【Chasing Light Literary Giant: Commemorating the 110th Anniversary of Ai Qing's Birth】
Author: Wu Sijing (Professor, Poetry Critic, College of Literature, Capital Normal University)
On the horizon of new Chinese poetry in the 20th century, a huge figure, through the wind of dawn, walked towards the sun. He is the great poet of contemporary China with world influence- Ai Qing.
In the era of national peril, Ai Qing did not lose his faith in the light, but praised the light, the sun, and the people with a strong patriotic spirit, expressing his ardent call for peace and dignity. In the days of humiliation and suffering, he did not bow his noble head, but firmly believed that "even if it is a phosphorus fire, it is still burning." At the advent of the new period, he once again glowed with the youth of poetry, and with the conscience of a poet, condensed his personal experience and his own reflections into poetic images and told his readers and the times.
Ai Qing is one of the most important poets in the history of Chinese literature in the 20th century, and is a well-deserved poet. In his creative process of more than 50 years, there are two peak periods of creation, one is the 1930s and 1940s, and the other is the new historical period since the reform and opening up. Ai Qing's most important masterpieces were born in these two periods. On the occasion of the 110th anniversary of Ai Qing's birth, looking back on his extraordinary life and revisiting his poetry creation, I feel that his spiritual character is particularly worth cherishing.
On January 30, 1986, the poet Ai Qing was at the meeting of the Poetry Journal. Photo by Zhang Zudao
1. With diligent poetry creation, express the broad love that burns in the heart
"Why do I always have tears in my eyes? / Because I love this land deeply..." On November 17, 1938, Ai Qing wrote these two lines of poetry, which are the common voice of successive generations of patriotic intellectuals since Qu Yuan: "Long breath to cover up the sniffles ... Although he died nine times, he still had no regrets. ”
In Ai Qing's eyes, the heroes who look up to everyone are unified with ordinary people. He wanted to be with those who were upright and hardworking forever, to understand the beauty of their souls. Trust those who have hope for the world and dreams for people. It is precisely because Ai Qing's heart is filled with sincere love for the motherland, the people and the earth that he can constantly drum up the impulse to write poetry, integrate his life with the fate of the nation, and integrate his emotions with the people's feelings, and create a series of poems that sing the praises of the people and praise the earth.
For example, "The Great Weir River – My Nanny," written in 1933: "... Dayan River, today I saw snow reminds me of you. / You took me in your arms with your thick palms and caressed me;/ After you set up the stove, / After you patted the charcoal ash from your apron, / After you tasted that the rice was cooked, / After you put the dark sauce bowl on the dark table, / After you mended the sons' torn clothes for the thorns of the mountainside, / After you wrapped the children's hands that had been cut by the knife, / After you strangled the lice on your husbands' shirts one by one, / After you picked up the first egg of the day, / / You took me in your arms with your thick palms and caressed me. ”
Dayan River fed Ai Qing with his own milk and with his own wholehearted love, and Ai Qing praised this great mother with deep sympathy for the working people and sincere love for the nursing mother. This poem is Ai Qing's autobiographical confession of the heart, an ode to the love of the holy mother. The poem is overflowing with pure, selfless love, which is dedicated to the Dayan River, and at the same time to "everything on the earth, my Nanny and their sons like the Great Weir River", which shows the poet's broad mind and the universal value of this poem.
For example, "Snow Falls on The Land of China": "... Snow falls on Chinese soil, / The cold is blocking China... / / That appears from the woods, / The carriage / You Chinese farmer / Wearing a fur hat / Braving the snow / Where are you going? Tell you / I am also a descendant of the peasants - / Because of your / Face carved with painful wrinkles / I can be so deep / Know / People living on the steppe / The hardships of the years. ”
In the winter of 1937, the iron hooves of the Japanese Kou trampled on the mountains and rivers of China, just like the wind and snow were raging on the land of China. The poet's sentiments of grief and indignation rushed out, and the real figures of the peasant driving the carriage, the unkempt young woman, the elderly mother and other real figures were placed on the frozen land in the north, and they had a cordial dialogue with them. And "The snow falls on the land of China, and the cold is blocking China..." appears repeatedly, like the main theme of a piece of music, giving people a sense of pathos and loops.
For example, "The Trolley": "On the days when the snow is frozen / between poor villages / Trolleys / With separate wheels / Deep ruts carved on the layers of gray and loess / Through the vast expanse and the desert / From this road / To that road." ”
At the beginning of 1938, Ai Qing had more than two months of travel to the north, and his heart was bleeding when he saw that the great rivers and mountains were devastated and the people suffered deeply. He chose a common scene in the north and wrote this "Trolley" using symbolism. The poet placed the cart on the cold and barren northern land, and its only, separate wheels crossed the vast expanse, leaving a deep rut mark. In the poem, it is written about the trolley, and the person who pushes the cart is written in the dark. The poet used his own unique artistic language to complete the tribute to the northern peasants.
Ai Qing (right) and Ba Jin talking to profile picture
2. Polish the light of free poetry with an open attitude
Ai Qing longed for freedom all her life. He said, "Poetry and freedom are two of the most precious things in our lives" (Poetry and Propaganda). "The sound of poetry is the voice of freedom; the laughter of poetry is the laughter of freedom" (Poetry). Ai Qing can be called a messenger of freedom, and in "To the Sun", the poet writes longingly that the sun reminds him of fraternity, equality and freedom. He realized the duty of the poet: "Prometheus stole the fire and gave it to the world; the poet stole the language that made Zeus angry" (The Poet). It can be seen that Ai Qing associates the liberation of the nation with the liberation of the individual, and his call for freedom reflects his deepest understanding of the quality of new poetry, and also makes the self-image in his poetry shine with the brilliance of personality.
