Cai Yanpei (1935-2021) Hong Kong, poet
The Hong Kong poet Cai Yanpei, known as "Cai Ye" and "Tsai Poet", died on September 6 at the age of 86.
Cai Yanpei was born in Guangzhou in 1935 and later moved to Hong Kong. When he was young, he often looked for books at old book stalls on Hong Kong's Cobblestone Street, such as the poetry collections of Byron and others, and read books "without system". One day in the second year of high school, he borrowed He Qifang's "Ancient City" from his classmates, which had a sentence that "the Great Wall turned into stone when it was like a large group of galloping horses when it raised its neck and roared", Cai Yanpei felt that "Kafka is more Kafka than Kafka, more magical than the magic realism of South America", had an epiphany about the moving place of modern poetry, and began to consciously read works of different poetry genres.
In the 1950s, Hong Kong's RenrenRenren published a number of poems by poet Wu Xinghua, and when Cai Yanpei first read Wu Xinghua's "On Rilke's Poems", he just fell in the middle of the family road and his first love left, he was in great pain, "It was Wu Xinghua's poems that saved my life."
In 1954, the "Genesis Poetry Society" represented by poets such as Luo Fu, Xia Xian, Zhang Mo, and Ye Weilian and the "Blue Star Poetry Society" headed by Yu Guangzhong, Zhou Mengdi and others were established. Two years later, Ji Xian founded the Modern Poetry Society. Three poetry societies stand on three feet, and Taiwan's modern poetry is complex. Cai Yanpei, who was studying at the College of Agriculture at Chung Hsing University in Taiwan, was influenced by this and began to write poems desperately, sending a poem to the Taiwanese poetry journal "Genesis", which was immediately published, and few Hong Kong poets published works in the Taiwanese poetry circle at that time.
After many suspensions and returns to school, seven or eight years later, Cai Yanpei returned to Hong Kong after reading and entered the editorial department of Ming Pao, where he worked for 28 years. He also has a famous hobby - betting on horses. "I buy my favorite horses, regardless of hot and cold... Horses are naturally tragic animals. At that time, he was still compiling the "Page of Chinese Student Weekly Poetry", "Xixi saw that I was bored, let me be the editor-in-chief, and occasionally published a poem of his own to earn some writing fees, because the editor has no money." At that time, I was commenting on poems, because I liked to bet on horses, and I used the terminology of the Horse Classics to comment on poems, and the president thought that I was nervous..."
"I never hide my love for poet Tsai, because he is a rare true temperament person in this polite place of Hong Kong, I always think that writing poetry absolutely requires authenticity and enthusiasm, although poet Tsai is nearly 40 years older than me, passion does not let 20-year-old teenagers often give us tips on the desire to be born and what the desire to write is." In "Bohemian Hong Kong", the Hong Kong poet Liao Weitang first interviewed the true temperament of the "Tsai poet", "he is like his private poet Wu Wenxing (Wu Xinghua), alone, proud of his talent and pride, not hesitate to touch nails and loneliness." I'd rather the people of the world bear me than the people of the world—he has such an infatuation, which is different from the so-called hero and the great compassion of going to hell. ”
In 2018, Radio Television Hong Kong produced a series of interviews with Chinese writers, one of which featured Cai Yanpei's work "The Last Love Poem". Cai Yanpei talked frankly about love affairs and showed his temperament. He said that every lover is an important "VIP", and love is the driving force for creation. There is no other person and there is no literary achievement today. "Writing poetry is the completion of one's own life, the release of oneself, and the dignitaries who see the lost."
At the age of 83, Cai Yanpei was interviewed by Hong Kong 01, which mentioned that because he could not go far now, his happiest thing was to walk along the slope to the club to see a few horses on Wednesday and Saturday horse racing days. "If you win, you will be in turmoil for several days; if you lose, it will only be a few tens of dollars." At my age, nothing will be added or reduced. Win or lose with joy'. He said, "Half a century later, I have been released in poetry." ”