the beautiful arrangement of one poem and one painting makes the whole poetry collection particularly pleasing to the eye. The book is divided into eight albums, and the title of each album alone is already full of wonderful poetry. "Breeze Valley", "Moonlight Waterfront", "Deep Forest of Memory", "Small Garden Fragrance Path", "Classical Realm", "Ordinary Road", "Heart of Plants" and "Children's Eyes Like Stars", these albums have their own colors and fragrances, and together they build a beautiful poetry garden for readers.
For example, in the series "Valley of the Breeze", many poems related to mountains are animated between the pages, making us feel as if we are in the beauty of the mountains. There are "Flowers Full of Branches", here is "Green Mountains Gentle", here is "Deep Mountain Smile", here is "Empty Valley Orchid". The poet writes the "Poem of the Mountain" that belongs to her and to the mountain. She said: "All plants / are originally poetic / And I live / under the mountain full of plants / My heart / is not satisfied with beauty." The tip of my pen jumps lightly / chasing the poetry and beauty of life. In the poet's pen, the mountain is not just a standing mountain, but a symbol of our interdependence with nature, a way for us to understand the beauty of nature and life, a way for us to quiet our hearts and enrich our souls, and a way for us to "chase the poetry and beauty of life".
For example, in the series "Moonlight Waterfront", we seem to be able to hear the sound of the sea and feel the sea breeze blowing on our faces. There are "Coconut Coast" and "Above the Sea and Sky", "Pillow Water People" and "Seaside Shop", "Shell", "Ancient Town", "Paper Boat", "Conch", "The Moon Bathing in the Sea", and "Moonlight Sprinkled on the Sea". The poet invites each of our readers: "Let's go see the sea together / while the heart is still young / there is still a blush on the face / there is still some unattainable longing in the soul / towards the blue breadth and tolerance / as if his own gray shadow / too to be dyed a beautiful blue / you come quietly / there is a flower hidden in the palm of your hand." In the poet's heart, the sea is not only the sea, but also our desire, our dream, the goal for which we deserve to spend our lives, and the distant place we must go to in order to "hide a flower in the palm of our hand".
Sometimes, the poet also falls into deep contemplation, wandering in the deep forest of memory for a long time. There is "The Past", there is "Dream", there is "Silence Like Pine Needles", and "Sycamore Dusk Rain", here is a "Small Town Girl" like you, like me, and like her: "At night/Deep and shallow alleys/Passing by old houses and small yards/Flowing water is still murmuring under the small bridge/Old Paulownia is still holding a lilac flower/Turning the corner/The girl with short hair is distracted under the orange lamp/Holding a book in her hand/A few paulownia flowers fall on the side of the book/The book does not turn a page for half a day." "Everyone has memories, everyone needs to recall, everyone will discover the various flavors of the past years from the memories, and they will also taste the ups and downs of the past in the memories.
Sometimes, the poet will also get up and walk and wander alone in the small garden incense path. She stood quietly in "Willow Garden", carefully watched "Chickweed Stars", tasted "Basho Poetry and Wine", and was deeply intoxicated in the classical realm, appreciating "Flowers Falling on a Clear Window" and appreciating "The Beauty of the World". This is the beautiful gesture of the poet living in the present. She compares her life to an ordinary road, on this road, she has "Light Joy", she has "Quiet Good Time", and she sighs "Time is like a cat": "The soft soles of the feet brush the ground / You can't hear the sound of it moving / But you know it's walking". She reconciles with the passage of time: "So you suddenly laugh / You want to hold the lazy time in your arms / Gently caress the fluffy years / Caress the memories that you are reluctant to discard." And this is the true portrayal of the poet's open-mindedness.