It was out of her desire for spiritual freedom that Ai Qing adopted free poetry as her main form of writing. In his view, free poetry is a product of the new world, more adaptable to the fierce turmoil and rapid changes of the times. Ai Qing's poetry is not only full of free spirit in content, but also unwilling to be bound by existing rules and procedures in form.
He has an open vision, and his reference to free poetry represented by Whitman and French symbolist poetry represented by Verhalen makes him show great originality in the choice of imagery and the creation of artistic conception. In a melancholy artistic style, his poetic works present a sublime beauty and the beauty of suffering, representing the highest achievement of Chinese free poetry creation.
3. In aesthetic principles, affirm that poetry is the best link between truth, goodness and beauty
The relationship between "poetry" and "truth" has always been a topic of great importance to poets. As Byron put it: "If the essence of poetry is a lie, throw it away, or, as Plato wanted to do: expel it from the Republic" (The Open Letter to John Murray). Liang Zongdai believes that "True is the only deep foundation of the bottom of the poem, and the poem is the highest and final realization of the true bottom" (Preface to "Poetry and Truth"). Ai Qing also agreed on this. Especially based on her own experience, Ai Qing painfully felt the need to "tell the truth". The prologue to his first book of poems, The Song of Return, is called "The Poet Must Tell the Truth." Originally, the proposition that "the poet must tell the truth" was an ordinary truth, and for the poet, it was taken for granted, and there was nothing to discuss. However, in the face of the false, large, and empty poetic style that was everywhere at that time, emphasizing that poets must tell the truth became the primary task of the poetry world to correct the chaos.
Ai Qing sharply criticized those poets in the poetry world who "followed the trend" and lost themselves: "'Tumblers' can only be used as toys, but they should not be used as models for being human" ("Ai Qing's Poems Selected from the Preface"). Ai Qing, who returned, dared to spit out a block in his chest, and his best works were integrated into his life experience, integrated into his deep reflections, and said the truth.
People's Literature Publishing House
Published in August 2000
Of course, Ai Qing does not emphasize "truth" in isolation, he advocates the aesthetic principle of unifying truth, goodness and beauty: "Truth, goodness, and beauty are the three manifestations unified in the common will of advanced human beings, and poetry must be the best connection between them" (Poetry). Ai Qing's representative poems all realize the unity of the "truth" of understanding the world, the "goodness" of social utilitarianism and the "beauty" of art.
4. Through unique and solid imagery, the connotation of poetry "thought" is revealed
Ai Qing is a poet and a philosopher, and his poems are not only the catharsis of feelings, but also the sublimation of thoughts. The passion of the poet and the wisdom of the philosopher are perfectly unified in him. In the 1930s, Ai Qing proposed: "People exist, so people think." "To the world, we are not only watching, but also thinking, but also speaking" (Poetry). With the passage of time, Ai Qing's thinking about life, nature and society has become more profound, more cold, and more mature. Reflected in poetry, it is to continuously improve the character of "thinking" and constantly tend to integrate with philosophy.
Of course, as a poet, Ai Qing is fully aware that poetry and philosophy have different ways of grasping the world, and he always strives to show the connotation of "thinking" naturally through unique and solid imagery. Opening his collection of poems "The Song of Return", "Fish Fossils" suddenly came into view of the reader: "How lively the action is, / How energetic, / Jumping in the waves, / Floating in the sea; / / Unfortunately encountering a volcanic eruption, / May also be an earthquake, / You lost your freedom and were buried in the dust; / / After hundreds of millions of years, geological exploration team members, / Found you in the rock formation, still vivid ..." Witnessing this fish fossil, the reader will feel a kind of tremor of the heart, Don't just focus your appreciation on the form of the fossil. In particular, the rediscovered fish fossils are "still alive", showing strong vitality.
Ai Qing's "Fish Fossils" written in his later years is similar to the "Dialogue of Coal" written in his early years. Both fish fossils and coal have been buried deep in the ground for hundreds of millions of years, but the former has become fossilized, while the latter has become a bit of coal. Ai Qing's signature work of the new era is "Hymn of Light". This poem was written in the early days of reform and opening up. Compared with the enthusiasm and simplicity of the early song "Sun", "The Hymn of Light" is much richer. In the poet's writings, the source of light is no longer limited to the sun in the sky, but also comes from human beings themselves. This shows that truth is not given by others, but is to be sought from human practice. The respect for the individual and the affirmation of the value of life shown here should be said to be a leap in Ai Qing's thinking in his later years.
In Ai Qing's poetics, poetry is not a simple expression of emotion, nor is it a simple philosophical writing, but the experience of life is condensed into a symbolic meaning through the poet's conception. Therefore, Ai Qing's best poems are all spoken with imagery. Ai Qing's emphasis on poetry's intellect enables our new poems to enter a new level and a new stage, rather than just staying on simple lyricism.
Ai Qing pursued light all his life, fusing his life with poetry. His love for the land, his affection for the people, and his yearning for the light will never go out of style.
Guangming Daily (2020-08-19, 14th edition)