In the early summer of 1923, Bing Xin graduated from Yenching University. On August 17 of the same year, she took the Yorkson cruise ship from Shanghai to study in the United States. Arrive in Kobe, Japan on August 19th and visit Yokohama on the 21st. Judging from the time of writing, this poem was written by the poet on the sixth day after visiting Yokohama, while on the ship continuing to sail to the other side of the ocean.
The sparkling sea waves and surging tides revive the poet's childlike innocence of loving the sea; the turquoise sea water and flying seagulls make the poet close to nature again. During the ten days or so of sea life after setting off from Wusongkou, the three pillars of Bing Xin's early philosophy of life and "love" - ??maternal love, childlike innocence, and nature. Only "childlike innocence" and "nature" were resurrected and reappeared at this time. And "maternal love" cannot be close because it is far away from the mother. Therefore, the poet missed his mother very much, and even became ill because of missing her mother, and recovered from his illness because he saw her mother in his dream. This poem expresses the poet's deep affection for missing his mother.
The first stanza of the poem begins with his innocent and childlike behavior of folding paper and making a boat. It says that he refused to throw away a piece of paper on the ship, so he kept it folded into a boat and threw it from the boat. To the sea. The seemingly plain four lines pave the way for an emotional outburst. The second section describes the whereabouts of the paper boats thrown from the ship. "Some were blown into the windows of the boat by the wind, and some were wetted by the waves and stuck to the bow." These kinds of destinations are not consistent. The poet's sincere wish. She "always hopes that one will flow to where I want it to go." For this reason, she "still folds it every day without getting discouraged." This shows how strong and sincere her desire is. As for where he hopes the paper boat will flow, the poet does not clearly say it in this section, which creates suspense and is thought-provoking. The poet naturally understood that it was impossible for the paper boat to flow to his mother, so he created a new meaning in the third stanza of the poem. The poet recalled that his mother saw a small white boat in her dream. If this imagination is ordinary, "don't be surprised that it fell into a dream for no reason", which shows the strangeness of the poet's imagination. So, why should the mother not be surprised when the boat enters the dream? The poet adopts the method of "showing his ambition in the final chapter". At the end of the poem, he points out that the paper boat that entered the mother's dream in her imagination was folded by her with tears. She prayed The paper boat carried her love for her mother and the sadness caused by being away from her mother to her mother's side. This ending is the climax of the whole poem.
The feelings of missing my mother are relatively abstract and tend to be empty and superficial when writing. This poem has a novel concept, and the poet uses the method of expressing emotions through objects, so that the expression of emotions is vivid, concrete, implicit, and deep. In addition, the poem's longer lines and slow tone are in harmony with the long longing for the mother.
★Student Edition of Paper Boat Appreciation☆
"Never give up" shows the persistence of feelings. "One by one" shows the large number.
"Don't lose heart" and "every day" have sincere feelings and strong desires.
"With tears" and "sadness" the pain of longing is unforgettable.
"Stacked into very small boats" Feelings are very precious. The boat is small, but the feelings are deep and the desires are strong.
"Thousands of rivers and mountains, beg it to carry its love and sorrow back" because love and sorrow are blended together. Because of love, you can feel the longing, because of loneliness and longing, there is boundless sorrow. Of course, this sorrow can only be expressed to the mother, so the love and sorrow must be carried away.
Paper Boats by Rabindranath Tagore
I put the paper boats one by one in the fast-flowing stream every day.
I wrote my name and the name of the village where I lived on the paper boat in big black letters.
I hope people who live in other places will get this paper boat and know who I am.
I loaded my little boat with the shiuli flowers that grew in the garden,
I hoped that these flowers that bloomed at dawn would be carried safely to the shore during the night.
I launched my paper boat into the water and looked up into the sky,
and saw the little clouds setting off the bulging white sails.
I wonder what playmate of mine in the sky has lowered these boats to race with my boats!
When night comes, I bury my face in my arms,
I dream of my ship floating slowly forward under the midnight stars.
The Sleeping Fairy sat in the boat with a basket full of dreams.