Sugarcane forest - green yarn tent
Author: Guo Xiaochuan
The sugar cane forest in the south, the sugar cane forest in the south!
Why are you so sweet, and why are you so severe?
The green yarn tent of the north, the green yarn tent of the north!
Why are you so distant and why are you so close?
Our green gauze tents are as shady as sugar cane forests,
The long leaves that swayed with the wind also played the same loud piano sound.
Our green yarn tent is as deep as the sugar cane forest,
The dewdrops that carry the sun also illuminate the morning of the earth.
After all, the autumn of slaughter has passed, and the prosperous summer has arrived,
This sweet sugarcane forest, even the hardships in the green yarn tent!
Time gushes like a spring, and life pushes forward like an ocean wave,
That distant green yarn tent, which once had the fragrance of the sugarcane forest!
My comrades-in-arms in my youth, my relatives in the green yarn tent!
Let's go to the sugar cane forest and meet the old storm again;
O my comrades in the war, the brethren who grew up together in the North!
Let us go to the green yarn tent and drink time to return our youth.
Remember? We once had a great discovery:
Living in a green yarn tent, sorghum straw is sweeter than sugar cane;
Remember? We once had a bold judgment:
Whether it is Shanghai or Beijing, it is not as nostalgic as this sorghum field.
Remember? We once had an interesting dream:
After the victory of the revolution, we traveled all over Jiangnan with white beards;
Remember? We once had a small wish:
In the socialist era, fiercely smoked three cigarettes a day.
Remember? We once had a firm belief:
Even if it dies and turns into dung, it can make the sorghum grow thick and round;
Remember? We once had a meticulous calculation:
As long as the green yarn tent does not fall, communism will certainly be realized in the next generation.
Remember? At the time of separation, we have defined the following scheme:
In the future, wherever there are serious difficulties, we will meet where we are;
Remember? In victory, we made this vow:
In the future, life will never be sweet or bitter, and it will never forget yesterday and tomorrow.
Some of you have become factory directors and scholars, some of you have become editors and generals,
Can you come to a party in the sugar cane forest? - Can't be any more important!
I know that you are capable of navigating any sinister storm.
Some of you have become workers and professors, some have become secretaries and peasants,
Can I go back to the green gauze tent? - Life has been completely new,
I know that you have the courage to call back your fighting youth.
About the Author
Guo Xiaochuan (1919-1976), formerly known as Guo Enda, was a native of Fengning County, Hebei Province. In 1937, he joined the Eighth Route Army, then joined the Communist Party of China, and was assigned to the 359th Brigade as a literary and artistic soldier. During this period, Guo Xiaochuan collaborated with Chen Xiaoli and Zhang Tiefu to create a large number of ideological miscellaneous talks under the pseudonym "Ma Tieding". Representative works include "Throw yourself into the fiery struggle", "Looking at the Starry Sky", "The General Trilogy", "Sugarcane Forest - Green Yarn Tent", "One and Eight" and so on.
Creative background
At the beginning of 1962, Guo Xiaochuan came to Xiamen again, he stood in the sweet sugarcane forest, thought of the green yarn tent in the north thousands of miles away, recalled the experience of participating in the Eighth Route Army in his youth, fighting guerrilla battles in the green yarn tent, and the severe and arduous years of war suddenly surged into the poet's heart. The poet experienced the difficulties and struggles, the victories and the joys, and understood the profound truths. As the poet himself puts it, "Sugar cane Forest – Green Gauze Tent" is "an expression of my confidence in overcoming difficulties."
In this poem, the poet gives specific symbolic meanings to the two objects, "Sugarcane Forest" and "Green Yarn Tent", and the sweet and severe sugarcane forest in the south and the distant and close green yarn tent in the north, symbolizing two different eras of the past and today, respectively. The poem begins with alternating chants, juxtaposing the two images to highlight their different characteristics; it goes on to depict similarities between the sugarcane forest and the green gauze tent: both have "long leaves that swing with the wind," both "playing the same loud piano tones" and "illuminating the earth's clear exhibition in the same way." The vigorous and vivid realistic scene in front of him makes the poet can't help but sigh the past time, and the two life pictures are edited and superimposed to form a contrast. Then the poet walked into history, calling on his companions in the war years, using four verses of poetry and a series of "memorable" poems to recall the combat life in the old green gauze tent, and the expectations and imaginations of his youth unfolded continuously, and the revolutionary aspirations and visions for the future poured in layer by layer. The emotions gradually progressed, becoming more and more full, full, dense, and infectious, expressing the emotions, ideals, beliefs, and vows of the revolutionaries, and pointing out the theme of never forgetting "yesterday and tomorrow". In the contrast between this day and night, the poet expressed his determination not to forget the past and always adhere to the revolutionary fighting spirit in the development of the new era. At the end, the sugarcane forest and the green yarn tent are sung again, so that the two truly become witnesses of history and pioneers of new life. Guo Xiaochuan regards the life experience of the revolutionary war era as a spiritual tradition, which runs through his depiction of real life and his grasp of the emotions of the times, seeking the connection between reality and history.
Poetry is also very new in its creation of language and art form. Guo Xiaochuan is good at drawing nourishment from folk songs and classical poetry. Through rhyme, symmetry, and end-to-end loops, the poem presents a kind of momentum and rhythm of the ileum. There are certain changes between lines and lines, and between sections and festivals, but the whole presents a neat and coordinated beauty, showing the trend of laying out the whole thing and the sense of richness and depth. The rhythm of the poem is advanced in the middle of the loop, and the rhythm of this loop of repetition on the one hand vividly expresses the theme of not forgetting the fine traditions of the revolutionary war years, and at the same time makes the full political passion fully expressed in the chants of one song and three sighs.
Source: College of Literature, Central China Normal University
Author: Dou Jinlong, Yu Renjie