In this way, in "Pure Sound of Mountains and Rivers", Zhang Mi uses beautiful pictures, clean words, quiet words, light colors, unique perspectives and moving perceptions to depict moving landscapes for us, which stir up a circle of ripples in the hearts of readers. What is particularly commendable is that in the whole collection of poems, you do not see complaints, you do not see lamentations, you see a poet with childlike eyes like a star, the deep love and attachment to nature, to the world, and to the beloved. In her eyes, there is "Starlight" in the sky, "First Snow" on the ground, "Missing", "Compassion", and "Laughter". Her eyes are full of earthly beauty, every plant has the aura of heaven and earth, and also has its own personality, "Papaya Gentle" and "Gesang Flower Clear", "Ivy is Still" and "Motherwort Aging", "Tulips Come from Afar" and "Dangui Comes to See You". In her world, "Flower Spirit" not only belongs to the world of flowers, but also to young life, vigorous life and life-loving life. She sighed, "I have never felt that life is so beautiful / until / the little girl like the fairy of flowers / suddenly appears in life gently." The little girl she chanted repeatedly was actually herself, each of us. Every person who loves life, like the little girl in her poems, we "open our arms" and "stumble / like a weak bird", and the goal we run towards is not the beautiful life itself that the poet repeatedly reverses and praises in his poems?
Every time I read Zhang Mi's works, I can't help but ask: how did this young woman see the beauty that others had never seen in this bustling world? Is she really the child of nature, the fairy of flowers, born with a pair of discerning eyes and a natural heart, dedicated to seeing the beauty of the world for us mortals?
As I slowly wandered and pondered through her poems, I gradually realized something. In the short poem "A Bowl of Reading Lamp", you can roughly find a faint trace from the poet's heart. She said: "The chaos and noise of Vanity Fair/I have long been in the mood/I just want to carry a few books/Walk to the mountain alone to wipe the clouds/Take out a bright moon from homesickness/Make a bowl of reading lamp/Listen to the mountain fruits quietly fall and autumn insects chirp/Borrow Tao Weng wine/Chew the plum rui/When you are tired, you will lean on the pine wind/Fall asleep with the fragrance of books." It turned out that she used books, writing, and love for nature and life to ignite the fire of life and illuminate the road of life for herself and countless readers.
Back in 737 A.D., the Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Jiuling was demoted from the prime minister to the governor of Jingzhou, and then, he completed the "feelings" poem 12, in the first of which poem "Orchid Leaves and Spring Leaves", he used the technique of supporting things and words, and compared himself with the fragrance of Chunlan and Qiugui, expressing his lofty ambition of resolutely not mixing with pollution, and embodying the free and easy embrace of tranquility and calmness. And Zhang Mi is just as Zhang Jiuling said: "Plants and trees have their own hearts, why not ask for beauties." "Zhang Mi's choice of life path is almost all from his heart. Switching from economics to specializing in classical Chinese literature, from undergraduate to Ph.D., Zhang Mi's choice was not the same as what one would normally expect. Professionally, economics is a prominent study in today's society, but she bravely gave up economics and rushed to the greatest joy in her heart from the master's level, enriching her life in the process of studying. As far as her career is concerned, it is a common pursuit to have a half-official position, but she gave up her administrative position in the core functional departments of the university, abandoned the blossoming flowers of the Internet celebrity city, and turned into a teacher in the Chinese department of the university, spending her days with her students, with her beloved words, books and nature. These choices are not something that everyone can understand, agree with, or do. For her, everything seemed to be in order. It is precisely because of such a heart that she can maintain a sobriety and independence in the chaotic world, maintain a high-quality writing and high-speed output, and complete the creation of many works one after another.
Reading Zhang Mi's poetry collection "Landscape and Clear Sound" again, I still can't help but be moved. This is a wonderful and healing book. Reading in the morning, it can accompany the meal, ushering in the poetic sunshine for every morning, reading before going to bed, it can help you sleep, embellish the poetic dream for every night, and enjoy it on the subway, it can reduce noise and add quiet thinking to every journey. May these pure sounds from the mountains and rivers, and these beautiful chapters written with the hearts of plants and trees, be able to deeply touch your heart on a certain morning, a moonlit night, a rainy moment, or a snowy day.